Is this site dead?

[Rob H]

Stormtrack is indeed the most heavily moderated, and it has been since I joined the site[...] the goal has always been to promote a professional resource of information available to storm chasing and severe weather aficionados.

I just wanted to quote this because it really gets to the heart of what I was trying to convey without putting words in the current administration staff's mouths. There are other forums like Somethingawful.com that have much more strict moderation. In SA's case, 160,000(!) registered users deal with it, because it keeps threads on track and entertaining/informative. It not just allows, but encourages, NWS employees to participate in weather threads, well known game developers to participate in game threads, popular artists and musicians from talking shop, etc.

In my opinion, having great content and loose moderation are mutually exclusive and there will always be a trade off. Unfair moderation should always be up for review, but I just haven't seen any of that here firsthand. I've had infractions for low-quality posts in Target Area *and* for trolling, but these were all well-deserved and you can't take them personally if you're in the wrong.

 

[Shane Adams]

My lack of participation is simple: I'm just not interested in most threads because they don't relate directly to chasing storms. I've become disenchanted with social media, because all it's done for me is confirm what I'd always believed but hoped wasn't true, which is most people in the world are as ignorant and annoying as the ignorant and annoying people you've known in your real life; the world's a pretty small place after all.

I loved this place. I helped build it up and helped keep it going, and those were great times. I posted because I was inspired, and there was an audience. People wanted to know things I could provide the answers for, and I loved helping. I was relevant. But I don't understand computers and tethering cell phones and wifi speeds and all of that. I can't chase and drive and type reports into SN and update FB and Twitter all at the same time. I have no experience booking flights and finding great hotel/rental deals in advance on the internet. Basically, everything chasing has become, I'm no good at. Therefore, I have nothing to offer in that regard.

What I am good at, is talking chasing. Like how clouds are supposed to look on a good day VS a bad day and why. Like how to tell a few days in advance when a potentially-severe wx producing upper air system is on the way by looking at the sky. Like how to decide which storm to pick out of a cluster and why, and why the answer might change in each different scenario. Newbies today don't ask those questions anymore. They ask what electronic equipment they need to purchase.

Knowledge wrought by experience has no premium in today's chasing world. Nobody inquires about the sky. They inquire about the screen, the connection, the site. People like me who cut their teeth by failing miserably in the same formative years that today's newbies thrive in, aided by computers and satellite navigation, are virtually irrelevant now. This may come across as pitiful or "woe as me", but trust me, I've no shortage of self-esteem or pride. This is simply an examination of the state-of-the-game as it refers to chasing storms, and how it relates to my lack of activity/effort on this forum.

It's no secret I've had my differences with moderation and ownership of ST over recent years. Most of that was anger and venting over the fact I felt I was losing what I'd come to covet, which is this forum as it once was. I was fighting the change not because I simply refused it, but because I felt that it was slowly taking me out of the picture. ST and chasing were both evolving (and still are) beyond a realm I was comfortable or even familiar with. Chasing got modernized while I stuck to what worked for me. It of course didn't affect my ability to chase whatsoever. What it did affect was my ability to interact with other chasers.

These kids today bust out of the gate with 30-tornado rookie seasons, and all the technological knowledge one can have. They're doing things in their first years it took me a decade to accomplish once. Some things they're doing I've yet to accomplish. What is anything I've spent years learning and understanding going to do for them? Why would they need my tutelage when they're already surpassing in 3-4 years what took me ten to achieve? My lack of participation now, is not out of protest. It's simply a lack of necessity.

However, I have signed up for TA and will likely revisit that old stomping ground in 2012 with what I hope are quite frequent successful chase reports.

 

[Mark Blue]

I think you're still relevant and am glad you are back Shane. Don't discount what you have to offer because you were and continue to be one of those ST members I looked up to when I first joined and still do to this day. You can type beautifully worded posts and always have insight into whatever chase subject pops up on this forum. I truly enjoy the Shane we have been seeing as of late and hope it stays the way it is for the long haul. I know I've never had a personal beef with you and I want it to stay that way, in fact I remember talking in PMs about how I would like to meet you in person out chasing someday and that still holds true. I hope you feel the same way as I do because nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned!

 

[Keith Wilson]

There is no intention of making this site an exclusive haven for the storm chasing illuminati, i.e., the site is not limited to only veteran storm chasers with an established reputation or those who hail from meteorology-related academia, but I can attest that of all the message boards I have either posted on or avidly read, since the Internet became popular in the 1990s, Stormtrack is indeed the most heavily moderated, and it has been since I joined the site. Again, this is nothing new; the site has been operated in a similar manner since its inception as far as I can tell. The reasoning for stringent expectations for post content isn't to foster an exclusive club and berate newer members; on the contrary, the goal has always been to promote a professional resource of information available to storm chasing and severe weather aficionados.

I think the aforesaid example that Robert gave of problematic, one-liner posts that sometimes have plagued quality FCST posts made by other members serves as a great example of my conjecture. This really isn't anything new. The staff strives to be as professional and polite as they possibly can be when addressing posts that run afoul of site rules or procedures, so I wouldn't take that as being akin to trying to make anyone feel "inferior or uneducated."

Many sites probably don't have such a litany of rules or procedures to follow, especially for various sub-forums like our Target Area, but that's always been the one key ingredient that separates Stromtrack from many other message boards and Internet forums where threads often quickly evolve into one-liners and off-topic discussions that are of little relevance to the original topic. While there may be further room for improvement in regards to making the site rules and procedures less ambiguous, Tim and the staff members (past and present) have tried to reorganize the rules and procedures several times over the past few years to make them less cumbersome and more lucid.

Good post Jesse.
This, and others by Tim, Mods, and other members have given me a better understanding of Stormtrack. The responses/explanations have been invaluable.

I wouldn't retract any of my previous comments because they were strictly my opinion, and everybody has one. My opinion has changed thanks to the responses that resulted.
The expanation that was provided for the infraction that I received was indeed cordial and courtious and beared no malicious content. I posted something that lacked the content required for the location. I now know that my reaction was overblown and I didn't realize the inflexibility of the infraction system that Mods must make use of. It was one of my first ST posts and I felt that I was being singled out as a newbie, but I now know that wasn't the case.

The responses to my posts in this thread have "filled in the blanks", so to speak.

 

[Lee Smith-Whaley]

- 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.

Tim

Tim, I have lurked in this thread until now because as a new guy I felt that I didn't have much say. I just now saw your post, and wanted to make a suggestion about scrapping the essay, and allowing open registration. On another forum I'm on there is open registration, however new users are highly encouraged to post an intro thread in an introduction sub-forum. This helps weed out the spam, introduce new users, and allows people to get to know each other. A sample format for that is

Name/Nickname
Why they joined/are joining
Hobbies
Experience
What ever info they want to add

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Locked this thread -- discussion is continued in "New Stormtrack changes for January 2012".