Reports allowed in Weather & Chasing

[nickgrillo]

Originally posted by Jeff Snyder
What about keeping REPORTS in the Map Room but allowing post-event discussion in the Weather and chasing forum? This seems to be a pretty good compromise -- folks can still post their REPORTS in an organized thread, yet there is still a place for informal, post-event discussion in Weather and Chasing. So, type your official report in the REPORTS thread, and talk all you want in a Weather and Chasing thread.

Isn't that the way it was before? :lol:

If an event is worth discussing... Then, yeah, simply open up a thread in W&C (like it has always been). For instance, just a couple of weeks ago... A discussion was created for the Janurary 2nd severe weather event... In W&C.

So, yeah... I say keep the REPORTS (from people who actually CHASE) in the Maproom and put all post-event discussion in W&C. I for one would be in favor of having a totally seperate board, devoted to post-event analysis, but I can understand that idea may not appeal to a broad audience.

 

[David Drummond]

Originally posted by Jeff Snyder
What about keeping REPORTS in the Map Room but allowing post-event discussion in the Weather and chasing forum? This seems to be a pretty good compromise -- folks can still post their REPORTS in an organized thread, yet there is still a place for informal, post-event discussion in Weather and Chasing. So, type your official report in the REPORTS thread, and talk all you want in a Weather and Chasing thread.

I like this idea.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Originally posted by David Drummond+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(David Drummond)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Jeff Snyder

What about keeping REPORTS in the Map Room but allowing post-event discussion in the Weather and chasing forum? This seems to be a pretty good compromise -- folks can still post their REPORTS in an organized thread, yet there is still a place for informal, post-event discussion in Weather and Chasing. So, type your official report in the REPORTS thread, and talk all you want in a Weather and Chasing thread.

I like this idea.[/b]

I second it. Nick has a good point but discussion is important too. I recommend that a current chase could be discussed in W&C and preferably that it has a subject that describes it like 'May 3rd '99 - Discussion' for organization purposes and only one thread per chase day unless it is a subject secondarily different to just the chase day; Alternatively in Map Room we could have an additional qualifier such as "DISCUSS" and the date to allow discussion in the Map Room apart from just chaser reports. My guess is that most don't want to clutter Map Room up too much though.

 

[Scott Olson]

I like the idea of keeping 'Reports' in the Map Room and using W&C to have a discussion of the severe weather that has occured. Such as talking about the chase, meteoroligical discussions, f-scale ratings. It could also serve as an oppurtunity to encourage post-mortum anaylsis on the setup and chase strategy. It would provide a central thread for all discussion releating to that particular event that has occured.


-Scott Olson.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Isn't that the way it was before?

The difference here is that up until now, it was "illegal" to post chase discussions in Weather & Chasing for events that were less than 48 hours old. Such discussions had to go in a REPORT thread in Map Room. Guess what... only chasers on the storm could post in a REPORT thread. That's why we're trying to open things up a bit. We may go with allowing REPORT threads in Map Room still.

Tim

 

[George Tincher]

I too think there should be a specific place reserved for all chase reports and chase reports alone. I also feel they should be grouped into a single thread containing all that day's reports, at least for events that occur in the same area. I would support more than one thread for different regions if that happened.

But if I am reading the changes correctly, you could have multiple reports threads, all about the same day. That would seem totally confusing. I wouldn't sift through 20 seperate posts just to get all the chase updates. And that's if it's the day of the event. As far as chronology and looking at specific dates at a later time, I wouldn't even consider it.

For the record, I don't care if REPORTS remains in maproom. It could be there or in W&C. That part I don't care about. But I think it would be a huge mistake to do away with the REPORTS threads completely or just as bad, fragmenting them into many threads. I see no reason why REPORTS can't remain as is, with any post event discussion conducted in W&C. It's really been that way the whole time anyway.

It just seems like the old approach worked well and was simple, while this new one would really make things rather difficult and fragmented. Of course that's just my opinion.

-George

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by nickgrillo
No clue whatsoever on why this change has been made... The rules are hard to follow when your tired after a chase? I have made quite a few reports in the Maproom after a 20hr chase and I don't see many "rules" that had to be followed when making a REPORT. The Maproom is the most uncluttered and organized forum on the board... REPORTS have been there since the original Target Area. I love looking through the Maproom threads just because they are perfectly organized and unbelievably easy to sift through (due to the fact there is not hundreds of worthless posts) when researching past events.

If anything, make an entire separate board called "REPORTS and DISCUSSIONS" with strict guidelines like the Maproom. I hate to see first hand REPORTS get lost in all the W&C threads... I just cannot find a single reason for this change.

He's not saying REPORT threads will be put into Weather & Chasing...he's saying that moderators have the power (and will use it) to split topics inside of Weather & Chasing should they become off-topic due to people putting REPORT threads there erronously.

The only "change" is a more aggressive "clean-up" protocol for keeping REPORTS separate from other BS posts. Settle down, Grasshopper.

 

[nickgrillo]

Originally posted by Shane Adams+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shane Adams)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-nickgrillo

No clue whatsoever on why this change has been made... The rules are hard to follow when your tired after a chase? I have made quite a few reports in the Maproom after a 20hr chase and I don't see many "rules" that had to be followed when making a REPORT. The Maproom is the most uncluttered and organized forum on the board... REPORTS have been there since the original Target Area. I love looking through the Maproom threads just because they are perfectly organized and unbelievably easy to sift through (due to the fact there is not hundreds of worthless posts) when researching past events.

If anything, make an entire separate board called "REPORTS and DISCUSSIONS" with strict guidelines like the Maproom. I hate to see first hand REPORTS get lost in all the W&C threads... I just cannot find a single reason for this change.

He's not saying REPORT threads will be put into Weather & Chasing...he's saying that moderators have the power (and will use it) to split topics inside of Weather & Chasing should they become off-topic due to people putting REPORT threads there erronously.

The only "change" is a more aggressive "clean-up" protocol for keeping REPORTS separate from other BS posts. Settle down, Grasshopper.[/b]

Nope:

Originally posted by new maproom TOS
TALK and REPORT are no longer permitted.

Any post-chase summaries or storm discussions (formerly REPORT) may take place in Weather Lab, providing that you are not discussing something occurring now or about to occur.

That was my whole argument above... To keep the REPORT threads soley in the Maproom.

 

[John Farley]

I think reports should stay in Map Room, becuase they are easier to find there than among the much greater variety of material in Weather and Chasing. I also agree with the one post per person per event rule for Reports in Map Room. However, I have two points on the 48 hour issue. First, I agree with Tim that threads related to weather that has occurred within the last 48 hours should be allowed in Weather and Chasing. They could include discussions of the dynamics that produced the severe wx, discussion (other than first hand chaser reports) of what occurred in the storm, and discussions of things like chaser convergence, chase etiquette breaches, etc. Second, I think it should be permitted to post a report in Map Room more than 48 hours after an event, becuase sometimes it just isn't possible to get a report written up and posted within 48 hours due to travel, work obligations, or good chase days coming in rapid succession. That's my $.02

 

[Neal Rasmussen]

Shouldn't we be Y2K compliant on the prefix?

2006-01-24?



nealras
http://www.nealras.com

 

[Amos Magliocco]

I wish Stormtrack would reconsider the barring of REPORTS from Map Room. This is going to make previous reports difficult to find.

If the intent is to allow elaboration on past events, I think that improvement is possible without the rule change, as we see taking place at the moment. The Weather & Chasing topic regarding yesterday's Kansas storms was well underway before Scott Currens' report was shifted out of Map Room. What's happening now is that Scott's report is quickly falling down the list in Weather & Chasing, and in another few days it will be long gone. This seems like a real mistake. I still believe the most valuable content here are the forecasts and reports, although I understand that my opinion is among a rapidly dwindling minority.

If the primary motivation is to foster or encourage additional discussion about chases, why not create a DISC type post that is allowed ONLY in Weather & Chasing and that will help readers and posters focus on particular events and remember to use formatting similar to Map Room?

What was so appealing about the Map Room was the certainty that one could find only three kinds of posts, and that the archives were clean and easily navigated. I used Map Room archives a great deal when researching June 9, 2005 in preparation for my Storms of 2005 segment. Of course this is still possible in W & C, but with the many hundreds of additional topics, and the presence of other topics with similar headings ["1/28/2006: tornadoes yesterday" and "REPORTS 1/28/2006," for example] searches will be much more difficult.

EDIT: and I didn't even think about that now REPORTS threads will include general commentary and questions instead of first-hand reports only. This is a huge degradation, in my opinion. Why is this necessary?

 

[nickgrillo]

Agreed... I had already argued about this subject above (it's been a couple weeks or so now). No sense for me to rehatch what I said above and what Amos just said... But this subject needs to come to the board again... I'd strongly suggest a public vote on the subject. I still have no clue on why REPORT threads were thrown into W&C... I understand post-event discussion being allowed (under 48hrs) -- but why allow first-hand reports get cluttered up?

Makes no sense... None at all...

 

[Sam Sagnella]

I agree with Nick's sentiment that the REPORTS threads need to stay in the Map Room, with any related discussion going in W&C. The same regulations that have helped keep the FCST threads free of one-line responses and tangential discussion were also very useful in keeping the REPORTS threads as on-topic. Nowhere else on the internet could you find such a comprehensive record of storm chasers' first hand chase accounts, and, IMO, removing that element is quite detrimental to ST.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Ditto that...

Reports should belong in the Map Room, and post even analysis should be allowed (as we WERE doing) in the Weather Lab.

 

[Laura Duchesne]

Keep first hand chase reports in the map room please.... if they are moved to weather & chasing, things will get very cluttered, hard to find, and hard to distinguish between chaser and nonchaser reports, and the reports would get pushed back by other non report threads. So I agree with Amos.