The impact of social media on storm chasing

[Ben Holcomb]

This is an interesting observation and would make an excellent, separate topic. One reason I would never attend this specific event is because some view it as a "fan-boy" summit. It's the same people speaking every year and some of the speakers have likely done more harm to the chasing community than good.

Let me tell you, I had the same perception. I was in Hawaii last year while it was going on near my house, but I was told it was different. I attended this year and it was as good of an event as when Samaras was still alive. It's a shame the former owners of the ChaserCon name would not allow the new folks in charge to keep the name. Kind of shows where the issue was.

With that said, I also realized sitting there this year with Jon Davies that we veterans (do I finally qualify as that? I guess so) also need to step up and be part of the change we wish to see. It feels like we're in a pivotal moment again in chasing with a large influx of newer chasers. Especially next year after a big movie release this summer. Erik told us he sold about 500 tickets to the event this year. Imagine being able to put on a presentation to reach out to those new folks?

I've been considering a presentation for next year. My specialty is tech, so it will probably be related to that - Likely the topic of websites. Warren, as someone who first saw you on the weather channel back in the early 90s, it would probably be an honor for some (myself included) to see a presentation from you as well. I know Jon has also talked about doing one. Be the change you want to see

 

[Jonathan Scrogham]

This topic makes me more grateful to have Stormtrack. It’s not a bunch of people clamoring to get likes, but chasers and weather enthusiasts who are deeply passionate. I don’t have a problem with chasers using social media, I’m personally jealous of some of the chasers who can turn their hobby into a career with social media, and I think social media is great in the fact that people can chase for a living. I believe the real problem I have is with people who don’t care that much about weather and more about getting views and money from said views, encouraging others to do the same dangerous acts.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Web sites are relatively cheap these days. I’m mostly out of the web design field and into other areas of IT now, but when I set up my last client site, a basic hosting plan was less than 10 dollars a month on a lot of providers. A domain is another 12 bucks a year. Wordpress and a bunch of plugins for it (for photo galleries and such) are free.

I may start a thread on setting up web sites if any are interested.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

I think the major wake up for me was watching the hysteria over a cold that was billed as the most dangerous bug of all time.

Ben,

Given the additional context in your post after this sentence, I can only assume you are referring to COVID-19. It induced extreme blood pressure spikes leading to kidney failure in my fiancée (now wife) at age 34 after we contracted it in August 2020. She is still on dialysis and awaiting a transplant nearly four years later and it has severely upended our life plans. I also tested positive for it at the same time and it indeed was little more than a "cold" for me. However, it also put one of my friends (then 36) in a coma for over a month and nearly killed him.

I respect your body of work as a chaser but it appears we likely have strongly divergent (hopefully in the upper levels!) opinions on quite a few important issues. I had some pretty choice words for your evidently flippant attitude toward the pandemic and the mitigation measures advocated by lifelong infectious-disease experts, but I will keep them to myself. Happy chasing.

 

[Warren Faidley]

I still regret not accepting speaking invitations from Tim when he ran the conference. The problem was it always fell on a weekend when I had a once a year historical fencing competition that I could not miss. I seriously doubt anyone would want me there, given my history of calling out fakery and bad behavior in the modern chasing world. It's safe to say I'm black-balled in certain circles and I would care less. I would not accept regardless, as my schedule is filled with priority events like the National Hurricane Conference and professional photography lectures. I don't care about being relevant in the "hardcore" chasing world anymore, I'm more about photography, safety education and chasing with friends.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Given the additional context in your post after this sentence, I can only assume you are referring to COVID-19.

Yes. I don't believe we are very divergent in views though. I would like to see those responsible for that bioweapon face their victims and be brought to justice, whatever the definition of that is. Those that funded the lab are also responsible. I am sorry to hear about your wife and friend. I too know some people who succumbed as well as had vaccine side effects and had businesses and lives destroyed. All while we watched companies like walmart and amazon make huge inflows (trillions) and be allowed to remain open.

Anyway, I do not want to derail this off to that topic, since there was some really good points made about social media. This also is a really good illustration on how assumptions and an A vs B mentality can really disrupt and social media is the driver IMO. I used to notice a lot that if you ever mentioned a negative forecast aspect of a chase, you'd immediately get cast in a negative light. Forecasts are still mostly opinions I would say. I'm not a fan of southwest 850s down here in the southern plains. Does it work occasionally? 2013-05-20 would say "yes". This is part of that cancer I spoke about in my first post, and I think it's part of a much broader goal of dividing people on purpose.

Andy I don't know you, but I definitely was not trying to incite you or any others. It seemed like a good example to use since we all just experienced that time period.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Ben, agreed on that aspect of social media. there is a lot of evidence for it being used to manipulate opinions on pretty much all sides and on any and all issues, and as a consequence, affect much more real world things that impact us all. There are articles on how one person can set up a farm of 50 cheap cellphones and get anything he wants to the front page of Reddit, complete with a bevy of upvoted comments that appear at the top. An organic user doesn’t stand a chance to be heard and will be downvoted to oblivion if he posts anything to disagree. If one guy in an apartment can do that, think of what governments and corporations can do. I’ve come to realize pretty much anything that comes from a person you don’t know in real life is suspect on any social media. Storm chasing likely has some of that happening. I feel like if that somehow was more commonly known, Stormtrack would be booming overnight. One can hope.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Google search results are absolutely manipulated as well. Back in 2020 you could not find the video from Tulsi Gabbard talking about Kamala Harris during the debate. I did this one specifically. Any USA IP would not give you the video. I got on a VPN with a German IP and it was the first result on Google. This goes back to Brett's comment about 2003 Internet being much better. We are captured and most don't even know it.

 

[Jeff Wright]

I still go to YouTube in that there may be good tornado footage of a unique nature, and Weather Channel refuses to do good year-end wrap-up footage.

 

[Jamie H]

For an alternative to social media, it would be great if people joined the Discord. It would be great for something Stormtrack linked to be the place to go, especially as a compliment to the plans for live coverage mooted here. Perhaps Stormtrack of the future could feature some interlinked blog-style sections where people's updates can be archived too?

Also, it would be nice if we didn't have to veer off into Covid-conspiracy stuff. Millions died and I'm not sure that has any relevance here.

 

[gdlewen]

For an alternative to social media, it would be great if people joined the Discord. It would be great for something Stormtrack linked to be the place to go, especially as a compliment to the plans for live coverage mooted here. Perhaps Stormtrack of the future could feature some interlinked blog-style sections where people's updates can be archived too?

Also, it would be nice if we didn't have to veer off into Covid-conspiracy stuff. Millions died and I'm not sure that has any relevance here.

I agree here: Discord has its place, and as a social media platform is really not well-suited to do the things that I think ST can do well: detailed chase reports, questions for the experts, thoughtful discussions, etc. The signal-to-noise ratio on ST is pretty high* compared to your typical social media outlet, and that's why I am here.

---

* Although I am suddenly acutely aware of the fact that I might be lowering it with my posts...oh well.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Signal-to-noise historically has been a concern for forums, but in my opinion, social media's is so poor that even a marginally-moderated forum is leaps and bounds more tolerable by comparison. All of the concerns cited by people who abandoned Stormtrack and WX-CHASE years ago are present to a much greater degree and intensity on social media. I think it's the "frog in a pot of boiling water" effect that blinds many on social media to the fact that they now tolerate the same things and worse by being exclusively on those sites.

That said, I haven't seen much on this forum lately that I'd call problematic noise. I think every bit of activity helps right now, especially anything relevant to weather and chasing.

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

I think the impact of social media on chasing is what you make of it. The beauty of storm chasing is that you can go out and enjoy a storm, and social media isn't a requirement for it to be enjoyable. I've always been of the opinion that simpler is usually better, and once keeping up with everyone else becomes a chore, it takes the fun out of most activities. I'm just glade to see a return of some of the chasing veterans to this site, and I think there will be a revival here once more and more people become disillusioned with the dumpster fire that is social media.

 

[Dan Robinson]

From what I can discern, there are two primary reasons that chasers (from veterans and newcomers alike) choose to use social media over Stormtrack.

1.) Audience and reach. Even in Stormtrack's heydey in the 2000s, posting a good photo would result in it being seen by maybe 2,000 people total, mostly within the chasing community. The best-case scenario was when a major media outlet or site like Digg or Fark would link to a thread and send 50,000-80,000 visitors here. Contrast that with social media, where the audience goes well beyond the weather community, can easily reach the millions and be seen by pretty much every figure in the weather world including the NWS and local/national TV celebrities including Jim Cantore, James Spann and the like.

My thoughts: No one likes taking the time to post something, then get no views or feedback on it. Talking to yourself gets tiring very fast for most people. Unfortunately, that's become the norm here. But it's a feedback loop: many avoid ST due to the inactivity, but the inactivity comes from everyone like them avoiding it!

2.) Today's mainstream storm chasing culture is at odds with most of ST's core long-timers. I see this as Stormtrack's biggest challenge. Let's face it, the vast majority of new chasers who started after 2008 were inspired not by the likes of Hoadley, Marshall, Doswell or Bluestien. Not by the NOVA special or even Twister. No, their icon is Reed Timmer. He's their introduction into the chasing hobby. They imitate him, look up to him and want to live his adventures. Chasing since 2008 has basically been Timmer's world. The rest of us are outside of it and left behind. And most of us old timers, understandably, simply loathe everything about that, won't tolerate any of it and are openly hostile to everyone in that realm. I'm not taking sides and saying who's right or wrong. I understand (at least I think I do) where both sides are coming from. There are legitimate safety issues at play. But you can't be hostile to what's become the mainstream of storm chasing and expect any of those people to ever come here, feel welcome here and stay around - and ultimately be influenced at all. Until we figure out how those two realms can coexist in the same place here, Stormtrack will never stand a chance. That's the other strike that social media has against ST. Those two realms *do* coexist there. Why that's the case is a question above my pay grade.

One practical compromise that might be considered: I think some of the legacy rules of being heavy-handedly stringent on TA threads, while a good thing in ST's heydey, might be more harmful now in a "rebuilding' era. While flames, spam, one-word "cool", "sweet", "wow" posts and similar detritus should of course be controlled, the fact is that in the short term, most every bit of engagement and activity helps ST. Engagement is what drives social media. We rightly worry about us old timers' past stated intolerance for those things, but as I said before, we tolerate far more on social media now. How much worse could a few less-than-academic forecast posts on Stormtrack be?

Conclusion: Chasers use social media because they feel they're getting something out of it. Even if it's just a dopamine hit that blinds them to the realities of a manipulative system designed to exploit them at every turn. Stormtrack needs to offer tangible value that gives them a reason to come here. Doing this successfully without sacrificing any core values will be a challenge, as it means attracting a mainstream that is in many ways at odds with what storm chasing was for many of us when we started. Is it possible?

 

[Jamie H]

Really agree on that Dan. I only post on certain topics a to ensure I keep within the site rules. If it was relaxed a little, say being able to put up an event thread a little more loosely, might help kick off discussion?

 

[Jason N]

I like the above take from Dan. it's not wrong, it's a reality of sorts. Like Boomers Vs. Gen Z, one group will always consider the lesser experienced causing problems. There is truth to it!, cause they do. My guess is, when Boomers were kids, their grandparents were saying, "You Boomers don't know how good you have it".

So, I see ST as, sometimes to a fault, much more of an academic institution. I also see it as a place to go to get the access to more educated, longer term institutional knowledge, which I personally like. As much personal experience as I have, others, like Jeff Duda, Adlyons, who are so well indoctrinated into the deeper science that I don't know, I have access to if I ask a question. Out in the other half of the social media world, you're not "always" going to get that. So in one sense, I am glad this community is smaller.

if it's about getting more people to join ST, I might recommend that the threads are segmented into more professional with more stringent rules, and maybe there are others that are less so, like maybe create a "Weather Lounge" area where topics and threads have less stringent oversite on comments and materials, but they still all have to be weather related. Humor is important. I would also recommend that maybe ST considers its own version, through API and whatever other techniques available, to produce a live track/analysis map (the current live chasers map doesn't work and I don't know if its ST sourced or pulling from some other site), for its own community. if it looks special, is easy to use, people will want to join, and with a onetime access fee to get access to maps, live tracks, specialized maps, radars and analysis. etc. and maybe, it could turn into a ST/citizen science project kind of thing?

 

[Warren Faidley]

The majority of fans on social media enjoy the craziness and high risk. Unfortunately, they want to see a circus, along with clowns doing death defying stunts near severe weather. Just watch the live feeds during high end events and read the comments. There is hyper-excitement when a chaser's feed goes down as people speculate the chaser was killed. It's like fans watching a car race for the horrific wrecks. People totally ignore sanity in favor of a good show. No generation of chasers should accept this. Is this what we want ST to become?

Having been part of the Veteran chasing world (from 1987) and the modern chase world, I have to kindly disagree with the analogy that most people who chased storms prior to 2008 are somehow "loathing" about any specific individual or chasing philosophy. I'm sure some people do, but I have many friends and fellow chasers from the "modern" chasing world who feel the exact same way. As I said before, the lack of discontent on social media towards the idiot chasing clowns is not because people don't care now days, it's because they don't want to be mauled by the fanboy protection society. Social media allows morons from all walks of life to succeed because of this flaw and the lack of moderators.

It does not matter if you were chasing in the 1980's or today, everyone pursuing storms should do so responsibly. Respect for other drivers and chasers transcends generations. Amazingly, chasing is still conducted on PUBLIC roads, not on private, social media highways, reserved for a privileged few. It's still illegal to run stops signs, pass over double yellow lines, stopping in travel lanes, excessive speeding, failure to yield, etc. Chasers have (and will) die because some chasers think they are above the law. Just because you want to succeed on social media is no excuse.

 

[gdlewen]

if it's about getting more people to join ST, I might recommend that the threads are segmented into more professional with more stringent rules, and maybe there are others that are less so, like maybe create a "Weather Lounge" area where topics and threads have less stringent oversite on comments and materials, but they still all have to be weather related

I think we already this segmented approach on ST Discord. They have moderator-assigned roles with locked channels to prevent--I don't know how to say this without annoying someone--"the unqualified" from participating in chaser/met-student/met-professional channels.

As long as we police ourselves and abide by the rules, I really prefer the more open environment we have here on StormTrack the Forum.

(Sure, we do display our humanity and get a wee bit rowdy from time to time, but it's nothing like what's out there in the wild.)

 

[Jason N]

(Sure, we do display our humanity and get a wee bit rowdy from time to time, but it's nothing like what's out there in the wild.)

I think that's a good thing and healthy to a community that sometimes might be considered "stuffy" introverted nerds with complex's, lol . I appreciate the intelligence! .. but let's have a steak and a beer and laugh it up to. So it's good you've done that.

 

[Jonathan Scrogham]

I think we already this segmented approach on ST Discord. They have moderator-assigned roles with locked channels to prevent--I don't know how to say this without annoying someone--"the unqualified" from participating in chaser/met-student/met-professional channels.

As long as we police ourselves and abide by the rules, I really prefer the more open environment we have here on StormTrack the Forum.

(Sure, we do display our humanity and get a wee bit rowdy from time to time, but it's nothing like what's out there in the wild.)

As an “unqualified” person, I am not at all annoyed or offended in any way. I enjoy simply watching the conversations between seasoned chasers and mets and absorbing some of the information I see there to make me more knowledgeable. That’s another great thing about these forums, you don’t have a bunch of people throw a bunch of fancy terminology around without actually knowing its meaning. I try to only post in threads not involving more of the advanced sciences.

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

The last few posts here have touched on my thoughts better then I could have expressed them. As Dan, Jason and Warren so eloquently explained, there's definitely a divide between the platforms and the type of people who use them. I do think there are some things ST could do to bring over the "other" crowd, but I'm still happy with the smaller community that's here as well.

My personality is the type that likes the low key, academic vibe that the rules provide. I also think the high barrier to entry, in that some effort to learn the meteorology is required to participate in discussions without sounding stupid, shows that those participants are serious about chasing.

More traffic to the site is always going to be beneficial, but there is a balance that needs to be reached. I honestly don't think ST is too far off that balance, but again, that is my view based on my preferences. To tie this in with the original topic.... Social media has it's place in storm chasing, and it's not all bad. It gets more people interested in the activity, for better or worse. ST should be the place new aspiring chaser go to, to get serious and learn the finer points from the people who want to do it right.

 

[Jason N]

Spot on Mark

 

[Sean Ramsey]

In my humble opinion, fwiw, this is not a place to try to gain an audience or a following, or even recognition of any sort. It's a place that's available for chasers (old and new) to talk shop, in detail if they like. We all love likes and shares, but for ST it should be used for general agreement and not much more than that. For this place to grow organically again, the veterans must be willing to answer questions from the new chasers who are interested but don't know what they don't know, and as Dan mentioned above, there should be a less stringent application of the rules (especially to TA) where someone can post and not feel silly doing so. It's that feeling of admonishment that drives away the very people you want to stay. More guidance from the veterans and/or gentle correction of misinterpreted forecast or less than optimal application of known facts (can't think of a better word) would be much more effective and would help new people learn along the way. Poor quality posts (SPC says 5%, lets goooo!) as mentioned above should have the standard rules apply. I think there is enough of a veteran base to start with, the question is how willing would they (we) be to lend guidance when it's needed or necessary. To put it bluntly, be the change (or standard in this instance) you wish to see.

I wouldn't worry about attracting old chasers back, most are of a different mindset anyways. The people who come here do so for a reason, even the lurkers. It's those people ST should be wanting to capture, and encouraging them to stick around and find their place in what could be a thriving and alternative community with a vast wealth of searchable knowledge that SM can't offer. It might not be tangible, but that is the value and opportunity of this forum, place, or community if you will. If you don't care for the circus on SM, then if you're reading this you just might be in the right place, as I feel I am these days.

 

[Brett Roberts]

From what I can discern, there are two primary reasons that chasers (from veterans and newcomers alike) choose to use social media over Stormtrack.

1.) Audience and reach. Even in Stormtrack's heydey in the 2000s, posting a good photo would result in it being seen by maybe 2,000 people total, mostly within the chasing community. The best-case scenario was when a major media outlet or site like Digg or Fark would link to a thread and send 50,000-80,000 visitors here. Contrast that with social media, where the audience goes well beyond the weather community, can easily reach the millions and be seen by pretty much every figure in the weather world including the NWS and local/national TV celebrities including Jim Cantore, James Spann and the like.

My thoughts: No one likes taking the time to post something, then get no views or feedback on it. Talking to yourself gets tiring very fast for most people. Unfortunately, that's become the norm here. But it's a feedback loop: many avoid ST due to the inactivity, but the inactivity comes from everyone like them avoiding it!

2.) Today's mainstream storm chasing culture is at odds with most of ST's core long-timers. I see this as Stormtrack's biggest challenge. Let's face it, the vast majority of new chasers who started after 2008 were inspired not by the likes of Hoadley, Marshall, Doswell or Bluestien. Not by the NOVA special or even Twister. No, their icon is Reed Timmer. He's their introduction into the chasing hobby. They imitate him, look up to him and want to live his adventures. Chasing since 2008 has basically been Timmer's world. The rest of us are outside of it and left behind. And most of us old timers, understandably, simply loathe everything about that, won't tolerate any of it and are openly hostile to everyone in that realm. I'm not taking sides and saying who's right or wrong. I understand (at least I think I do) where both sides are coming from. There are legitimate safety issues at play. But you can't be hostile to what's become the mainstream of storm chasing and expect any of those people to ever come here, feel welcome here and stay around - and ultimately be influenced at all. Until we figure out how those two realms can coexist in the same place here, Stormtrack will never stand a chance. That's the other strike that social media has against ST. Those two realms *do* coexist there. Why that's the case is a question above my pay grade.

One practical compromise that might be considered: I think some of the legacy rules of being heavy-handedly stringent on TA threads, while a good thing in ST's heydey, might be more harmful now in a "rebuilding' era. While flames, spam, one-word "cool", "sweet", "wow" posts and similar detritus should of course be controlled, the fact is that in the short term, most every bit of engagement and activity helps ST. Engagement is what drives social media. We rightly worry about us old timers' past stated intolerance for those things, but as I said before, we tolerate far more on social media now. How much worse could a few less-than-academic forecast posts on Stormtrack be?

Conclusion: Chasers use social media because they feel they're getting something out of it. Even if it's just a dopamine hit that blinds them to the realities of a manipulative system designed to exploit them at every turn. Stormtrack needs to offer tangible value that gives them a reason to come here. Doing this successfully without sacrificing any core values will be a challenge, as it means attracting a mainstream that is in many ways at odds with what storm chasing was for many of us when we started. Is it possible?

What a great summary of the conundrum that high quality, long form conversation venues like ST have been stuck in as of late.

If I could add my 2c to all this great insight: my intuition and observations tell me that #1 (best conceptualized as attention addiction) is by far the dominant social ill we're dealing with, whereas #2 is perhaps primarily an issue in the minds of ST users, veteran chasers, academics, etc., and not so much something that's actively driving young chasers or SM addicts away from here.

I've always occupied a strange middle ground between the old and new school of chasing. For example, even though I myself have an academic background in meteorology, I've always found some of the more extreme sanctimony and intolerance of certain old school academic pioneers offputting and driven as much by ego as by principle. But even despite that, I've never felt at all out of place on ST or in any similar forum. My point is that I don't think chasing styles, or even academic credentials, have all that much to do with the value one can provide or receive at a place like ST. Let's take a hypothetical 22-year-old chaser with no formal education, inspired by the likes of Reed and RHY, but who is pretty serious about the hobby, understands the basics of soundings and ingredients, and does quality photo/video documentation of their chases. That chaser could easily participate in the forecast and reports threads here, and it would be a net positive for everyone involved. They would get to share their media with an audience who genuinely appreciates it, and they might also learn some new things in the forecast threads.

The reason this hypothetical chaser isn't here, I'd argue, is >95% likely because of the SM dopamine hits and desperation for virality and clout with a wider audience than ST can provide (even if ST returned to its glory days). Our attention spans, and even our underlying motivations and the shape of our engagement with various beloved activities, have been fundamentally rewired for the worse. There are plenty of chasers I greatly respect whose interest and contributions date back to well before the current SM environment... but whom have clearly been utterly consumed by its siren song. Once cerebral and generous in their engagement with the chasing community, they now A/B test all manner of 50-character unpunctuated one-liners and memes for the optimal time and weekday to squeeze out every last like, openly describe chasing "success" as tantamount to follower count, and (consciously or not) turn their SM engagement ever further away from constructive conversation and more toward hobnobbing with the handful of bigger names whose follower counts are to be worshiped and envied.

To restate this in a bleakly concise way: SM has reapportioned their motivations for chasing away from nature, learning, and organic community, and toward the simulacrum of clout and status with a generic mass audience. And ST will never provide them a mass audience.

To the extent I'm right that everything I just railed on is the core reason why forums like ST are in their present state, I simply don't know how much we can do. If I'm honest, the most I realistically hope for is that a small fraction of serious chasers whose personality types don't lend toward the SM attention-seeking doom loop (most do, it seems) can accumulate here over time. Long-form conversation venues like this confined to an organic, niche user base may forever remain at the outer fringes of cyberspace in our brave new world, but at least the chasing community has grown large enough that we only need a small rate of participation to make this place worth checking in on daily.

 

[JamesCaruso]

the vast majority of new chasers who started after 2008 were inspired not by the likes of Hoadley, Marshall, Doswell or Bluestien.

Ironic that the original pioneers Dan listed (who used to be the “veterans,” and inspired those of us who are now veterans ourselves) don’t show up here. They are the ones I think we’d like to get back on here, not the “masses” that are on SM, many of which may like looking at pictures or videos but couldn’t care less about detailed chase reports, forecasts, or the science generally. Bigger is not always better. It would be nice to grow the community, but we have to define what that community is, and not look for numbers just for their own sake, at the expense of ruining the neighborhood.

T, I might recommend that the threads are segmented into more professional with more stringent rules, and maybe there are others that are less so, like maybe create a "Weather Lounge" area where topics and threads have less stringent oversite on comments and materials, but they still all have to be weather related.

We already have that, with individual forums like Introductory Weather & Chasing and The Bears Cage, separate from Advanced Weather & Chasing.

, I see ST as, sometimes to a fault, much more of an academic institution. I also see it as a place to go to get the access to more educated, longer term institutional knowledge,

I agree. This gets back to my point above - we shouldn’t look for numbers just to say we have a bigger audience. There is nothing wrong with being a niche for the more serious, thoughtful and scientifically-minded. It’s like strategic positioning in a business - you can be the Walmart or Budweiser serving the masses, or you can be the specialty boutique retailer or craft brewer. But what frustrates me is that there are probably many chasers that fit the ST mold, yet still remain exclusively on SM, as @Brett Roberts noted. ST is the only place that has long-form, curated chasing content, so it’s ridiculous to prefer SM instead. And it irks me that the “big name” chasers think they are too good for ST. The pioneers are like parents that still think of their children as little kids even though they are now adults deserving of respect.

vast wealth of searchable knowledge that SM can't offer. It might not be tangible, but that is the value and opportunity of this forum, place, or community if you will.

I think the curation is a very tangible benefit. Can you go into SM and search a particular event, and look back at how the forecast evolved, see all the (long form) chasing reports in one place, etc.? No, that can only be done here on ST.


I follow the work (books, podcasts, newsletter - he does NOTHING on social media) of Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University who, among other things, is a thought leader on the impact of technology on society and culture. He thinks the whole concept of Twitter as a global “town hall” is ridiculous. His perspective is, why would we even need a *global* town hall? Groups should be smaller and come together around niche interests, like in the “original” days of the internet. Go narrow and deep, instead of wide and shallow.

This 2022 article about social media’s negatives from Jonathan Haidt made quite a splash when it first came out, and is seen as a seminal piece in the rising tide *against* SM: Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

I think we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing backlash against social media. We do need to increase our outreach, to maybe get some of the pioneers and veterans back, and to get some new members. But we have to also know what type of members we want, and not try to be all things to all chasers or chaser fanboys.