Signing up to SpotterNetwork & quality of reports

[Paul Knightley]

Hi all - a genuine question here, based on the sheer number of SN 'dots' visible these days - what is the process for signing up to SN nowadays? I recall when I did (back in 2009, I think!) that there was a quiz/test - are today's sign-ups still required to pass a test of any kind? As I mentioned in the other thread about quality reporting, there used to be vetting of storm reports - but I guess that is just not possible now (or, at least, requires a large amount of time to do so)...whilst I see a lot of good reports coming in, there are also some rather dodgy ones at times (e.g. I saw a funnel cloud report yesterday which just said 'to the west' or similar...the report was a good 20-25 miles east of the line of showers, and so you could suggest that the recipient of the report might 'know' this - but, really, the report should at least mention whether it is close-by, distant, or, if known, give a distance.

The large number of dots on the maps these days makes me wonder how many really know how to report, read the storm, etc...and how many have signed up to see whether the other dots are. Personally, I leave the marker off until it's time to report.

 

[rdale]

Just login and take the training / test.

Reports are vetted - but that's for their content. If someone says "east" when they meant "west" we don't have the ability to plot radar and confirm But anyone looking at that report can easily see.

The vetting removes things like "TORNADO REPORT - I think I see a scary cloud that might turn into a tornado" and that is still active.

 

[ChrisP]

Just login and take the training / test.

Reports are vetted - but that's for their content. If someone says "east" when they meant "west" we don't have the ability to plot radar and confirm But anyone looking at that report can easily see.

The vetting removes things like "TORNADO REPORT - I think I see a scary cloud that might turn into a tornado" and that is still active.

I am locked out of my account because it says I made a low quality report. I have not yet made a report.

 

[Amy P]

Do we have to complete the training/tests before we can sign up? I tried to register but SN won't allow me to login or create an account?

 

[Paul Knightley]

Just login and take the training / test.

Reports are vetted - but that's for their content. If someone says "east" when they meant "west" we don't have the ability to plot radar and confirm But anyone looking at that report can easily see.

The vetting removes things like "TORNADO REPORT - I think I see a scary cloud that might turn into a tornado" and that is still active.

Thx for the info - I do recall seeing a quality mark against reports in the past - which were fed to the reporter - are these still active?

 

[rdale]

Do we have to complete the training/tests before we can sign up?

Yes.

 

[brentford]

I have a question regarding low quality reports. I posted this somewhere else as well. I had a time that I thought was off and they got to me saying I shouldnt change the time stamp. I'm highly capable of sending quality reports since I've been doing this forever. I'm just unsure what I was supposed to do when I thought the date and time were off.

 

[rdale]

My reply still stands Leave the time as-is. It is in UTC, and most likely you were changing to your local time.

 

[brentford]

My reply still stands Leave the time as-is. It is in UTC, and most likely you were changing to your local time.

So strange. I just logged in just to see if time and date are correct, its spot on. It was 100% not that last time. Never would have touched it. I'm getting older but I know I can still see!! Little annoyed to get a low quality report but it is what it is. Thanks Rdale!

 

[rdale]

We're working on revamping the grading system for 2021 so no harm