ST's Future Discussion

[Patrick Marsh]

Im curious, what are the traits people are looking for in a new "leader"? Tim has already stated what some of the technics skills need to be, but what else are people looking for?

This isn't a sarcastic or snark question, but rather a genuine attempt to try and assess what people are looking for.

 

[Mark Blue]

I have always wanted Jeff Snyder to be your successor Tim, but I'm just not certain he has the time anymore at this point in his career and life. His diplomacy and communication skills are top-notch and as far as a SME (Subject Matter Expert) is concerned his meteorological knowledge is absolutely second to none. The content he has put forth over the years speaks for itself and his street cred in the community is as solid as it gets. If you were to reach out to him (Tim) it would carry way more more weight than the attempts I've made. In all honesty, I believe he has grown weary of waiting for his chance at the helm, but as I said before, he could possibly be swayed with the right approach.

SMOK would also be a viable leader and he has made his intentions clear on many occasions. He understands that forums do not thrive on content alone. The bills have to be paid and the infrastructure has to be in place before anyone can post a single word or sentence to the forum. It amazes me how few people understand that a forum has to be properly monetized in order to succeed, otherwise it's all out of pocket or donations and without a money tree in the backyard an owner can quickly get into trouble. Per Steve's own comments he has a demonstrated and respectable track record with implementing weather-related projects through his past endeavors and employment. He's also been through a significant "lessons learned" exercise with CF (Chasers Forum) and if given a second chance I'm certain he would do a few things differently (applying the new found knowledge), which would improve the chances for success here on ST. My biggest concern is that he doesn't get WDT involved and this would be a personal initiative away from his employer.

My last candidate might actually be the best, as in saving the best for last! Our own Patrick Marsh is a stand up guy who is an SPC forecaster that specializes in developing new techniques for forecasting. He's known for his expertise with social media and would IMO offer us a great chance at bridging the gap between the forum as we know it and venues like FB and Twitter. The content he writes on his blog demonstrates his ability to sniff out interesting topics and present them in a manner that challenges people to think outside of the box. His Curriculum Vitae is mind blowing and leaves me with the impression that he could handle any challenge presented to him. He comes from a solid family background and has the moral character and fibre we need here on ST, now and into the future. Most importantly, he is interested in becoming the next owner of ST, which counts for a lot. Did I mention his computer and programming skills and expertise? Holy Toledo, he's like that wrestler that used to call himself the "Total Package". He really is a viable and well rounded candidate who deserves serious consideration.

 

[Skip Talbot]

In addition to being able to run vBulletin, whoever runs the site will also need to have basic Linux, FTP, SSH, and network skills, since the site simply does not run without problems on shared hosting plans. I would ask we begin a discussion on who is able and willing to take this on.

Running and maintaining the technical aspects of the site should be the responsibility of a small team of people, not an individual. There's going to be days where many of the admin team are out chasing, which will probably also be some of the busiest days of the year for the forum. Mission control is going to be an empty room while everyone is out flying around. It's usually not a problem other than the lack of housekeeping on posts, but if something breaks, then when you need the site the most, there's nobody there to fix it. The admin team doesn't even need regular or active storm chasers. Having dedicated folks with at least the minimum technical capabilities that are not regular chasers would probably be best for maintaining the forum since they'll likely be more available when needed.

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Just real quick, after thinking about it and talking with some people, I nominate SMOK for the admin spot. He has the resources, the knowledge, but more importantly he has the TIME to run this site. And I agree with Skip that keeping this place alive should be handled by a small group of people and not just one individual.

 

[Steve Miller]

Regarding the WDT concern Mark mentioned, there is no way ST would be intertwined with WDT at any point. If I were to become involved, ST would fall under WeatherOne, LLC which is a holding company solely owned by me. This is a project I would hold very closely for the sake of the community, not for profit purposes.

 

[Mark Blue]

Thanks for the reassurance Steve, it makes me feel much better. I really do wish you the best with this and if there is anything I missed please add to my narrative. I'm certain I only scratched the surface with what you've done over the last several years, so I definitely don't want to short change you.

 

[Brandon Sullivan]

SMOK would also be a viable leader and he has made his intentions clear on many occasions. He understands that forums do not thrive on content alone. The bills have to be paid and the infrastructure has to be in place before anyone can post a single word or sentence to the forum. It amazes me how few people understand that a forum has to be properly monetized in order to succeed, otherwise it's all out of pocket or donations and without a money tree in the backyard an owner can quickly get into trouble. Per Steve's own comments he has a demonstrated and respectable track record with implementing weather-related projects through his past endeavors and employment. He's also been through a significant "lessons learned" exercise with CF (Chasers Forum) and if given a second chance I'm certain he would do a few things differently (applying the new found knowledge), which would improve the chances for success here on ST. My biggest concern is that he doesn't get WDT involved and this would be a personal initiative away from his employer.

Steve has clearly shown his expertise in engaging weather content and management of such. I think he would be a fine candidate for such a position. I think he offers valuable insight into multiple aspects as to what would make this forum succeed and think it would be a pleasure to have him take over.

 

[Rob H]

I have a few questions for Steve:

1) What lessons did you learn from ChasersForum that could be applied to running StormTrack?
2) Outside of this thread, there have only been a dozen posts from you on these forums in the last 3 years. Why are you interested in leading a community that you haven't interacted with in quite some time?
3) You seem to have a handle on how you would run ST as a business, but what are your plans to address the issues of community and content that many in this thread have brought up?

 

[Steve Miller]

I have a few questions for Steve:

1) What lessons did you learn from ChasersForum that could be applied to running StormTrack?
2) Outside of this thread, there have only been a dozen posts from you on these forums in the last 3 years. Why are you interested in leading a community that you haven't interacted with in quite some time?
3) You seem to have a handle on how you would run ST as a business, but what are your plans to address the issues of community and content that many in this thread have brought up?

1) Do not try to compete with ST!
In all seriousness, the key is to not create segregation. Veterans and those new to this hobby should be able to interact and learn from each other. Special groups have been tried time and again and the result is always somebody feeling left out and may very well have contributed to the fall of several attempts at duplicating this forum. Moderation of ST has always been fair, in my opinion and with continued monitoring of content, there should be no need for segregation of groups.
CF gave me a proper understanding of what volunteer moderators / admins go through. In addition, the capabilities these forums have in both form and function with some of the modules available now.
2) My participation on ST has indeed been light over the past 3 years. I am a business operations and marketing consultant in the privatized weather industry therefore I decided my contribution of opinion on a site traveled by clients and associates should be minimal. This does not equate to a lack of monitoring threads and keeping up with things as best as possible, nor conflicts of interest in the future.
3) Content is king and is another reason competing startup forums have not worked. Content here is rich and meaningful, for the most part, and cannot exist without quality members to contribute and build upon it. I touched on segregation in #1 and want to reiterate that ST needs to remain a common community to increase the quantity and quality of content. The content available here should be capable of being easily shared outside of the site where applicable in order to draw participation back into ST.
I want to expand a bit on service of the content. Should I become the primary here, ST will be moved into the cloud for dependability and scaling purposes. This absolutely has to be a task/expense addressed by anyone considering treatment of ST as a viable weather-related content website.

Hope this helps, thanks for the questions!

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Content is king and is another reason competing startup forums have not worked. Content here is rich and meaningful, for the most part, and cannot exist without quality members to contribute and build upon it.

I definitely agree with that point, it's one reason I have never "cleaned out" any old threads from 10 years ago. All that is highly valuable for the researcher-type meteorologists, and is good for indexing on Google to get page rank.

I also saw firsthand the gutting of websites like Jump The Shark when they came under new management and they decided "out with the old, in with the new". Those sites invariably disappeared off the radar within a year.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Just to let you all know, I plan to not make any decisions on this until around the holidays. Once I transfer the website and domains over, it's irreversible, so it's not a process I want to rush through. So this would probably be a good time to continue the dialogue about Stormtrack's future and throw out questions for any candidates, like Rob H did today, to see if we're all on the same page.

Also since the process can't be changed, you all may want to consider to what extent you all prefer to keep me on board or moved out of the picture. The main issue here is that you all are pretty familiar with my own values and what I bring to Stormtrack, and that has served as a stabilizing factor for quite a long time in spite of my absence. That said, some options here are:

1. Keep me as site owner & forum administrator and add other administrators to expand the leadership and share the administrative & technical work (i.e. any administrator can work on the site, reboot it, or modify rules).

2. We designate a new forum administrator, I continue as website owner in a background capacity (I don't set rules or moderate), and have the ability to take over again in case there are problems later down the road with the new leadership that impacts the site negatively.

3. Transfer everything (website ownership and forum administration) to the new candidate wholesale.

I outlined this because #3 is basically a "brand new day" option and is the simplest option for everyone, but it will introduce a lot of unknowns. Website transfers are not reversible and there will be no turning back from the new road Stormtrack will follow. Frankly I am fine with whatever you all prefer, and I am willing to continue serving in some sort of background capacity if there is the feeling that it needs to be done for the good of the site. If not, that's totally fine with me; I will be able to focus more on my business and I will likely still participate on Stormtrack from time to time as a regular user. What's best for the site is ultimately what's important.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

1. Keep me as site owner & forum administrator and add other administrators to expand the leadership and share the administrative & technical work (i.e. any administrator can work on the site, reboot it, or modify rules).

Personally, I don't want to see you give up ownership entirely and you're no longer part of the site. Instead, what I would like to see is you remain in your current role but have a team of site administrator's that can work on the back-end of the site and forum so that it doesn't lay entirely on your shoulder.

 

[John Olexa]

Personally, I don't want to see you give up ownership entirely and you're no longer part of the site. Instead, what I would like to see is you remain in your current role but have a team of site administrator's that can work on the back-end of the site and forum so that it doesn't lay entirely on your shoulder.

I second this.
Also, As I type this maybe we could think about doing away with the 20 character minimum thing? I don't understand the point of that.

 

[Dan Robinson]

This thread is encouraging and elicits hope. However, whatever course is taken should be given a timeline. History shows that it is likely that once this thread activity tails off in a week or so, the issue is at risk of being forgotten, and any momentum we have could be lost.

 

[Mark Blue]

This thread is encouraging and elicits hope. However, whatever course is taken should be given a timeline. History shows that it is likely that once this thread activity tails off in a week or so, the issue is at risk of being forgotten, and any momentum we have could be lost.

Absolutely Dan. There is no reason why someone can't nominate their candidate(s) of choice either, as what I came up with isn't the final word on the subject by any stretch. We're on the clock though, so speak now or forever hold your peace! It seems there are those who want Tim, those in the Skip camp, and the names I mentioned, and those yet to come. This really is a major milestone we find ourselves at right now, so let's make good, productive use of our time.