[wyntermoonwolf]

TIPS, while very handy, seems to be quite buggy. Is there another system in place already that does the job?

I tried contacting the author but the emails are bouncing.

If not, I've already started creating a replacement that will provide the same functionality and hopefully with the bugs taken care of. Also, I'll provide additional functionality like support for SMS messaging to your cell phone - I can already support over 50 wireless providers with more coming.

A couple things I have in mind:
It's clear the cogs have their fingers in TIPS. I've had alerts I've placed canceled within minutes - the cogs want to keep their invasions silent! So only the person who placed the alert can cancel the alert. To account for people who forget to cancel an alert, it'll auto-cancel after two hours.

The cogs have also been placing false alerts for the Cry Wolf effect to discourage people from using TIPS. The number of alerts you can place in an hour will be pretty small to help prevent against false alarms. It won't prevent against them entirely considering how insanely easy it is to get a free email account to simply create multiple accounts. Blocking via IP isn't feasible either since so many users are behind proxies (such as AOL users) and dial-up users typically get a new IP ever time they reconnect.

So, any other ideas that I can add?

-John, aka Flappy Fuzzyfoot