DWest
EF1
I have to agree with Tim here - social networking has a place, but so does eSpotter as a separate entity. eSpotter by nature of using accounts verifies that the person submitting reports has had some training by NWS at some point; moreover, the data submitted in eSpotter is nicely organized and (usually) easy to interpret by NWS personnel at the office. Compare that to something like twitter, where any yahoo can submit what they think they're observing without even basic training, in any format they like - from what may be a very proper report with accurate observations to a full-book length narrative of a 'wedge tornado' made out of rain shafts.
I'm not saying the format eSpotter uses is infallible - there are plenty of spotters who, while they should know better, still don't follow the basic "only report what you can observe" rules and may get a bit eccentric in the excitement of a severe event, or opt to smash all the details in the "other information" box at the bottom and completely skip the fields. However, the chance of that happening isn't that high, especially comparing it to something like twitter or facebook where there's no standard formatting at all.
I'm not saying the format eSpotter uses is infallible - there are plenty of spotters who, while they should know better, still don't follow the basic "only report what you can observe" rules and may get a bit eccentric in the excitement of a severe event, or opt to smash all the details in the "other information" box at the bottom and completely skip the fields. However, the chance of that happening isn't that high, especially comparing it to something like twitter or facebook where there's no standard formatting at all.
