Call for staff members -- 3 openings

[Steve Miller]

Sucks. I was actually catching up on some reading here. Tim, you sure you don't want to sell this thing? Message me if so.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Sucks. I was actually catching up on some reading here. Tim, you sure you don't want to sell this thing? Message me if so.

This site needs to go to someone who can participate more than once or twice a year. Some things never change.

 

[Jeff Smith]

I posted way back in June my interest in volunteering, but never heard anything. Guess there's no need for mods in a dead forum. I agree with Jason. Part of the reason it died was lack of owner participation..for whatever reason. If the owner of a business stops showing up, the business always dies.

 

[Steve Miller]

Facebook had it's day as a tool to engage others about severe weather but it's now so congested with morons, it's nearly useless. I think that's why several of us have found our way back to this forum.
It does indeed require attention and someone willing to bring things up to speed. Forums are not dead. But they DO require some commitment from ownership.
So my question remains, Tim - wanna sell it?

 

[Ric Burney]

I would love to see this place become vibrant and active again. It would be a travesty to let this site wither away considering the treasure trove of information it contains. If new leadership is necessary to keep this place up I say don't pass on the opportunity to make it happen.

 

[Jeff Smith]

Yeah, my choice of words may have been wrong. It's not dead. It may just need someone to take over and bring it back to its heyday.

 

[Marcus Diaz]

I have been, and always will be a bigger fan of forums rather than social media, for reasons similar to what Steve said. Plus on here the information stays archived rather than seeing it lost in a couple of days. If someone did take ownership and get this place going again, I have no doubt it can be a very active forum.

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

ST was once a great thing, obviously as a paper magazine but also as a site and forum. I think it can be relevant again but it'll need more active participation by those with power over it. Tim did a lot but for whatever reasons isn't so active anymore. The buck should be passed to someone more able to do so. Perhaps past and current stakeholders could find an interested party or maybe the thing could just be sold or handed to someone vetted for ability and inclination to make it work and be true to the roots of Stormtrack. Storm chasing is as big as it has ever been and I don't see any reason ST couldn't be vibrant and a strong resource if properly cultivated. Weatherwise doesn't cut it and neither does any other site or Facebook/Twitter/Google+ although they have their places. Maybe it's a lost cause but given there's still some good posters and posts, and considering the history of Stormtrack, I don't think that's an inevitability and it's certainly undesirable.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I'll throw my name in... I am not entirely really known in the chasing community but I have a lot of forum experience (over 10 years now). I am very familiar with vBulletin, XenForo, IP.Board, the works. Plus I have a lot of time on my hands

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Haven't people been banned because of talking about the ownership? Guess I'll see you all on FB now that I chimed in .

 

[Skip Talbot]

... get this place going again ...

That's up to YOU! Blame it on the short comings of the staff (and there certainly are, myself included), technical glitches, influx of noobs, exodus of veterans... if there was a demand by all chasers for a centralized forum in which to communicate, people would be using this site and making it busy despite these issues. There are TWO reports in the 11/17 reports thread until today, and there were TWO forecast posts prior to the day of the event. It certainly wasn't a boring forecast, and I had to turn my Spotter Network placefile off because I couldn't see the radar scans through all the spotter positions. People just don't want to post here anymore. I don't think that's going to change much no matter who is running the show here.

Certainly the admin side of this forum is lacking, and there are many other contributing factors, but ultimately, I don't think there is the same demand for this forum as there used to be. If you want a storm chasing forum that's active, then contribute posts to this one, or make your own forum. Both of those approaches have been tried and aren't working, and it's because nobody wants to use forums anymore when they have Facebook and Twitter. Chasers Forum was supposed to address many of the short comings of this site, and it wound up exactly where Stormtrack was bound: just kind of a quiet place. We all wanted to see a thriving forum from the start, so we pitched in a few posts, but then folks got bored with it and went back to Facebook. People want quick photo sharing and blurbs, that are propagated in feeds, and shared everywhere. The quality of content here is certainly better than 99% of the Facebook chatter, but people want cheap and fast, not complicated, cumbersome and regulated.

There are lots of active internet forums, but I fear the ship has sailed for forums being the primary communication method for chasers, just like it did for WX-CHASE and the print version of Stormtrack. I'm sure folks we'll still use this forum as long as it's around, and people still use WX-CHASE, but the buzz has moved to Facebook, and will probably move someplace else again in a few years. It's a shame too, because Facebook is such a fractured cacophony of disorganized information.

 

[Steve Miller]

Well, when an Administrative Team member basically says forums are a lost cause, that speaks volumes about this one. I hate that you feel this way but I understand.
If the silly VB was allowed by its owner to have just a few of the cool social integration features available, it would integrate with social and work alongside it, not in competition with it.

 

[John J. Holt]

I have gotten a wealth of knowledge off of Storm Track. Far more than I could gain from a social media site... I came into chasing long after the hard copy prints were done away with so this has been my main source for storm chasing and storm research. It's far better than going out there empty and learning by trial and error !!!

 

[Dan Robinson]

I think many people don't realize the value to themselves of posting to the forum. Posting in reports threads is a significant source of referral traffic and huge SEO boost for your web site, as ST is a high-ranking site in search engines. The high-quality content and lack of spam keeps this going. Viewership here is still good and has potential to be significant if participation improves.

The bottom line is that everyone stands to benefit if things would ramp back up here. I would welcome the day when ST is the daily read that it used to be. Facebook has its place, but really, it's kind of an example of what would have happened here if there was no moderation.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

You know I wouldn't mind making a return and helping out. I agree with what SMOK is saying about what facebook has become. It is like an ocean of piss with a few islands here and there of dry land.