False Spotter Network Reports - May 26, 2009

[Ryan McGinnis]

Tongue-in-cheek humor just does not work in StormTrack anymore. Alas, Darren proves that no IP is needed to hang someone in this community.

Dennis: I'll second that.

Heh -- you may have meant it as tongue in cheek, but the truth is that there a number of online communities that do this kind of work all the time with a level of sophistication that would boggle your mind, mostly just for kicks. Imagine having a SWAT team kick down your door in the middle of the night because someone on the internet exploited the phone system to call in a 911 hostage situation at your house. That kind of thing. It's best not to single anyone on the internet out for vigilante justice (even in jest), as there are quite a few vigilantes and you never know who is reading what you write.

At any rate, good to know you were joking.

 

[Tyler Allison]

The SN has no way of verifying the validity of data. Any "algorithm" we use would remove some other legitimate functionality. We are trying to focus on the training aspect at the moment as making it one more hurdle fly-by-night folks jave to jump to mess with the weather community.

I have my hunches on what was really going on, but I'm waiting to hear back from Kyle. Everyone should be given a chance to explain what was going on. 99% of the time we have investigated odd/bogus/strange reports, the person has been "trying to help". They were just going about it in the wrong way (eg: relaying reports from their police scanner, submitting LSR's to the SN, etc)

Enthusiasm to participate shouldn't be stopped...it just needs to be redirected

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

99% of the time we have investigated odd/bogus/strange reports, the person has been "trying to help". They were just going about it in the wrong way (eg: relaying reports from their police scanner, submitting LSR's to the SN, etc)

Enthusiasm to participate shouldn't be stopped...it just needs to be redirected

I agree 100% with you on this Tyler. As long as it is not some attention grabbing reporter, people should just be educated on the proper procedure of what is right or wrong.

 

[Justin Wiley]

How bored of a life must you have to actually get weather reporting equipment and then making up false reports with it? I mean seriously.

 

[Benjamin Rock]

Here in Northern Illinois, someone submitted many reports to the NWS that were false, using the public email reporting section on the NWS website. The guys location was way off from his reports and when the NWS investigated the guy, he apparently was watching the radar and making reports based on that. The thing that tipped everyone off was spotters and chasers were in the areas where this guy claimed he was reporting from and what he reported did not match anyone else. So, the NWS submitted the reports to the FBI and the guy is sitting in jail. According to the NWS this guy has been doing this for sometime and since the NWS is a Governmental business, it was a federal crime to send in false reports to the NWS directly. Now, it did not come in thru SN, but it goes to show, you break the law, you will get caught.

 

[Steve Miller]

Yesterday as I watched the "ants" move across my GR3 screen early in the day, I noticed on SN that there were plenty of icons associated with a handle rather than a name. I am a prime offender as my SN icon yesterday was "HansS & SMOK".
A quick look today and I see "Scud", "RebelGTP", "lithskywatcher", "CNEM2", "KTKC5ffq" and "Wolf1". All of these are names that only mean something to the individual or maybe a close-knit group of people around them.
Given that SN has established itself as the premier method by which to report from the field, and have gone to great lengths to ensure reports coming in are very valid through testing and post-report commentary by a board of directors, why not consider establishment of a proper name rule (I think amateur radio call signs would be fine too)?
It has worked for StormTrack and SpotterChat to keep the noise level to a minimum and I wonder if it has been discussed among the SN brass? No biggie. I know I'll be changing to a proper name on my account. Anyone else onboard with this?

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Yesterday as I watched the "ants" move across my GR3 screen early in the day, I noticed on SN that there were plenty of icons associated with a handle rather than a name. I am a prime offender as my SN icon yesterday was "HansS & SMOK".
A quick look today and I see "Scud", "RebelGTP", "lithskywatcher", "CNEM2", "KTKC5ffq" and "Wolf1". All of these are names that only mean something to the individual or maybe a close-knit group of people around them.
Given that SN has established itself as the premier method by which to report from the field, and have gone to great lengths to ensure reports coming in are very valid through testing and post-report commentary by a board of directors, why not consider establishment of a proper name rule (I think amateur radio call signs would be fine too)?
It has worked for StormTrack and SpotterChat to keep the noise level to a minimum and I wonder if it has been discussed among the SN brass? No biggie. I know I'll be changing to a proper name on my account. Anyone else onboard with this?

I strongly agree, I think the names on SN should either be call sign or full name. The mentioned names mean nothing to me, so I would have to think that the NWS would be hesitant to believe reports coming in from someone with the name CNEM2.

 

[Tyler Allison]

I strongly agree, I think the names on SN should either be call sign or full name. The mentioned names mean nothing to me, so I would have to think that the NWS would be hesitant to believe reports coming in from someone with the name CNEM2.

The NWS sees the contact information the user puts in their NWS contact info field. What you are seeing is the "general public" contact info.

Folks have to consider that there are privacy issues as well. Posting your real name on Storm Track is not the same thing as posting your real name on a GPS tracking device that updates every 60 seconds and is available for anyone in the world to see.

In my opinion a real name showing to the general public should be optional. (I use my ham callsign) And the general public should choose to use/not-use the report from "WeatherNerd23".

However, it's something I'll bring up with the advisory committee.

 

[Ric Burney]

The NWS sees the contact information the user puts in their NWS contact info field. What you are seeing is the "general public" contact info.

Folks have to consider that there are privacy issues as well. Posting your real name on Storm Track is not the same thing as posting your real name on a GPS tracking device that updates every 60 seconds and is available for anyone in the world to see.

In my opinion a real name showing to the general public should be optional. (I use my ham callsign) And the general public should choose to use/not-use the report from "WeatherNerd23".

However, it's something I'll bring up with the advisory committee.

Don't forget that FCC license info is public information. Doing a search of the FCC site for a ham or any other type of FCC issued license call sign will not only reveal someones real name but also their address as well.

 

[Nathan Edwards]

Couldn't help notice 2 Tor reports in MO today at Osceola and Exelsior 45 minutes apart. Google maps shows that trip as being 2 and a half hours. The reporter is Jason Weathers A case of someone making reports for friends out in the field, delayed reporting or more bogus reports?

Just noticed a Wall cloud report from Rockville 24 minutes earlier, but 53 minutes drive away. Either we have someone spoofing GPS signals, or they are driving very recklessly

 

[Tyler Allison]

Being investigated. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Before we jump the gun here blaming someone for making false reports, are we sure that this isn't an actual problem on Spotter Network's end? The only reason I say this, the other day while chasing I personally witnessed this... on June 7th my chase partner made a report through Spotter Network and when it posted, the report posted was under someone else's name and not his.

He checked over everything but there was no explanation from our end why that happened. If SN is database driven, it is possible that perhaps something with the database is messed up causing erroneous data to post. I've seen this happen quite a bit where I work. Just a thought.

 

[Tyler Allison]

Nobody gets blamed by the SN. We follow up on reports that look weird.

But on the matter of posting as someone else. Please tell me which report it was and I'll investigate. I don't see how it's possible unless the two people shared a computer at some point and one did not logout before the other used it.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Nobody gets blamed by the SN. We follow up on reports that look weird.

But on the matter of posting as someone else. Please tell me which report it was and I'll investigate. I don't see how it's possible unless the two people shared a computer at some point and one did not logout before the other used it.

I didn't say that anyone got blamed by SN, I'm just saying in general before any of us goes blaming another chaser of making false reports take into consideration that there could be technical issues that could be causing this, which granted is why you investigate these.

I will shoot you a PM Tyler.

 

[Nathan Edwards]

My intention is not to accuse anyone outright, but point out what appeared to be an irregularity. It's quite possible that it's he's perhaps a Nowcaster reporting on behalf of people he is nowcasting for or perhaps chasing in a Camaro , but it does need to be checked up on.