Why are we abandoning safety?

[Rob]

Years back, when an alert had been posted to a river/section, that fact was made evident when a user pulled up a full-state listing, by having a 'yellow-triangle-exclamation-point' icon on the listing. (E.G., see https://web.archive.org/web/20120713111834/https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/drain-summary/state/WI/)

Users could hover over that icon and it would display the time (days/hrs/minutes) since that alert had been posted.

Users could click on the icon and a pop-up would show them the text of the alert.

That icon disappeared years back (along with the 'i' icon next to the gauge reading, which would display the gauge comment associated with the flow-range for the current gauge reading, so now the only way users are aware of an 'alert' is if they actually pull up the listing.

And now we have the 2.0 version of the app and I see nowhere/noway to see any alerts (or even trip reports).

Why are we abandoning the most useful way to convey the most current basic safety information? I have trouble understanding 'upgrades' to the system which downgrade utility and abandon safety in favor of ease of programming and platform portabilty.

[Rob]

To be clear, I recognize that we still allow alerts to be created, and that alerts still show at top of page when users access a specific river/section page via their browser.

However, when users access a full state listing, or listing of rivers/sections via map location, and when they use the app (in any fashion), they will not have any clue that there may be one or more alerts effective for any listed run.

Given that users will more and more be accessing the river pages from the smartphone app, it seems imperative that the app should have a way to prominently display to users when an alert exists for a run, rather than having NO way of displaying that information, or having it buried so deep that no one will ever click down to a point of being able to see it.

[Kevin Colburn]

Yep, we moved alerts from the gauge section to the main section on desktop to make them more prominent and related to more than just the gauge. 

We've moved the apps from two separate code bases (ios and android) to a single react codebase that our core programming team (and hopefully new recruits) can work on. This will allow us to add features and not bail on having apps. Good call about finding a home for alerts on the app. 

I can try to explain the need to do "upgrades" that sometimes reduce features in the name of modernizing the tech stack. 

1. Unavoidable Change: Tech is constantly changing so we have to upgrade or layers of the tech stack become unsupported and cease to work. No change is simply not an option because the tech world changes under us constantly. We have some severe tech debt because we did not change for a long time. 
2. Recruitment: Our programming team is mostly volunteer, we experience turnover like all teams, and we suffer recruitment problems when/because our site is composed of technology that today's programmers are not familiar with. Reducing programming hurdles = more help. 
3. Cost: Our site was built with a great deal of frontend and backend complexity thanks to the creativity and passion of the team and the tools available at the time. We couldn't and can't do all of it well, so generally if we drop a feature it is because we can't do it well given our capacity and other features are more important. Basically this point comes down to cost, cost in terms of money, cost in terms of time, cost in terms of capacity. We simply do not have enough to do it all well. 
4. Quality: We want a great site that works well and looks great and is engaging for our community. The new gauge server is a lot higher performance. The NWI upgrade a few years ago works on a phone and has maps. We are replacing the main AW site (not the NWI) with a site that actually tells people who we are and what we do and how to help instead of just a news feed. Similar to the last point, we can either do a lot of things poorly or fewer things well. 

I hope that helps. We appreciate your patience and support for the content on the site! 

Kevin Colburn
National Stewardship Director
American Whitewater

828-712-4825

ke...@americanwhitewater.org

www.americanwhitewater.org

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[Rob]

RE: "we moved alerts from the gauge section to the main section on desktop to make them more prominent and related to more than just the gauge."

I'm talking about specific (usually 'temporary') alerts, not gauge comments. (The mention I made regarding gauge comments was a 'aside'.)

Most of the time when I use an "Alert" it is to make note of problems with wood, which can change safety and even render a given section of river unrunnable (independent of flow levels and class ratings).

These days, people often post such warnings on local social media, message boards, and various other places, but those all quickly disappear in the miasma and plethora of junk on such sources, so there essentially is no lasting alert when using those sources.

The AW river pages have long been the one place that alerts could be posted and stay prominent for as long as they were pertinent (assuming conscientious volunteers removed the alerts once conditions changed).

However, the app does not show these anytime/anywhere, and the website shows them only when people open an individual river/section description.

I'd wager that the vast majority of paddlers virtually NEVER open the full description once they are in any degree familiar with a given run! (They don't need somebody else's input about the run anymore! They know the run!) So they'll never see any alerts with either the website or the app (each in their present configuration). It seems unconscionable to take a system which had alerts prominently displayed, and replace it with a system which has them buried (the present website) or non-existent (the present app).

The website and the app need ways to prominently signal ALL users when there is an ALERT on any section of river. I know there has been some discussion about 'demoting' old alerts, and I understand that is a concern. There are (unfortunately) some lazy volunteers who posted alerts months or years back, and never bother to delete the alert when the condition has ceased to exist. That would seem to suggest there might need to be a system-generated message after some period of time (each year?)  to each person who posts an alert, asking if the alert is still valid, or if it needs to be amended or deleted.

[Kevin Colburn]

OK Roger that. Thanks for the suggestion that we prioritize getting alerts onto the apps. Good call. 

Kevin Colburn
National Stewardship Director
American Whitewater

828-712-4825

ke...@americanwhitewater.org

www.americanwhitewater.org

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