[x] Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
[x] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
Describe your changes
Notifications are not mission critical so its okay if they fail on init because service outage may be transient. Always init notification services and always attempt to push (we catch failures anyway)
Parse more info from notification URL and test simple reachability of host/port to make troubleshooting easier
Checklist before requesting a review
Type of change
Describe your changes
Issue number and link, if applicable
Fixes #215