There's been a little talk of setting up a notification network like the one used in the actual series. My first thought was to include push notifications as a feature in the upcoming mobile app, but if we got notifications from every board, that might be a bit overwhelming. So, my new thought is to create a separate board just for emergency notifications, and the mobile app would only push messages from that particular board.

There are a couple issues inherent with this idea, of course. For one, the mobile app isn't finished yet, so adding an emergency board right now might not be terribly useful. It will be much more helpful once people can read and post easily from their phones, but for now it would be too slow and limited for effective rapid responses.

Also, another issue is that it unfortunately might conflict with one of the site's main rules, namely the fact that we're not allowed to post personal information. Posting an emergency notification without a location attached won't really enable anyone to help. Maybe there could be a semi-vague exception, as in the location of the alert can be given in broader terms (i.e. a region within a city) but no specific addresses may be posted.

Hopefully other people have some more concrete suggestions too. I think once the mobile app is ready, something like this will enable us to do a lot more good.

I don't see how this is helpful to our group. We live around the world in few numbers. Contrary to what you think, the 'Member Count' is an IP tick counter. Basically, the number of IP addresses that have visited the site in total. I have contributed over 120 to that total, as have many members here. The real count of active members is probably less than 5 000.

With this in mind (and realizing we are from many different countries) it's actually quite unlikely to find a Dollar in your city or town you did not recruit yourself. Realistically, you'd find 2 or 3. With that said, I don't think a whole lot of people would have enough (or any) Dollars near them for this to help.

That being said, I think it could still work as a thread. We would have an emergency thread people could post on asking for help. Even then, I don't think it would get a whole lot of use. An entire board is just not needed.

If you disagree, create that thread. If it gets over 1000 responses in a couple weeks, it would be clear that demand is there and a board may be considered. I find it more likely it will get a couple dozen or so before people realize how few Dollars near them there actually are.

I'm pretty sure this would fit in Missions, if there isn't already a thread for it. To be honest I don't go on Missions a lot so there very well could be, if that is so you'd have to find it yourself. The archive is at the top left, 'View All Threads'.

>>1 >>2

I must say that I was one of the users that supported that suggestion when it was mentioned a couple of days ago. However, after what Inuhakka has said, I have to admit there is a big flaw in that proposal. That is, the actual existing members.

I didn't know how the Member Count worked but now that I do I realise that an Emergency board, though it would be cool, may be is too much for the actual demand. Most of the users are from the US and the rest are scattered around the globe. Perhaps the EU in total can be considered a second minority... or may be Russia.

Anyways, I wish there were more members so we can actually do more stuff as Dollars but well... guess there's nothing we can do.

Thank you Pickel for your suggestion and Inuhakka for your constructive critic. ( n . n )

Why don't you guys just join the texting and email groups (look around on Main for the threads)? It's basically the same thing as making an app with a new board for notifications, which also renders the whole idea a bit silly.

"Emergencies" can get an immediate response this way, and we won't need to change the site for something that's not in demand.

The texting and email groups are going to be your best bet for quick responses. If our old LINE chat still exists, that would work quite well too.

As stated before, there are so few of us, it wouldn't help as much as you think it would. There are a few uses, if you live in a city, and say, need a place to stay the night or something along those lines. That's just so hard for us to do with <5k members, at max.

We don't need a lot of people in the emergency board, maybe one of the Dollars happens to be near the site of the emergency, that would be enought.

>>6
It's not warranted because there's not a lot of people asking for that type of help on here as it is, in a serious, non RP-sense. A board has to warrant the needed activity on here, for it to even be considered. This isn't even up for a consideration, let alone any chances for it to be created.

If you want to make something like original Dollars (you know, when the whole organization(?) met and they were staring at this woman) I totally agree. Something like chat but only for Dollars. If it's mot what you meant then sorry, I misunderstood.

If you're going to try something like this out you would need to have a test period. I suggest the mission of the day be sent out. But As of now I can go either way on this subject.

>>9
It won't be tested by us given the majority don't actually want it else we'd have been seeing more suggestions for it. So a test is useless regardless.

Maybe the app should allowu s to favorite a certain thread, so tht we can get notifications from only this favorite threads.

Perhaps this "emergency board" can have promoted threads, that will signal boost whatever it is about.

About the mobile app, I like Akiraki's idea a lot, sending out the mission of the day can help boost whatever we are trying to achieve with each of them.

This is a cool idea

I agree sounds good.

I agree, cool idea.

I don't know if this posted but people could choose what areas they wanted alerts from, so that they could be aware of what was going on and maybe help without it revealing where they were or where they lived.

Hello I'm new here so I was wondering...how the site works. If someone can tell me. I went to the chat room and I saw that it's easy too talk but if it's not a problem. Could someone guide me with the site? Thanks.

Everyone wants to make something like this but every person has others ideas. But we already have something like this, right?
http://dollars-bbs.org/main/res/1398313622.html

>>17 You can check the FAQ which is linked somewhere on "About"
And welcome!

I think that's a solid idea, and in regards to >>18, I feel like people would rather have a dedicated Dollars app than be subscribed to a massive group texting sort of thing. If the whole "emergency" board is implemented, one would hope that it isn't abused by spammers/trolls, and I'm curious as to whether anything could be done to avoid that. Perhaps mod approval before a topic is pushed to everyone's phones? But I feel that might be too much oversight and against what the Dollars are about.

>>1 So is there an app being made?

>>2 >>3
Allow me to disagree. I currently live in the Philippines, and in the chats, I found a whole chat room coincidentally filled with other people from the Philippines. We all lived relativity near each other, farthest being a 2-3.5 hour drive. I think people who live in populated cities are likely to find others in populated cities. While there may only be around 5000 more or less who actively use this site, the majority probably live in areas where others live, statistically speaking.

Not to mention 5000 is already a bunch, how many do you think were in the original Dollars from Durarara? 5000 would be a gracious estimate, given that the majority (as far as the viewers knowledge goes at least) lived in Ikebukuro. And even though we are more spread out, if given enough effort I believe we can be just as strong as they are. There are power in numbers and I believe us to be plenty.

I don't think the problem is us being too far apart, rather the lack of cooperation and communication between all these 5000 we more or less have. This was the key which made the original Dollars powerful and we have yet to arrive at this point.

I believe an emergency board could work, especially with a working app (given that every member downloads it). But like pointed out, this only works depending on the amount of cooperation we can achieve / the willingness to actually be an active member of the Dollars. It's not a problem with the amount of users, instead it's about the users themselves.

>>22 It is a problem with the amount of users because boards are created in response to demand. The missions board more than allows for anything an Emergency board could provide. A BBS is a terrible way to get instant notifications in general, there are far more effective media you can use. We have a texting group, KIK group, etc. I don't see why a new board helps anyone, even a chatroom is more effective.

5000 active members of the site is a high estimate. If you've been here for long, you'd probably think lower. The site is slow at best, with some boards having no threads posted on at all for days. I seriously doubt we have nearly enough members that actively check the site and have an interest in this for an emergency board. Regardless of whether or not it could work if we had a lot of members willing to cooperate, we don't, so we don't need a board. I am well aware it could be valid if we had a slew of people ready to use it. If we get that, we can make a board.

So, like I said clearly earlier, make a thread on Missions or find a thread already on there that suits your purpose. Show me that thread getting thousands of responses, and then a board can be considered. We create boards in response to demand, not to create more demand. A single thread is more than enough.

People also seem to get this idea that not making an entire board for something means it isn't important. This is wrong. We don't have a whole board for newbie-related information, yet it is arguably the most important topic here. Just because a board wouldn't be the best choice doesn't mean it's not important.

>>23

I think you misunderstand the point I'm making. I'm not talking about the need or importance of an emergency board, in fact I made virtually no mention of it. I'm replying to the problem you point out, with the Dollars being too spread out. I'll copy paste it.

"With this in mind (and realizing we are from many different countries) it's actually quite unlikely to find a Dollar in your city or town you did not recruit yourself. Realistically, you'd find 2 or 3. With that said, I don't think a whole lot of people would have enough (or any) Dollars near them for this to help."

I didn't argue with your other points because I didn't disagree with them, I only disagreed with this section of your statement.

As I clearly stated earlier, I'm saying it could work. Not 'we should make it' or 'we need it'. You stated you thought it would work, and I gave my opinion agreeing with it. I made no mention of your further opinion of it unneeded. This is something that you bring up and is irrelevant to anything I've said.

I only wanted to validate that, within the possibility of an Emergency Board already existing + the app being made, it would work. I'm not pushing for it to be made, or really disagreeing with anything else you said. I'm sorry if this wasn't clear from the beginning, and I hope I clarifed.

>>24 When you start your response with "Allow me to disagree.", I tend to think you disagree with my post.

Of course it could work. The OP didn't say "If we get more people, we should do this." They thought we had enough people willing to do it now. I disagreed, I don't think we'll be getting that many active members anytime soon either. You disagreed with that and said we had enough members close enough together, just that they weren't all interested and cohesive. I still disagree with this, I really don't think we even have 5 000 active members that check the site and would check an Emergency board. So, contrary to what I assumed you think, I think it is a problem with the amount of users. Is that not accurate?

Regardless, discussing whether it 'could work' when it won't in our current situation is sort of irrelevant. I think we can all agree it 'could work' (along with a lot of stuff on this board), but the Suggestions board is to get the community's opinion on whether it will actually work.