I see a potential abuse with this. If a high alert area is used, what is to prevent someone from posting vanities there? It may need to go through Jim or a moderator for authorization. But, it's a very good idea.
there is always a potential for abuse, regardless of what you are attempting to do. However, that does not eliminate the need to have something like that. It would be like breaking the glass on a fire alarm! How many of us have ever done that? I am suggesting an area that is only meant to warn on high alert subjects.....San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge being blown sky high, for instance. Nuclear facility penetrated and under control of terrorists, for instance.
I can certainly understand your point, as we would not want to have a bunch of white powdery substance warnings posted that turn out to be false alarms. The entire nation does not have to wake up to find out that a letter was discovered in a postal facility in New Jersey. Obviously, this would require some thought, or perhaps it should only be posted to by password entry according to rules established by the phone ring.
Just an idea.
One thing would be to only allow a user to post ONCE. If a moderator, at leisure, decides the posting is appropriate, he can reset your alert-post privilege. If your post is a stupid vanity, your privilege stays revoked.
This would weed out the jokers fast enough.