Author Topic: WeatherQuack.com is now Live  (Read 2272 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« on: June 01, 2017, 12:03:45 AM »
The WeatherQuack.com website I mentioned a while back ago as a replacement for the shutdown WeatherBug Community is now live. Visit http://weatherquack.com to learn more and join (for free). Right now, blogs are the main feature on the site, but I will be adding groups coming up as well and mirroring the functionality of the old WeatherBug Community.

I am definitely willing to promote WxForum.net from the site as well and put a banner to them on the WeatherQuack homepage (where you see "Special Thanks To"). If the admin team will give me a banner to post there, I'll get it added and linked up. Would love to help promote WxForum.

Thanks!
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net

Offline saratogaWX

  • Administrator
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 9257
  • Saratoga, CA, USA Weather - free PHP scripts
    • Saratoga-Weather.org
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2017, 09:41:11 AM »
We don't have a stock set of banners lurking about, but you can use this if you like .. it's 458 × 90 but can be shrunk by using the width=/height= values in the <img> link.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
Free weather PHP scripts/website templates - update notifications on Twitter saratogaWXPHP

Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2017, 04:18:53 PM »
We don't have a stock set of banners lurking about, but you can use this if you like .. it's 458 × 90 but can be shrunk by using the width=/height= values in the <img> link.

That'll work great. I'll upload this later when I'm in the page editor. Thanks for this!
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net

Offline Beaudog

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1217
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2017, 09:11:38 AM »
I really think you could/should have come up with a better name.     I know you have it associated with the word Mallard   and ducks But,   the word QUACK has some rather bad connotations.


quack2
[kwak]
Spell  Syllables
noun
1.
a fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill.
2.
a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess; a charlatan.
adjective
3.
being a quack:
a quack psychologist who complicates everyone's problems.
4.
presented falsely as having curative powers:
quack medicine.
5.
of, relating to, or befitting a quack or quackery :
quack methods.
verb (used with object)
6.
to treat in the manner of a quack.

Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2017, 04:53:52 PM »
I really think you could/should have come up with a better name.     I know you have it associated with the word Mallard   and ducks But,   the word QUACK has some rather bad connotations.


quack2
[kwak]
Spell  Syllables
noun
1.
a fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill.
2.
a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess; a charlatan.
adjective
3.
being a quack:
a quack psychologist who complicates everyone's problems.
4.
presented falsely as having curative powers:
quack medicine.
5.
of, relating to, or befitting a quack or quackery :
quack methods.
verb (used with object)
6.
to treat in the manner of a quack.

Yeah, after we announced it, I thought back on some of the other nuances of it and hope those nuances don't become an issue. :-) Our goal was since it's a community discussion site, and ducks quack when they talk, that we put weather and a duck call together and get "WeatherQuack". The good news is we also registered "WeatherMallard", so if the "WeatherQuack" brand becomes more of a hindrance, we can always pull out "WeatherMallard" and run with it for a backup.
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net

Offline WeatherHost

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3649
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2017, 04:58:10 PM »
At times in many parts of the country 'Weather --DUCK!' might be appropriate.  As in 'Incoming!!!'.


Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2017, 09:07:31 PM »
At times in many parts of the country 'Weather --DUCK!' might be appropriate.  As in 'Incoming!!!'.

I wanted WeatherDuck but I think it's taken. I remember an organization using it in the past.
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net

Offline Garth Bock

  • Table Rock Lake Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2745
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #7 on: June 04, 2017, 11:27:17 PM »
What's in a name ???? Lots.....names can make or break a product. I own 1 of 207 Harley Sportsters made with a Blockhead engine (4 plugs - 2 per cylinder). The name Blockhead wasn't well received and the engine was redesigned into the Evo engine. The name killed it.
When I saw WeatherQuack....I thought...another amateur blog that wants all weather users to join. I fail to see what benefit I would get from it. Will I be able to send my weather data to it and have it available on a universal app ? I didn't see it. Will there be tips, hints, tech info that would help me run my station better ? Didn't see that either. Are you going to be developing weather station software that is better featured that other packages out there ? Didn't see that either. Sorry but I don't see any benefits to registering on your blog. Don't mean to rain on your parade but everything I read is already being done in several forums and several other weather blogs. Your blog is focused mainly on weather over Arkansas. So I don't see anything in it for me.

Then I read about your religious mission which is intermixed with tech talk. I totally lost interest. Hopefully those that are members of your blog won't be subjected to preaching when all they want to do is be part of your weather community. Also I read up on 5g and from what I see it won't roll out until after 2020. Verizon (which I connect to) has 4g which I find to be very reliable. They are preparing 5g but all that I read is that the FCC is still debating about the standards.

I would like to suggest that you think about getting a better more business like name that doesn't end in quack if you want to be taken serious. Also you should consider separating your weather blog from the tech ministry you have. Otherwise all people will  see is just another weather blog with religious overtones.

Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2017, 12:10:21 AM »
What's in a name ???? Lots.....names can make or break a product. I own 1 of 207 Harley Sportsters made with a Blockhead engine (4 plugs - 2 per cylinder). The name Blockhead wasn't well received and the engine was redesigned into the Evo engine. The name killed it.
When I saw WeatherQuack....I thought...another amateur blog that wants all weather users to join. I fail to see what benefit I would get from it. Will I be able to send my weather data to it and have it available on a universal app ? I didn't see it. Will there be tips, hints, tech info that would help me run my station better ? Didn't see that either. Are you going to be developing weather station software that is better featured that other packages out there ? Didn't see that either. Sorry but I don't see any benefits to registering on your blog. Don't mean to rain on your parade but everything I read is already being done in several forums and several other weather blogs. Your blog is focused mainly on weather over Arkansas. So I don't see anything in it for me.

Then I read about your religious mission which is intermixed with tech talk. I totally lost interest. Hopefully those that are members of your blog won't be subjected to preaching when all they want to do is be part of your weather community. Also I read up on 5g and from what I see it won't roll out until after 2020. Verizon (which I connect to) has 4g which I find to be very reliable. They are preparing 5g but all that I read is that the FCC is still debating about the standards.

I would like to suggest that you think about getting a better more business like name that doesn't end in quack if you want to be taken serious. Also you should consider separating your weather blog from the tech ministry you have. Otherwise all people will  see is just another weather blog with religious overtones.

Thanks for your feedback.

Mainly the goal of the community is to replace the now-shutdown WeatherBug Community. I'm honestly not looking to go into major competition with other weather sites out there, and I have no business model in place to monetize the site. I'm literally donating the time and effort into it, and my cost to keep it running isn't "that" expensive, and once I get a few of the startup kinks out of it, the maintenance effort to it will be minimal on my part. I mainly did this as a courtesy to give the handful of longtime WeatherBug Community bloggers a place they can still daily blog about the weather (which they are doing), so my main goal has been met and I'm pleased with it. I will be adding a "Groups" functionality later with various weather interests, and since I've been working with Personal Weather Stations for years, I will likely be including a group on there discussing and sharing info about Personal Weather Stations.

While I am open to allowing members to link to their PWS data on the site, since I'm still handling PWS for Earth Networks at the moment, I cannot directly offer a "PWS Network" on my site. That'd be a conflict of interest with my consultant agreement with Earth Networks. If Earth Networks ever shuts down their PWS network, then I could look at the possibility of merging the technology into Mallard and integrating the network if I wanted to take it on, but it'd likely be more than I'd be wanting to tackle. In terms of weather station software, someone did have me draw up a GUI to a new free, open-source, cross-platform PWS publisher, but he's yet to connect the code to it, so if he gets around to doing it, then I could offer the download on Mallard (since I have clearance from Earth Networks on that project). I did all I could on the design portion, and it's up to the developer to decide if he wants to continue the project.

Off Topic: Originally Mallard was founded to handle filing a patent application for 5G which the company filed years ago. The "battle" (to put it mildly) with the USPTO is still ongoing, so Mallard had to adapt to offering other services (we couldn't stake the entire company on a technology that's going to take years of development). Mallard got into the IT consulting for ministry business since I have a ministry background and could offer ministries (and other nonprofits, I also have done IT work for nonprofit weather organizations) quality IT work. I really had no plans to enter the "weather" market until WeatherBug announced it was shutting down the WeatherBug Community that I oversaw. When they did, since my COO has background in weather and I worked for WeatherBug for years, we agreed to develop a replacement for the WeatherBug Community. We're launching it under a weather division of the company (WeatherMallard), so it's totally separate from the IT work I and Mallard does for ministries, etc., and the community is all volunteer work on our part since it wouldn't be wise for us to turn it into a profitable business venture, especially with me working for Earth Networks. I've also put my COO in charge of management of it so you're getting someone with more of a weather background than me overseeing day-to-day operations. Since a good deal of the bloggers are Christians, they may occasionally share Bible verses alongside their weather reports during some holidays (I even did this at WeatherBug with no objections), but I will never require someone to sit under a sermon of mine before or after joining (I'm not a pastor anyway). People can join and merely talk about the weather and nothing but the weather.

I agree we need to work on branding/naming down the road (we needed something fast just to launch), plus definitely more functionality needs to be added to make the site more appealing to people of various weather interests (already on my roadmap to do), but overall my main goal was to replace the WeatherBug Community with a place those loyal to it can keep blogging at. Anyone else who wants to come along for a swim in the duck pond is welcome to (and we'll listen to any feedback along the way to make it better), but I'm doing this venture mainly for fun. I'm not looking to compete with other major weather sites and places like WxForum (I'll still be active here plenty and encourage people to join WxForum).
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net

Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2017, 12:13:12 AM »
In terms of coverage, I've been blogging often lately about the storm situation here, but bloggers from anywhere in the world have joined and are welcome to join. I'm not restricting it to merely Arkansas. Since I'm running this as a volunteer effort, I am also open to partnering, promoting, and integrating with any weather organization who wants it.
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net

Offline parkernathan

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 539
    • WeatherTogether
Re: WeatherQuack.com is now Live
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2017, 09:08:46 PM »
I did add an about page to the site tonight as a means to better clarify some of the goals of the site, incorporating some of the questions/feedback here:

http://weatherquack.com/wp/about/
Nathan Parker

Visit my blog at http://weathertogether.net