The future of Target Area (NOTE: posts copied from ST's Future thread)

[Skip Talbot]

NOW threads didn't go anywhere. The MISC threads are supposed to include the NOW posts, but that concept didn't seem to latch on. The changes in Target Area structure and rules were hard to keep track of and turned a lot of people off I think. It's probably worth reverting back to an original format, or would that be another change that people have to learn?

I agree on using real names. I think that was an executive decision to drive traffic to the forum, but the members were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the real name policy. If we do go back to it, we'll probably have to let those with nicknames keep them to be fair. Demanding them to change or be booted is the heavy handed moderation that I think would stifle participation. As long as they are productive posters, it shouldn't be an issue to keep those with nicknames around.

$20/year per member is way too much. The site could easily run on $1/year from each active member and there'd probably be some left over for some sort of Stormtrack project, meeting, upgrade, or sponsorship. In its current form, the site could run for $0/year per member if somebody hosts it on their own site.

 

[Rob H]

NOW threads didn't go anywhere. The MISC threads are supposed to include the NOW posts, but that concept didn't seem to latch on. The changes in Target Area structure and rules were hard to keep track of and turned a lot of people off I think. It's probably worth reverting back to an original format, or would that be another change that people have to learn?

I've been here posting for 5 years, and lurking for 8, and I have no idea how to post in the Target Area now. It's not complicated, but I haven't bothered to figure it out when I can just quickly post on Facebook and be done with it - no hand slapping. I'd be all in favor of a simple "one day, one thread" rule. If you chased you talk about it in there, if you didn't chase, you ask questions in there. Everyone interested in that day reads just one thread and doesn't have to think about whether to start a MISC thread or whatever.

[Non-Target Area issues edited out of this copy; the other copy still stands in the other thread. -Tim]

 

[Rob H]

I'd love to hear where this is coming from[...] but I resent being lumped in with the people you think you're talking about.

I'm including myself as 'science-minded', so don't take it negatively

(It's actually one of the reasons I dropped out of my CS program and went to business school. I already thought like a CS nerd, but I couldn't think like a business-minded person.)

Obviously we can't have complete chaos, but there are some elements of this site that have perhaps been over-analyzed, like Target Area. I'm not saying the current moderation is tyrannical or even bad, but the key takeaway here is that rules don't automatically make more content or bring more users. Everyone in this thread has a vision for the way these forums should work, but the reality is that none of us have it nailed down 100%. We would ideally take some of the more popular ideas that aren't restrictive in nature and let the community shape the rest. Right now the Target Area is a cold, dead husk of a creature. Is anyone surprised that this is also the sub with the most rigid structure and the most rules?

So yeah, don't get bent out of shape about it. All I was saying is that as a group of science-minded people, we might have a tendency to over-think and over-structure things to our own detriment. Specifically in regards to this forum. If this applies to any of you individually for something in your personal life, I'm not talking about that, and you'll have to work that out on your own

edit: sprinkled smiley faces all over so people would hopefully see I'm not just crapping all over any group or individual

 

[Adam Lucio]

I try to pop in and participate as much as I can. For me personally its a good chunk of the threads are always technology related these days, and thats one area I couldnt give 2 turds about. Whats the best data plan and how can I not get arrested flying my drone and what signal amp do I need to call my grandma from a ditch in the badlands. Bah.

I still like to post in forecast threads, DISC and REPORT threads. I think the over moderation got on a lot of peoples nerves. I know I got some really lame infractions back in the day. I understand there is a standard of quality that needs to be maintained, but damn, it was ridiculous a few years ago. We need some fun B&G topics again, especially in the off season.

I would like to see it stay, but at the same time if it went away it really wouldnt effect me. I am always willing to participate in a good thread.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

The future of Target Area

I wanted to separate out some of the comments in the "Future of Stormtrack" thread and place them here (which I will do shortly), since Target Area is kind of its own thing, and open a dialogue on what we need to do to improve Target Area. Sorry, the posts appear above mine since there's no way to re-arrange post order with messing around in SQL.

Also one issue has been the trend against publicly posting chase forecasts and plans, so how do we handle this? Do we restrict the board again? Limit access somehow? Speaking as webmaster I will point out that placing as much data as we can into public view is good for traffic, since it gets indexed by search engines and brings people here, so the more we close up the forums, the less indexed content we will have that will bring visitors. One stopgap solution we've used is showing only post titles and not the text.

I did see the above messages on structuring nowcasts and other posts, and I'll give those some thought. I'm up for doing anything that makes more sense and fixes the ongoing problems.

I'll answer back in the next couple of days once we have some discussion going, then we can begin making changes.

Tim

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Rob H said: I'd be all in favor of a simple "one day, one thread" rule. If you chased you talk about it in there, if you didn't chase, you ask questions in there. Everyone interested in that day reads just one thread and doesn't have to think about whether to start a MISC thread or whatever.

I am thinking this, too, especially since traffic is slow right now and there's no harm. If things get difficult to read then we can bring in more rules again.

 

[Jeremy Perez]

Tim, thanks for compiling discussion about the Target area. Copying over a couple thoughts I had posted in the ST Future thread:

A thought I've had—more of a tactical consideration—has to do with interaction in the Target Area. Current guidelines make it necessary for first-person reports to be kept separate (in the REPORTS thread) from any discussion (in a MISC thread).

When the site was more active, this helped keep things clean. At the current level of activity, it seems like the cure is worse than the original problem. It appears to discourage interaction about events—especially small ones. There's not even a 'Like' option to throw some easy feedback at individuals who have posted useful/interesting content. Although it shouldn't be a huge effort to create a new MISC thread to drop in some comments, it just seems like there is a natural resistance to that. At least I've noticed myself that if I wanted to comment on an interesting feature someone captured in an image, I weighed whether it was worth adding a MISC thread detached from the original report...and always seem to opt against it (probably more an indictment of my forum habits than anything else :/ ). So for those smaller events, you might just have a single report and almost zero likelihood of even basic discussion. Makes the big empty room seem even emptier.

Perhaps this guidance could be eased while the forum is running so light, where commentary related to the event—even though not first-person—could be allowed in the report thread.

I particularly appreciate your quote and response to Rob H's comment above.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. In addition to what I posted in the other thread, I will be streamlining and simplifying the Target Area rules this weekend, and most likely this will involve implementing a single-category system without much moderation. As we head into spring we might amend the rules to provide a separate forecast thread to help better serve the needs of chasers out in the field on mobile devices, but this will probably be after seeing how the single-category system is doing.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

Slightly OT here, but can we get rid of the "This forum requires a 3O second wait between searches" feature?

 

[Skip Talbot]

Slightly OT here, but can we get rid of the "This forum requires a 3O second wait between searches" feature?

The forum is migrating to brand new software where this won't be an issue.

You can always bypass this 30 second wait by using Google to search Stormtrack instead of the forum's built in search. Just start your search string off with site:stormtrack.org and search results are limited to that domain.