"Announcing: The Silph Road's official "Raid Beacon" system is in beta! A real-time map + alert system designed both for use in local Discord/FB/TG/Slack groups AND areas with NO active group."

#PokemonGO: It's a big day, travelers.The Silph Road team has been pulling all-nighters and taking days off work for the past few weeks to create something we believe will enhance Pokemon GO - and we're finally ready to invite our travelers to get involved. Announcing: The Silph Radio!What's the Silph Radio?It's the "Nest Atlas" for Raids. (But even cooler!)It's the name of a Raid Beacon network that lets you know about local Raid groups getting together, and allows you to alert local folks in your area when you're planning on taking on a Raid boss.In technical terms, it's a real-time, web-socket-enabled map of Raiding groups, with a dead-simple anonymous RSVP system.Who's it For?You!The Raid Beacon network was designed with the following use cases in mind:1. Active Local Discord/Facebook Groups: Those with local active Raid groups on Facebook, Telegram, Slack, or Discord now have an easier way to manage RSVPs and locations without having to read the whole scrollback and use Google Maps. Simply send up your Raid Beacon and post the link to the map in your group.It will also potentially bring folks to your Raid who aren't on your local group chat - and you'll be able to invite them when they show up to your Raid!2. Areas with no Active Raid Group:The Silph Radio collects folks' notification preferences and radius of interest. That means, even in rural or inactive areas, the more folks who set an alert area, the more people will be notified of neighborhood activity each time beacon is sent out. It becomes more effective over time!What can I do to help?Start sending up a Beacon when you go Raiding! Make it a part of your gameplay to invite others to your Raids!Invite others to set up their alert radius on the Radio - soon we'll turn on notifications, and kick this network in gear!Can I Invite People Already?You bet! Even though we're still in beta, the more community members set their alert radius, the better.The more community members broadcast their Raids, the more folks will be able to team up in the neighborhood.Next time you're at a Raid, invite folks to join the Silph Radio and get alerted to neighborhood raids!Is it Feature-Complete?No! This is just a beta test.Notably, notifications are NOT enabled during this beta! But the map is fully accurate and reflects RSVPs in real-time.We have a native app coming out soon that will allow push notifications (which are much more versatile than email/SMS notifications) if a Raid Beacon is fired nearby. It will use your location and the locations of others using the Radio to help folks get together while playing - a missing feature from PoGO that we don't expect will be added any time soon. ;)I found a bug - have a feature request!Great! While you can get ahold of the Silph Road team here on the Silph Radio Beta Discord here: (http://ift.tt/2tyumQF), we recommend filing a bug report or feature request on the official Reports Repo.That allows us to prioritize and organize feedback as the Silph Radio matures.FAQ:What if no one in my area uses it?It may take a few days/weeks to get the system humming along in your area if you don't have an active group already - but you can build it up! Remember that as long as folks put in their alert radius, they're in the system and ready to be alerted to local Raid Beacons. They don't need to browse the Radio map every day to get the alerts!When you go to local raids, invite others! Evangelize the system, and let them know that you broadcast your neighborhood raids on the map. With a little pushing, you'll get new folks to use it and soon they'll be alerted when any of you send up a Raid beacon.I already have a ____ group? Is this still for me?Yes! (See above.) But tl;dr - this system helps Discords/TG/FB/Slack groups get an easy map+RSVP system for use in your existing groups. Plus, it can help get those not in your group to your Raids, and then you can invite them to your channel!Parting WordsThis system has been a lot of fun in alpha. The Raid Beacon network is designed to help make Pokemon GO raiding more rewarding - and to avoid having too few hands to take on a Level 4 monster.This system will be alert-driven - meaning you won't have to sit and watch it in your web browser at all times (though you can). You just do you, and Silph will let you know when a Raid is getting together near you.This system is still in a very active state of development, but we finally achieved a "stable-enough" state that we wanted to get it in your hands to start taking advantage of.Use it! Test it! Try it out when you go Raiding! And let us know how it could be even better.We hope that, just like how you've been updating your local Nests in the Nest Atlas, we can all send a Raid Beacon when we head to a Lvl 3 or 4 Raid so others know they have an open invite to come meet up and join in the best part of Pokemon GO - meeting other folks. (and conquering super-powered Pokemon)We look forward to seeing you on the Radio. :)http://ift.tt/2tD2gVe The Silph Executives - via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2sdFY8k