Bill Tabor
EF5
I tend to agree Mike. This whole concept of "agitation by noise" is driven by historical events in past chaser social media circles namely WX-CHASE listserv. Back in the day of WX-CHASE (and I was there long ago in it's prime), it was a very vibrant source, with many members, and somewhat massive participation by those who were on there and knew about it. However, there began a series of FLAMES and FLAME WARS over the years which pissed a lot of people off and left a bad taste in many members mouths. In particular, many of the veterans, and seasoned chaser experts of the time, along with meteorologists, and professional weather researchers decided to take their game to a more highly moderated listserv where "more serious" discussion could be made without all the flames and hubris. This list was called CFDG (Chase Forecast Discussion Group). Indeed, I can see the point as a lot of the 'rif raff' the newbies, yahoos, spotters, and general weather interested public often made it difficult to have a decent discussion and sharing of forecasts amongst meteorologists and chasers without getting blasted. Myself, I was still somewhat 'new' to chasing in those days having only about 5 years of chase experience. I didn't make it over to CFDG. In later years I was nominated, but beat out at the time by Eric Nygen because of his recent photo success. Sad, because I think I could have contributed in that venue as well in a more mature discussion. Anyway, let me say that even though the noise to signal ratio on WX-CHASE was high, it was still a very fun, and lively...ALIVE...group. However, when all the CFDG members left it took a bit of the soul and spirit. WX-CHASE never returned to it's old glory, and I don't care what others say. I think it was somewhat 'glorious' even with all the flames. Folks could say and share whatever they damned well pleased which in many, but not all ways was a good thing.
After this Stormtrack was created in a website / forum format, and then CFDG took on the forum format. In many ways this improved communications, but in many ways it wasn't as good as well. Apparently all change brings both good and bad. Later, I heard from CFDG members that they were all disgruntled and tired of the rules, and for that reason there wasn't a lot of participation. Many joined Stormtrack just to be able to share with other chasers in a LESS moderated format. WX-CHASE continued to exist, and still exists today although most agree it is mostly dead and irrelevant nowadays. I still post and read on there occasionally though. Later after many left WX-CHASE it became dominated by a handful who would post and many many silent members that would just monitor, but not participate. For a lot of them, myself included, WX-CHASE became a bit of a blog for personal thoughts or events related to chasing. I admit, I over did it. Perhaps I alone ran a number off due to my many long winded discussions. I enjoyed those discussions though. For quite some time only a few personalities would dominate that list due to sheer contribution and commentary. As mentioned, I was one and certainly I recall Shane Adams was another. Sometimes it seemed like the Shane and Bill show. Often we would take different sides of a particular argument, but personally I think a lot of cool and good things came out of discussion with Shane and others. We all moved on, and as many might have noticed my propensity for inundating the chaser mediums with posts / opinions has certainly waned. Perhaps I have just run out of original things to say. Let's face it, many of us guys have talked just about every aspect of chasing there is it seems.
Yes, I still have the ability to be long winded. 
Anyway, I digress here. The point is WX-CHASE was vibrant and full of participation, and certainly colorful. The falling out and turn to more moderated modes kind of killed it or was the beginning of it's death. Bottom line: It is that historical perspective, and moderator / administrator mindset that drives the concept of WHY we need to have strict rules and moderation on Stormtrack. It is to maintain order and keep certain people from being offended and keep certain professional types participating without being offended. Does it work? Well, to some degree it has in the past, but does it still? You are arguing that it is killing Stormtrack and I must agree to a large degree you may be correct, although as stated in my other post it may also be related to the development of social media (Facebook) and it's inherit abilities and positive attributes.
I have noticed that WE CHASERS are becoming a bigger, less distinct, more commonplace group that are more spread out and communicate centrally less with less personal identity. We are more distributed and massive. It is not easy to identify who leads our 'group' anymore, or who the veteran or top chasers are. In many ways this reminds me of the music industry that used to be very small and focused with only a few gatekeeper record companies controlling and promoting music and top 40, etc. With the explosion of computers and internet technology and free downloading it has kind of killed the industry, but it is reborn in a lower individual profit but much more diverse and numerous (some would argue less skilled) musical artists and groups. It seems practically everyone sings or is in a band... I do. So, as Bob Dilan said.. "the times they are a changing".
Change can be good. Let's keep Stormtrack rules and moderation sane and relevant and consider opening up the additional venue of the Stormtrack Social Network.
