Tim Vasquez
EF5
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2003
- Messages
- 3,411
I have been thinking about the idea of diverting "Nowcasts & Discussion" category over to our Ajax chat system. It's probably not robust enough yet to handle a lot of activity during a tornado outbreak, but this might be an option after the upgrade. This would let us talk in real-time as we watch storms unfold and monitor radar scan by scan.
I went ahead and created a Forecasts & Nowcasts channel. I did some experimenting and found that we can easily preserve conversations from this channel, which takes care of the need to archive events for posterity. The system will also allow users to search the conversations by day & hour in this channel. We would have logging switched off for the Stormtrack Chat general conversation channel (which is pointless anyway and would fill up our database unnecessarily).
So what I'm envisioning is we have a "Nowcast Chat" option under the Target Area forum list. Clicking that takes members directly to the Forecasts & Nowcasts channel, which is kept free of extraneous "noise" and disruption much like Target Area. If people want to talk about cookies and American Idol, they can switch over to the Stormtrack Chat channel and do it there. At the end of the day we can extract a daily archive of the nowcast chat channel and post it in the Forecasts & Nowcasts forum.
Any thoughts on this idea?
While I was in there I trimmed the channels back to a "Stormtrack Chat" channel and a "Forecasts & Nowcasts" channel. At this moment, people can talk weather in the latter channel if they like, but there are no rules in place yet.
Tim
I went ahead and created a Forecasts & Nowcasts channel. I did some experimenting and found that we can easily preserve conversations from this channel, which takes care of the need to archive events for posterity. The system will also allow users to search the conversations by day & hour in this channel. We would have logging switched off for the Stormtrack Chat general conversation channel (which is pointless anyway and would fill up our database unnecessarily).
So what I'm envisioning is we have a "Nowcast Chat" option under the Target Area forum list. Clicking that takes members directly to the Forecasts & Nowcasts channel, which is kept free of extraneous "noise" and disruption much like Target Area. If people want to talk about cookies and American Idol, they can switch over to the Stormtrack Chat channel and do it there. At the end of the day we can extract a daily archive of the nowcast chat channel and post it in the Forecasts & Nowcasts forum.
Any thoughts on this idea?
While I was in there I trimmed the channels back to a "Stormtrack Chat" channel and a "Forecasts & Nowcasts" channel. At this moment, people can talk weather in the latter channel if they like, but there are no rules in place yet.
Tim