Reports allowed in Weather & Chasing

[Jay McCoy]

I know my reports are not the top of the heap.. I am nowhere near the photog that Mike U or Hollingshead are. their pictures are breathtaking but after 10-12 hrs on the road to come home, download pics and write up a chase report just so it can get lost in a day under some topics like 19** radar caps or tornado ratings from 1955-57 is frustrating and makes me wonder why I would do it.

We spend alot of time and effort to bring chasing images and reports to everybody on the board so they can have some experience of the chase. a small taste of what we saw. Sometimes its me writing it and sometimes it Kanani because she is better at expressing the feeling of the chase but I want everybody to read it. I enjoy that.

All we ask is to have the reports saved in a special place for viewing like its own section or under Maproom. ( i like the idea of a seperate section myself so Maproom can be for forecasts and now). ST has been the place of chase reports for almost 30 yrs. I havent always been on here but have been out there for over 20yrs now.

 

[Dick McGowan]

"I won't read 90 percent of the stuff that's posted. People are frightened by the fact that they might be scrutinized or violate some sort of rule, that Stormtrack is obviously proud of. "

So 90% of the posts are crap, so what's exactly "scaring" valid posters away?

The Stormtrack police. Noise. Redundant threads.

 

[Shane Adams]

Originally posted by Dan Robinson

There is too much practical value in keeping connected with other chasers to jump ship from ST over this. There will always be annoying issues with any forum, but none so far are enough of a reason to stop participating.

I have no plans to jump ship. I'm simply no longer posting chase reports or any other news regarding my actual chasing. As far as the other forums, I'm sure I'll still participate (to some degree), but now that storm season is here, I don't expect to be around much for the next three months or so.

 

[Dick McGowan]

If this is such a big deal and a timely consensus can not be met, ( and a lot of stormchasers are already aware of ) we have designed a site to cater to chasers. We have an organized forum that places different categories as you would see here on Stormtrack, but broken down into different categories, including a seperate section for chase logs, nowcast, and a "live chase" (as well as forecast).

We also have a digital photography section where chasers can post photography (of all sorts), critique, and help each other out with certatin questions. We also run a monthly competition depending on the month. This months is "wall clouds". So I welcome you to our site.

http://www.stormchasers.org

 

[Glen Romine]

First off - for the stormchasers.org crowd - if it's such a hassle over here, and you have your own forum to run as you wish, then why are you bothering to try and control the structure of this board? Most everyone knows you exist by now - and if they can't stand the format here enough then maybe they will move to your board. You don't need to continually try and recruit on this board on every hot-button issue. Obviously, ST has a large crowd base, what they need to worry about is how to keep it. So - what it boils down to is if a few 'real' chasers dissatisfied with the format leave, will it really adversely affect the board? Anyone who recalls the big 'Core' scandal from last year knows that threat of 'real chasers' leaving is a non-issue for the brass, and among that crowd involved nearly all remain at the same activity level as before. So, enough with the threats of leaving - it's not like any one of us are that important to keeping the machine running.

Back to the issue of where to have reports - I'm still fond of the idea of a Trophy Room. But, this has been suggested for at least 3 years running and has yet to get any serious consideration. As for posting chase reports to blogs - I think that is absolutely the way to go - and I'd actually prefer to see more chasers use those and only place a link to it with a short summary post at ST.

Glen

 

[Amos Magliocco]

Originally posted by Dick McGowan
We have an organized forum that places different categories as you would see here on Stormtrack, but broken down into different categories, including a seperate section for chase logs, nowcast, and a "live chase" (as well as forecast).
We also have a digital photography section where chasers can post photography (of all sorts), critique, and help each other out with certatin questions. We also run a monthly competition depending on the month. This months is "wall clouds". So I welcome you to our site.

http://www.stormchasers.org

I want to put in a good word for stormchasers.org because I think the internet is big enough for both sites and there are plenty of chasers and chasing enthusiasts to keep both busy. The new forum is targetted more directly to chasers, in my opinion, and the emphasis on digital photography gives it a distinct style.

I also appreciate the job Tim and the moderators do with Stormtrack. I've been a supporter of this monikor for many years. I was a moderator for a year and, back in the stone age, an article of mine was in the print version. But chasing is growing and different resources address different segments. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Glen, you have a good point, but if you step on toes long enough, people will move to stormchasers.org, and when laziness kicks in, the "elite" will start posting solely in one or the other, and weather the brass here is worried or not, once you start losing chasers here, you're not going to be left with much cause there is NOW another forum available to them which was not back in the "core" issues days. And whether anyone wants to admit it or not, that's a concern for everyone here cause Stormtrack is suppose to be serving chasers... and now that these issues are in light in conjunction with another board, its something I think needs to be addressed here, cause the brass will have concern when those chasers start posting elsewhere.

And of course with blogging becoming so popular, there's another thing... cause chasers will start keeping their repots to their own pages...

 

[David Drummond]

Originally posted by Dick McGowan

Telling newcomers to "Search" for a thread or some bitter old man playing the Stormtrack police officer (not a moderator) will surely scare people off.



Dick

Dick,

It's common practice on practically every other message board on the internet (at least that I have come across and use, and there are a lot of them) to ask new people to learn to use the search feature. It's whole purpose is to be able to find specific information, probably something that is already posted before. There is no reason the ST forums should be any different.

People already talk about having to see the same old things brought up time after time asked about. If people would use the search feature when looking for something, chances are many times it's already been posted about.

That's one thing that makes forums so powerful, IS being able to do that. It makes it a great repository of information and opinions. But that is only as useful as the user is willing to make use of the search feature. Telling people to use it is not to put them off, many people new to message boards don't even know HOW to use it.

 

[Matthew Havin]

Sorry to interject, but I wanted to tell you guys....

My Board is bigger than your Board.

March bickering like this is why I am glad the season is about to begin.... we need something to do!

 

[Dan Robinson]

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

<!--QuoteBegin-Dick McGowan

Telling newcomers to "Search" for a thread or some bitter old man playing the Stormtrack police officer (not a moderator) will surely scare people off.

It's common practice on practically every other message board on the internet (at least that I have come across and use, and there are a lot of them) to ask new people to learn to use the search feature. [/b]

Most other forums that I am a member of practice this and other stringent topic organization policies. A typical technique is to have 'one stop' threads for the most common topics that come up over and over again.

The cellular internet/ WXWorx threads on ST are a good example of this. Every few weeks there is a new topic nearly identical to the old ones. In fairness, it is somewhat inconvenient for a new poster to search through the old posts, but it is also inconvenient for everyone else to re-type (and in some cases copy-and-paste verbatim) the same responses again and again.

But, this and the other problems are minor issues, guys. All forums are like this. It's going to be a problem on stormchasers.org too or any other forum that is started. But we can live with it. More strict forum rules are actually becoming more commonplace across the internet on nearly *every* forum I frequent. It is neccessary to have some rules and order in things, there is no reason to be afraid to post or go elsewhere. Let's just work on a solution like we are doing and do the best we can.

 

[George Tincher]

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

<!--QuoteBegin-Dick McGowan

We have an organized forum that places different categories as you would see here on Stormtrack, but broken down into different categories, including a seperate section for chase logs, nowcast, and a "live chase" (as well as forecast).
We also have a digital photography section where chasers can post photography (of all sorts), critique, and help each other out with certatin questions. We also run a monthly competition depending on the month. This months is "wall clouds". So I welcome you to our site.

http://www.stormchasers.org

I want to put in a good word for stormchasers.org because I think the internet is big enough for both sites and there are plenty of chasers and chasing enthusiasts to keep both busy. The new forum is targetted more directly to chasers, in my opinion, and the emphasis on digital photography gives it a distinct style.

I also appreciate the job Tim and the moderators do with Stormtrack. I've been a supporter of this monikor for many years. I was a moderator for a year and, back in the stone age, an article of mine was in the print version. But chasing is growing and different resources address different segments. There's nothing wrong with that.[/b]

Well said Amos. There is room for both boards in the world and there's no reason why anyone who wishes can't be a member of both. Besides, we also still have the WX-Chase list. It and ST were able to co-exist. And in the end, you usually have the same people who sign up and post to all of them anway.

As far as bringing up the stormchasers.org forums, I don't see what the problem is. It's not like anyone is "pimpin" it out here. However, it is very relevent to the discussion. Looking at this thread, it's obvious a majority of the people here want a dedicated forum to post logs to, one that groups all the day's posts together and keeps them in order. Since there is an obvious demand for that, if ST isn't willing to provide it, stormchasers.org is. There is nothing wrong with telling the people here where they can go to get what they what. Afterall, IMHO, the people who make up our sites are more important than the sites. Without the people, what do you have?

I have no problem in being up front and letting everyone here know that I am in fact a moderator at stormchasers.org. Does that mean I hate ST and want to steal all of it's members? Of course not! I plan on remaining a member here myself and I post fairly regularly. In fact, I am as active now as I've ever been. The same can be said for many other people who are members of both forums. The goal of stormchasers.org is not to attempt to put ST out of business or somehow "compete" with ST. The goal is to simply have an alternative. Alternatives can be nice. In fact, for the many people who have expressed concern about the REPORTS thread situation and wish it was like it use to be, I would be willing to bet that they would appreciate having a forum that offers what they are so passionately seeking. I for one am happy they now have such an option, be it here or elsewhere.

As for how the REPORTS issue is resolved, I will still hang around here regardless of what decision is made. But this much I can say: Unless REPORTS is changed back to the old format where all the day's events (if the same storm system) are grouped together in the same thread, with only first person accounts being allowed, I for one will only be checking the reports threads on the other board. Trying to sort through numerous seperate threads by numerous people, all dealing with the same day and in a high traffic forum would be like dealing with a zoo. I have no desire to do that. And I bet a majority of the people here would agree.

Anyway, I wish for the best in this matter being resolved. Hopefully a decision can be reached soon and all the users can move on to other things, with Spring reapidly approaching.

-George

 

[mikegeukes]

I have decided not to post to any weather forums, anymore.
Not worth the time and effort anymore, and my blog is removed.

Mike

 

[Glen Romine]

For the record, I'm not trying to bash stormchasers.org - I just don't think there should be effort on their part to try and modify the structure on ST. In fact - I think they have the greatest opportunity to benefit from NOT having the same structure as ST. In general, I've found the posts there to be very similar to those on ST - just with far fewer contributors. The opportunity is here for them to do things differently - and there is no problem imo with pointing out that there is an alternative format elsewhere - but do it, and be done, and don't try to make ST a clone for your chosen format. Lead by example - do a format that chasers in your group contribute to regularly, and show that it is the format chaser's prefer. Everyone who cares about this issue has had a chance to voice their preference, why not give Tim time to try his experiment and see if it works out here. If the format of reports posts is a dividing issue - that seems to benefit everyone if there are indeed unique alternatives.

Glen

 

[Mike Peregrine]

I'm enjoying the other forum as well, mainly for the reasons already mentioned. But the reality is that if everyone here simply moves over there, the same issues are bound to eventually exist. In fact, any other forum or email list is ultimately destined to encounter the same basic causes for complaint as those encountered in Stormtrack. Wx-chase used to be a pretty hot list ... Stormtrack then regained popularity with many core chasers and took over as the big dog on the block, and now wx-chase is light on activity ... but the exact same issues that caused wx-chase to fall in popularity are now facing Stormtrack in much the same way. Each of these lists experiences waves in activity that rise and fall as a result of trends in popularity, basically. In fact, because of these trends, we may even see a day when wx-chase could alter its structure somehow and manage to regain popularity and become 'in vogue' with core chasers again. Strange, but true.

So far, I'm enjoying the other forum and feel like it is in tune with what people are currently looking for. But the hard truth is that we can keep making splinter groups that might accomodate some trend in the prior list we didn't care for ... but no matter what is done - at the end of the day, there will be something that folks become discontent over, because this is about COMMUNITY more than anything else. For chasers, Stormtrack is a community. A person can become discontent and complain about their community - enough that someday they might actually move, usually in an effort to find more comfortability and sense of belonging. But usually, their problems will indeed follow them to their new town. At some point, the other forum will have its own trial by fire ... an issue will come up that will not satisfy everyone, and there will be a big fuss. I stamp my guarantee on it. It may not come for a matter of a couple of years even ... but it will come.

Personally, the lists for me are just a means of having fun and passing time now more than anything else. At some point a structure may well come along that hits the nail on the head and becomes THE resource from now on, but I'm still pretty convinced that this comes with creating more (or better) structure, and not losing structure. We'll just have to wait and see where the tide carries us - - -

Now - the weather should really become the main focus on all of our plates. I sure hope that folks are watching models this week, because we're in for a ride, it looks like. I say we forget this stuff for a few days and go for a chase!

 

[John Erwin]

I'm just curious why the site would be re-tooled just prior to the active season; does it not make sense to do this AFTER the season so that sufficient time is available to discuss the pros and cons? The mods/admins must be under a lot of pressure regarding this topic.. I'm sure they would rather concentrate on other items.

For what it's worth, I would agree with the majority of people who have weighed in here and suggest leaving things as Status Quo (reports in TA). Not sure why a radical change would be made in haste... and then discuss the matter afterwards for a protracted period of time. Shouldn't it have been discussed thoroughly beforehand?