Tag Archive for 'warning'

Preface: I would offer to say that this was simply glitch, but the same thing has happened before (just not with such frequency), so I doubt it. — That said, on with the post…

On Thursday, July 2nd, 2009, I received the following email from the early warning system for Winnebago County, IL:

!!! CityWatch General Notification Message !!!
Message ID 3175 Sent 7/2/2009 4:05:43 PM Central Time
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This is a reminder that on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Winnebago County will be conducting the routine monthly test of the Outdoor Emergency Warning Siren System. Residents will hear a long steady tone, lasting for 3-5 minutes during this test. In the event of threatening weather (more than just cloud cover or light rain showers) the testing will be cancelled until next month’s test, which will be the first Tuesday in August, which is August 4, at 10:00 AM.

Excellent. Thanks for letting me know ahead of time. I appreciate it.

Ah, wait a tic, what’s this?

Message ID 3180 Sent 7/2/2009 5:00:08 PM Central Time
Message ID 3182 Sent 7/2/2009 5:12:05 PM Central Time
Message ID 3184 Sent 7/2/2009 5:17:18 PM Central Time
Message ID 3186 Sent 7/2/2009 6:27:49 PM Central Time

Yes, I received the same message four more times. The only difference between the first email, and the four following, was the addition of two extra spaces!

I gave the County an email address and my cell phone number to alert me of these types of things, not to cry wolf. By the time I got the third email, I was contemplating on finding some way to unsubscribe to the email service…

Now, I value a clean inbox free of SPAM, and like to keep it that way. However, it’s unfortunate that so many people live with inboxes full of junk messages, such that they simply ignore most of them while only looking for emails from people they know, and thus delete the rest.

This fact of email-life led me to the only other possible reason for the County sending the same message five times, and that is… The County hoped that the average SPAM cluttered inbox owning citizen would read at least one of the messages, therefore being informed of the content held within.

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Hmm… No that can’t be, I like the simplest reason: they are “crying wolf”.

Winnebago County: STOP IT! Wasn’t this system meant to save lives? Instead you are setting up the system so that people will simply ignore future emails. Send the notification once, and be done with it – unless you have a real change to the message other than two additional spaces.

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