
Safety Check for Brussels - dinosaurs
https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/brusselsexplosions-march2016/
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cballard
What happens if there is _another_ bomb, after someone has reported as "safe"?
Are the "safe" statuses updated somehow, since the state of that person is now
unknown?

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quaunaut
It's not happened, so I don't know if they already have it in- but it would be
incredibly easy to look at the people who were reported as safe and
specifically message them to see if they are or not, with a reset and a
secondary check.

After all, you've got a perfect list of those who already responded.

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elliottcarlson
I grew up in Belgium, and have family and childhood friends there. I was
pleasantly surprised when I got random notifications from Facebook this
morning as people I am friends with added themselves to the safety check list
- it made it easy for me to quickly know who was OK.

~~~
mikeyouse
I had the same thought/feeling after the latest Ankara bombing. I didn't even
realize a fairly close friend was in Turkey until I got a notification that
they were okay. I think it's underappreciated how much smaller the world feels
when you see something on the news and nearly immediately know someone
affected. It's my hope that this breeds empathy.

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jglauche
"Please login to Facebook to access this Safety Check."

Can anyone tell me what this is about?

~~~
zrail
[http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/europe/brussels-
explosions/](http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/europe/brussels-explosions/)

~~~
jglauche
I am aware of that but what's the facebook site about?

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bartligthart
It looks like this. [http://cl.ly/243T3c1u1g3M](http://cl.ly/243T3c1u1g3M)

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martin_henk
Working in japan all the big companies feature systems like this. You get a
e-mail and a call by a automated system. Then you have to respond with your
status and if you can come to work :)

~~~
zhte415
I'm sure Japan has. This is a normal continuity of business protocol, with a
cascade down reporting lines. If one fails to respond, cascade to the next
layer of reporting down. And have an actual cascade plan in-hand, at home, at
work, and on mobile.

All businesses should have one, and they are useful for many reasons. Test it
annually or more, depending on business. And have results posted back - who
responds, who doesn't.

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phamilton
Facebook is being heavily used by inhabitants in Brussels to communicate right
now. I have a friend asking for someone to check on his mother who lives
downtown. He can't reach her because the phones systems are completely
saturated. He found a neighbor able to go and check on her. For me, being able
to log on and see that my friends are OK was helpful beyond description.

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sergiotapia
"Take me in oh tender woman, Take me in, for heaven's sake, Take me in oh
tender woman," sighed the vicious snake.

This was Reddit's advice three days ago:
[http://i.imgur.com/M9umIy2g.png](http://i.imgur.com/M9umIy2g.png)

~~~
randommodnar
And it's still true advice. What you're feeling now is just fear and panic.
This is the entire point of a terrorist attack: it's psychological warfare.
Make people _think_ they are in grave, imminent danger, to coerce them into
some action.

If you were actually more likely to die in a terrorist attack than being shot
by a toddler in the USA, it probably wouldn't be a terrorist attack, it'd be
something more like... an actual war.

~~~
throwaway21816
Im sure statistics helped the people who died today

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robk
I wish I could automatically block any account that has throwaway in its
handle

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throwaway21816
I wish I could automatically block any account that has SF in its bio

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johncolanduoni
Have you ever clicked on that Y in the box at the top left of this page? There
might be some valuable information about this site for you there.

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Dharmakirti
I'm really sorry for being a Debbie downer here but I find the lack of such
initiatives for Turkish (or similar) blasts in past week appalling. Were the
lives of the non-European victims not worth FaceBook/HNs attention?

Is this selective outrage really suits a rational platform like HackerNews?

~~~
miguelrochefort
Truth is that most first-world citizens, including myself, can only relate to
other first-world citizens. If a tragic event hits Nigeria, Pakistan or even
Turkey, I will probably ignore it.

Hypocrisy? Yes.

Surprising? Not really.

~~~
21
And it's not only Facebook.

These Brussels attacks have wall-to-wall coverage on all news stations,
including local ones, unlike the Turkish blasts which were covered much less
and only by the major outlets.

~~~
tobltobs
Maybe it is because such blasts are more common in country which wages a civil
war against a part of his inhabitants.

~~~
m00dy
beyin.dll not found

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_pmf_
Log in required; classy.

~~~
cr1895
How else would you, a Facebook user, alert your Facebook friends using a
Facebook feature that tells them you're safe on Facebook?

Kinda hard to avoid the log in.

~~~
wyldfire
It's not clear from the submitted title nor the page requesting login what the
feature is for. I only know now because you've explained it here.

EDIT: I'm not the grandparent poster, I wouldn't have written it like that,
just trying to explain that I was puzzled about what this all meant.

