Is this site dead?

[Andy Jackson]

This fall I read through a lot of the reports from 04 - 07 (the Stormtrack golden years). I actually enjoyed the posts and gained some insight into those who posted. You are not only veterans now but are 7 years older/wiser. For the storms you have seen and the wisdom you have gained: RESPECT.

For those who call this a dead site without starting some SDS alleviating thread shame on you!

 

[Ken Johnson]

Mike - I wasn't pointing at you. I'm saying this has been the most active topic the forum has seen in months. Tells you something?

I was thinking the same thing. I don't post much, but love to hear what others are thinking. I came here several times last year and found very little discussion. I used to love storm track, but lately it's just not as good.

 

[Chuck Hurley]

Its not just the site. Chasing was a fad. Hope you guys had fun riding the wave while it lasted

The internet is a fad. Chasing is not.

 

[Rob H]

I was thinking the same thing. I don't post much, but love to hear what others are thinking. I came here several times last year and found very little discussion.

I understand what you're saying, but you see the tinge of irony in your statement, don't you?

I still believe in my long-standing suggestion to have a topic of the week. Someone kicks off a topic, and others contribute. New topics every week. I'll even start it if anyone is actually interested in this, I just don't want to do something that no one else is interested in helping with or even reading.

 

[rdale]

I think that's a great idea - I'm proposing something similar for the WASIS group based on what's happening this week with Weather Ready Nation.

 

[Simon Brewer]

I don't think this site is dead yet, but I do miss the days of old with abundant posts by people like Shane Adams and Mike Hollingshead.

I'm guilty of not posting very often, but I never posted much in the past. Most of my posts were in the REPORTS thread. Personally, I was very unhappy to receive an infraction back in 2008 for linking a picture , which was larger than mandated by rules and posting third party information. I admit I was ignorant of the rules I broke, but I felt and feel there is a difference between an infraction and a mistake. It was quick and easy for me to downsize the picture, but the infraction left a very sour taste in my mouth. I would have felt differently if the post was deleted and sent a message by a Moderator informing me of the problem (NO FAULT OF THE MODERATORS). Some people might not feel the same, but others might get agitated enough to quit a message board. The rhetoric of infraction or points could be a possible deterring factor for some members.

More recently, I was unaware of the change made to the Target Area regarding the need for permission to post; an attempt to post my chase account was denied, so I didn't post for a while. STORMTRACK IS PRIVATELY OWNED, but its survival is dependent upon people supplying free content in the form of forecasts, experiences, opinions, information, pictures, and footage to something they don't own. Personally, if I'm giving away something or creating something for someone else and hit an obstacle I'm likely to quit and not bother in the future. I'm willing to bet many others felt the same way and moved on as well. I can now post in Target Area after acquiring permission, but some time had passed before I allocated the time.

My favorite part of Stormtrack is the REPORTS thread; being able to read/see what people were able to experience is priceless; I don't have the patience to search all the social media and individual websites for every picture and video, so to see it in one thread is amazing. I don't like Facebook (sorry to anyone who has sent me messages or attempted to friend me and received no response), I don't "Tweet" very often, and I definitely don't update my website as often as I should, but I have enjoyed Stormtrack and looked forward to posting my reports after a successful chase. Just one speed bump deterred me from posting most of this year, hopefully it hasn't deterred some forever. I wish there was a little more freedom for more people to post reports, because everyone with a worthwhile picture or experience shouldn't be able to share it with us all.

Also, despite TV and Internet magazines have survived; I'd like to see Stormtrack the Magazine resurrected!

Simon

 

[Tim Vasquez]

I've followed this thread for the past couple of days. I really appreciate that you all have kept it civil and constructive and I appreciate Jesse's input from the admin side of the house. I think the fact that there's been 65 posts in the past several days in this thread underscores that the board is not really dead and that a lot of folks are still around. We have had 120 people visiting the board in the past hour, if that says anything.

The numbers definitely do show a decline, however. These are the factors:
- The dead severe weather season (esp. coming out of the tail end of spring 2011), the dead hurricane season, and the so-far dead winter season. There's not much to talk about at this point and is one reason I have been a bit scarce lately.
- The advent of social networking, especially with sites like Facebook and Twitter, as Brett, Bill H., and others mentioned. It's only this year that I've started running across people who don't leave the confines of Facebook. From 2000-2007 forums were the thing for social networking. Now forums tend to have a vibe of being intimidating and kind of old school. On Facebook you have some really experienced folks (Doswell, etc) who are likely to friend you back and fill up your news feed with all kinds of interesting and late breaking things.
- The weather community, like all others, has a continuous influx of new chasers and an outflux of those who've grown bored with it or moved on to other hobbies. The newer, younger crowd used to come to us. Now they tend to start on Facebook; not many of them expand to other places on the Internet. So some of our losses are from attrition without any replacements.
- The tightened restrictions (both rules and the essay requirement) in combination with the decline. Bear in mind that this is a consequence of the continuous tug of war between those who want less moderation and those who want higher signal/noise ratio and less of the permanent armchair chasers. The decline we're seeing did sharpen around the time where we brought back the essay requirement.
- The privacy issues surrounding our real name policy. I continue to get e-mail about this. Real names are not an issue on Facebook because you can control who can read your stuff and it's not indexed into search engines. But stuff typed on Stormtrack is out there forever, and given the problems with the economy a lot of people are understandably paranoid about their employers or HR Googling them and not liking what they read. One note I got last month was from someone worried their insurance company would find out about them and screw them over.

As far as what tack we will be taking with all this:

- First off, we can't do anything about sites like Facebook. All we can really do is provide alternatives that they don't, and integrate better with them if that's possible.
- We will be easing up significantly on moderation of the site -- that is, not the moderator pool and our restrictions on flame wars and disruptive posts, but rather on the rules for weather content
- The issue with NOW posts will be reviewed as part of these changes; I still need to find out what the thinking was when this change was made.
- I'm thinking we may need to scrap the essay requirement and allow open registration, and impose our quality requirements on the posts rather than on the user pool. The main problem I'm seeing is people registering with nicknames.
- I also think we need to have a serious discussion about phasing in a policy allowing nicknames. The straw polls here have tended to negate this idea but I think it is becoming a problem for us. I know of no sites out there that have a real name requirement, especially nowadays. Except Facebook, but as mentioned above Facebook offers better privacy controls than we do.
- Some of you want to see the historical section separated out. We'll probably do this too, but if you feel otherwise please say so.
- I will be allocating money to get the graphical targeting map back up and running and get some other cool features running on this site. Suggestions are welcome.

Tim

 

[Richard Dickson]

Like a number of others, I've read through each and every response and found much of this to be well thought out and logical discussion. There seems to be a common thought lamenting the passing of the old days with all of the discussion that took place about events and answering questions about the 'how's and whys'. All of that activity contributed to a longer list of topics and threads within them, which is what a number of folks wanted at the time.

I can't quote a date, but we then entered the period of "That's already been talked about and we don't want to hear anymore about it. Go search the archives!"

While it may have been appropriate for some, that process diminished or killed the enthusiasm of the newer members genuinely wanting to increase their knowledge of storms and the processes it takes to create one. Several members have initiated threads offering their insight about some different topics and that generated some interest for a while. Other folks may have similar ideas, but may have held back out of concern about looking foolish. Now may be an opportune time to reestablish the concept of openly sharing knowledge, learned experiences, and once again encourage younger participation.

 

[Keith Wilson]

Thanks Simon for backing me up, and thanks Tim for the detailed response.

I see a lot of threads in here start that begin with, "Im not sure if this is where I should post this, so Mods please move if necessary." Many members, especially newbies like me, are "tip-toeing" around in here afraid to make any "noise".

 

[Rob H]

I'm thinking we may need to scrap the essay requirement and allow open registration, and impose our quality requirements on the posts rather than on the user pool. The main problem I'm seeing is people registering with nicknames[...] I also think we need to have a serious discussion about phasing in a policy allowing nicknames. The straw polls here have tended to negate this idea but I think it is becoming a problem for us.

This is a good idea. I think the upsides to using a real name are that people will know and recognize a you under the meso, and your posts will tend to carry more weight. I've met a bunch of people in the last two years that I only recognized by name from ST. If you just want to lurk, and have posts potentially taken less seriously - then that's your decision to not get the full benefit of the social aspects of this forum.

--

I'll start thinking about a topic for next week - please PM me here, or message me on Facebook if anyone has any suggestions. I'd like for it to be a complex enough topic where some discussion can be had, but not where people feel they can't ask questions or understand the topic easily.

edit: Can we also unsticky the threads in the archives? It's kind of annoying having them there when browsing.

 

[Brad Williams]

There is one thing I really enjoy on Stormtrack this time of the year.... "Best of 2011" threads that I am sure we are only days away from seeing! To me thats a great way to fill one of these "booring" months!

Best Storm Photo of 2011
Best Lightening Photo of 2011
Best Hail Photo of 2011
Best Cloud formation of 2011

Can't wait to see all the awesome photos!
Brad

 

[Skip Talbot]

We generally handle all of the housekeeping on the site behind the scenes, but I saw several posts on here I'd like to address so there aren't any misunderstandings.

I have a personal instance last year when I posted something about a current MD and it was removed because 'everyone has access to this information and it was unnecessary to post'. Stuff like this is discouraging, I am sure a lot of people come read here, but the posts have fallen off no doubt.

I've seen folks take issue with the rule against reposting public bulletins, and I think its important to understand why this rule is in place. Most of us are monitoring severe weather events on Grlevel3 or other software and websites if we're available and not already chasing so we're already on top of all the bulletins that are streaming in. Imagine somebody, excited about the developing weather, who posts every single warning to the Forecast thread as it issued. Imagine several people doing it. I've seen Skywarn Yahoo Groups and Facebook pages where that's all it is. There is no new information and nothing of value being added. Its just an endless stream of copy and pasted bulletin text. Somebody who puts in the time and effort to write out a detailed forecast is going to have their post buried. Worse, this site and those as well should not be places where people first receive this information because its not coming from an official source, its incomplete, and its delayed. People want to come on here and read new information, and not have to sift through endless pages of bulletins. Reposting one here or there may seem Ok, but without moderation, I can assure you the board would be just swamped with these posts.

Moderation is necessary to keep the site on track and noise to a minimum, but not all noise is worthy of an infraction. Infractions are offensive to the person receiving it and often discourages future interaction in threads. Sometimes simply removing the post in question and sending a PM to explain why would be sufficient IMHO.

The methods for handling posts have been and still are being debated. For simple stuff, there is no effective difference between an "infraction" and a PM from a moderator. Both are private messages with no direct impact on the person's posting privileges or public image on the board. Many have to be accumulated before there is a temporary restriction on posting privileges. The infraction system is used so that all of the moderators can see the message and participate, rather than a PM which is private between a single moderator and the user. Something as simple as changing what infractions are called to something more benign sounding might be the ticket to this issue as many folks seem to get hung up on the title and point values even as we try to make the message within as courteous and friendly as possible. They're friendly reminders, not slaps on the wrist.

I see a lot of threads in here start that begin with, "Im not sure if this is where I should post this, so Mods please move if necessary." Many members, especially newbies like me, are "tip-toeing" around in here afraid to make any "noise".

These disclaimers aren't needed. Shuffling posts around to the right forum is what we're here for, and we don't hold it against anybody unless its being done repeatedly with ill intent. Nobody has to tip toe around here if they are civil and follow some basic guidelines. More than 99% of posters will never encounter action from the staff, and those that do should remember that we're just here to help, doing house cleaning on the forum to keep things running smoothly, and the door is always open for suggestions if you want to PM one of us. As Tim alluded to, you're going to see less stringent moderation on the forums with less activity. As the posts wane on here, there is less need to filter out noise posts. In fact, there really hasn't been much moderation at all in the past year and especially the past six months.

 

[Matt Gingery]

Hello everyone! In the past during the winter months, myself along with many others would post chase cases. I haven't seen any new or recent chase cases being posted. I notice many of the new members quoting themselves as "Newbies", and that is fine, however you would like to title yourself is up to you. A great way of staying sharp for the coming season is to participate in these chase cases. I personally love putting these together, and it has been a while since I have done so. Since my brief absence from ST I have never had more free time on my hands than I do now being unemployed and a student starting in about 3 weeks. Unless Chase Cases are no longer allowed I will follow through and begin putting one together. I will direct that question to Skip Talbot. Are chase case's still allowed, and what area should they be listed?? Thanks! Regarding the rules and infractions, I am sure we have all received one at one point or another. When I received my first one, I can admit that I was upset and felt singled out. I can assure you that I was in the wrong, and like many of the new members, didn't read the rules as thoroughly as I should have. These infractions are never personal. Without some type of regulation and accountability this would be a very disorganized site.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Are chase case's still allowed, and what area should they be listed??

Of course. You can post them in the Advanced weather & chasing forum.

 

[Mark Blue]

I was going to say the same thing but it appears Skip is online and all over it. Thanks for the well worded post Matt and welcome back to the forum!