New Forum idea: Scanners

Yesterday I think we saw just what the future of Breaking news is heading too. No longer is long-after the fact reporting enough. Technology now gives us the ability to put out real time info for all to follow. I was so proud to be a part of the ATS community who put that info out so quickly, literally seconds after it happened.

I would just like to propose the idea of opening a forum for those following scanners to alert others to situations that are breaking or are in progress. It would allow us to follow future high profile cases as they are happening rather than waiting for MSM or others with their own agenda to present us with biased reports. We would have the facts, plain and simple, to draw our own conclusions from.

And to be honest, I would love to have a forum like this because I am nosy and have a new found love of my online scanner, but can't listen to them all at the same time

I just put up a thread about a suspicious device found at a walmart in Az. Turned out to be a can of paint that the bomb squad blew to high heavens, but we got to follow it real time to find out if it was a threat or not. Right now, there is a 3 alarm brush fire in Ca. Don't know if a thread has been started on it yet, but the FD is battling it at this very moment.

I know we have a breaking news forum, it normally requires a link to MSM who has reported it, or else people get flack. This would be different in a sense that we may just beat the main stream and can hear it for ourselves as it is happening. So thoughts ATS? Any drawbacks you can think of?

Thanks for reading

~OkieDokie

awesome idea- An event breaks, a thread opens. The ONLY posts allowed would be to add a new scanner feed. No comments or other BS- Just collected scanner feeds.

I know when my feed goes down I end up scrolling pages to find other feeds. This would be VERY useful and a resourse which would drive traffic here for a collected list of feeds which would be community updated.
=)

Great idea op.

Thanks!

I was actually thinking about it with all the chatter. Thank you for highlighting a big draw back, the multiple repeats of transcription.

Maybe this could be remedied by allowing only 2 persons to transcribe, OP and first to volunteer. I know yesterday, my feed kept locking up with the advertisements and I was having to rely heavily on what others were transcribing. If a transcriber can no longer act in that function, I think a simple tag off may work well with a transcriber posting "transcribe tag". First response to it picks it up. Tagger confirms new transcriber. Something like that. I am sure others could come up with something better with some thought on the subject.

~OkieDokie

reply to post by OkieDokie


One of the positives of paying premium membership (not expensive) for my radio reference online scanner is that they have a database archive on each scanner that goes back weeks. I would be willing to go through scanner archives to affirm the accuracy of forum posts, when disputed, time permitting. This 2nd party confirmation would turn me into a partial moderator and replace the "post link or it didn't happen" policy of ATS users. If other users would be willing to share the load, I would be willing to participate.

reply to post by ffrealmsrider


That's a great idea! It would also provide those coming in later on a particular event to see what exactly went down and possibly answer some questions.

We are already seeing people bring up good questions from what was heard on the scanner during the Boston manhunt, on the other hand we have people setting the record straight according to what we heard over the scanner. Having someone who could come back later after an event and verify or correct some transcriptions would be a big bonus!

~OkieDokie

I have to say, I think this is a really cool idea!

Just signed in to say "Great Idea!"
I always look for scanner streams when something's going down.
S&F for you.

Thanks ya'll, I appreciate it!

I really do believe that the bombing changed the way that people will be looking for info about breaking events in the future. I know that the scanner will be the first thing I personally will look for as well when things are happening.

So do you guys have any ideas about how to make such a forum run smoothly and to keep it from turning into a bunch of megathreads with several repeat posts?

~OkieDokie