Code reminder process about promptly

[ycombinator]

Some thoughts for you to consider based on our experience building a similar system for Louisville:

1. Consider queueing up messages for delivery. That is, each queue item will contain the following fields at minimum: the message to be sent, the recipient's phone number, the time to send the message. A separate "SMS queue processor" process can process the items in the queue and deliver the messages. This architecture has many advantages, some of which are:
   • In the initial stages of the project, you (or similar superusers of the system) could inspect the contents of the delivery queue before the actual message delivery takes places
   • You have the ability to quickly suspend sending messages en masse simply by stopping the "SMS queue processor" process. Again, something that might be useful in the initial stages of the process.
   • You can easily implement blackout times (such as between the hours of 11PM and 6AM).
   • You can create multiple "taps" into this queue besides the main "SMS queue processor" process. For instance, you could have a separate "email queue processor" process go through the queued items and email each to you for review X minutes/hours before the scheduled delivery time for that item. Similarly, you could imagine a "digest email queue processor" process that goes through queued items for the past Y hours/days and creates a report to send out.
2. This might be an obvious one but record all conversations in a separate log, indexed by contact #. This will be very useful not only for debugging issues but also for understanding the intent of users' interactions with your system.
3. This may again be obvious but strongly consider implementing a catch-all response that directs users to call a phone number for further information.