Matt Handley
EF0
This may have come up at one point or another and I'm sorry if it's a redundant post, but I just felt the need to speak up and see what you guys thought.
Recently there was a severe weather outbreak in North Texas and the county my parents, grandparents, anunts, uncles etc. and brother live in (Grayson) was issued a tornado warning. Reading the spc maps and meso discussions prior I took my Mobile ThreatNet out of the truck and set it up in my living room to try and keep an eye on the situation for my families sake as me living in Iowa didn't give me a chance to try and spot in the area.
I had ThreatNet going on the laptop, and pulled up the live video on TVN to be able to see where the chasers were relative to my family (Sherman, TX) soon enough there was a wall cloud spotted headed their way, so I tuned into a live feed of a chaser in the area, they happened to have audio with their feed. While they were chasing the wall could headed toward my family they made some disturbing statements.
A few I can remember were "Sherman is gonna get pounded" the chaser with him responded "that's what she said" they had a good laugh about that, another was "Hey Sherman, you're all gonna die!!!" they also had a good laugh about that. I could see these were some pretty moral lacking individuals, so I clicked over to another feed, turns out it also had audio, shortly after I heard "How great would it be if we could get footage of the tornado tearing through Sherman? Talk about a payday!". This is my family your laughing about.
Now I know there are a ton of great chasers and spotters out there with their hearts in the right place, but as we all know it takes just a few bad apples. With the popularity of the Discovery Channels' Storm Chasers have thousands flocking to TVN to watch live feeds, most of them non-chasers/spotters, but people that are interested in what we do from around the world. As a chaser, these comments made me sick, mostly because this is what people are seeing and hearing, my family had the feeds tuned in too because they were fearing for their lives and property. They heard these comments directed at them and asked "these people aren't your friends are they"? Talk about a gut check.
Now again, I know the bulk of us are great people doing it for the right reasons and remaining very respectful throughout the chasing/spotting experience. Yet I feel like if you are running audio on your feed think before you speak, there are at times thousands viewing the stream, some in the path of the chase, you are the front line on what they are basing their opinions on of chasers. It doesn't just hurt the feelings of the people who may be affected, it also hurts the chaser reputation. Many of us are there to help people.
Sherman was fine, no damage, and all was safe. Yet I still left the situation with a bad taste in my mouth over how these two chase feeds made us look.
Recently there was a severe weather outbreak in North Texas and the county my parents, grandparents, anunts, uncles etc. and brother live in (Grayson) was issued a tornado warning. Reading the spc maps and meso discussions prior I took my Mobile ThreatNet out of the truck and set it up in my living room to try and keep an eye on the situation for my families sake as me living in Iowa didn't give me a chance to try and spot in the area.
I had ThreatNet going on the laptop, and pulled up the live video on TVN to be able to see where the chasers were relative to my family (Sherman, TX) soon enough there was a wall cloud spotted headed their way, so I tuned into a live feed of a chaser in the area, they happened to have audio with their feed. While they were chasing the wall could headed toward my family they made some disturbing statements.
A few I can remember were "Sherman is gonna get pounded" the chaser with him responded "that's what she said" they had a good laugh about that, another was "Hey Sherman, you're all gonna die!!!" they also had a good laugh about that. I could see these were some pretty moral lacking individuals, so I clicked over to another feed, turns out it also had audio, shortly after I heard "How great would it be if we could get footage of the tornado tearing through Sherman? Talk about a payday!". This is my family your laughing about.
Now I know there are a ton of great chasers and spotters out there with their hearts in the right place, but as we all know it takes just a few bad apples. With the popularity of the Discovery Channels' Storm Chasers have thousands flocking to TVN to watch live feeds, most of them non-chasers/spotters, but people that are interested in what we do from around the world. As a chaser, these comments made me sick, mostly because this is what people are seeing and hearing, my family had the feeds tuned in too because they were fearing for their lives and property. They heard these comments directed at them and asked "these people aren't your friends are they"? Talk about a gut check.
Now again, I know the bulk of us are great people doing it for the right reasons and remaining very respectful throughout the chasing/spotting experience. Yet I feel like if you are running audio on your feed think before you speak, there are at times thousands viewing the stream, some in the path of the chase, you are the front line on what they are basing their opinions on of chasers. It doesn't just hurt the feelings of the people who may be affected, it also hurts the chaser reputation. Many of us are there to help people.
Sherman was fine, no damage, and all was safe. Yet I still left the situation with a bad taste in my mouth over how these two chase feeds made us look.