Stormtrack site closed to new applicants

[Tim Vasquez]

Stormtrack is temporarily closed to new registrants April 1 through June 30 now that we're heading into the busy storm season. This is intended to take the admin workload off of the moderators and keep the signal-noise ratio high on the boards. Exceptions will be made for experienced chasers vouched for personally by someone on the board, or for any of our cousins at the other board (the one that starts with C).

Tim

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Exceptions will be made for experienced chasers vouched for personally by someone on the board, or for any of our cousins at the other board (the one that starts with C).

You mean this one?

 

[Jeff Miller]

Im sure thats not the one, Mike, but I do like the initials. Nice acronym.

 

[Scott Taylor]

Tim,

Going along with stopping new membership during the busy season, have you considered making the chasing forecast and reports forums invisible to non-registered users, like the B&G forum is? If not, I think this might be a reasonable idea, since I imagine MANY non-registered folk hit these forums leading up to and after a big event. I know I've often seen the user count for the forecast forum well over 150 on a big chase day, and then checking the 'currently active user' list on the bottom of the main page and only seeing 30 or so on. I'm sure some are members just not logged in, but I would bet the majority are non-registered folks that are trying to find out 'where to be' when the action goes down.

After reading about the massive chaser convergences recently, I can only imagine that a few non-registered folks end up there as a result of perusing the forecast threads, seeing everyone mentioning their chase targets.

I mentioned the report forum for the same reason, as any non-registered member can come in and save those images others are posting. Most protect their images with a watermark or copyright symbol and name, but it just seems it would be safer to prevent access unless a member.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Edward Ballou]

Going along with stopping new membership during the busy season, have you considered making the chasing forecast and reports forums invisible to non-registered users, like the B&G forum is?

I think it would be neat if the reports section was open - allow people to see where the action was - at least they can compare that with their own forecasts. Then again all this has been discussed in years past and this was the format the admin all agreed on. Most likely they have good reasons for arranging things in the current format and are less likely to change things.

Most protect their images with a watermark or copyright symbol and name, but it just seems it would be safer to prevent access unless a member.

--> shameless plug for Photo Ops 2.0 - now out. Check out Photo Ops 2.0 here.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

The registration lockout was done to preserve quality post content and reduce administrative work since some of the moderators will be out chasing. The visibility of the Target Area sections to guests is not really a problem; neither is the bandwidth required.

Tim

 

[Scott Taylor]

OK, thanks. I understood the reason behind the temprorary registration change. The other ideas I proposed was meant to be temporary during the chase season as well, just because it's a good bet that a lot of non-members use other's forecast target areas to get out there in the mix of things, only increasing the convergence at times. I realize there will always be chaser convergence, but it would be nice to minimize it where we can. The more folks that end up in the same spot = more potential issues w/LE or other chasers, such as the issues that have recently been discussed.

Thanks for the feedback. Have a nice weekend.

Scott

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Good point about "virtual chase leeches". The education aspect is sort of a moral issue, but the safety aspects are a concern. If there is enough interest in restricting the Target Area forum group we can put this up for a poll and see what the consensus is. However I think people would just go to other forums such as storm2k.org.

Tim

 

[Danny Murphy]

I think that Edward is correct, the chase reports should be left open. I just think informing the public about past events is another great thing that Stormtrack does. I understand about closing down the site to new registrants until June 30th, but don't hide the chase reports.

 

[Terry Tyler]

i just agree with the closure to new applicants during the new severe season...im sure there will be new chasers this year, and after june, 30 is a good time to bring new people into the community...not during the peak...

being a member of this community is in my opinion, the greatest acheivement i have accomplished in my chasing career...