Announcement Modules
Announcement modules are modules that distribute their output directly to end-users, through mechanisms such as email, SMS messaging or voice.
When using these output modules, you should be aware of two reasons why you should ensure that these outputs only happen occasionally.
Performance Impact
Most announcement-style notifications take a while to happen. The act of sending an email, SMS message or playing audio will take some time, during which your program may not be running.
This can be mitigated by performing your event output in its own thread. Some systems such as the ARDI Trigger system already run the outputs in distinct threads, so long-running outputs will only have a minor effect on Trigger applications.
Message Fatigue
Too many messages of the same type can be overwhelming or exhausting for users. As such, we suggest only sending out direct announcements for critical events.
If there is a chance that several similar events will trigger simultaneously, we suggest only attaching the output to one event, applying a time-limit to ensure events aren't sent too frequently, or creating an event that acts as a summary of many others.