2nd idea pool. Nathan needs ideas

[DaculaWeather]

You can tell QC that most of us are already QC'd and do fine thank you. Apparently they have no QC and therefore can't tell who's good and who isn't or they only assume those stations are better than everyone else's

[ocala]

+1 for what Daculaweather said.  When a visitor goes to Wunderground and enters a zip code for local conditions, the closest weather station should appear.  The visitor is NOT going to go to the stations list and muck around looking for a particular station.  When a visitor enters 07830 into the the local weather station search, my station comes up by default, NOT one miles away in another town.

Yeah, the Backyard Stations are there (on WeatherBug.com), but they default to our professional stations since that's a decision QC wants. I need to work on QC and see if I can persuade them to change this. Let me work on them.

Nathan it's not a case of whether you can persuade them. IT HAS TO BE DONE.
If not WB is pretty much telling all the contributors who didn't buy the package from them that your data is second rate and we don't want it.
It also flies in the face of everything you are trying to do on this forum.
It seems the old way of thinking may still be alive and well at WB.

[racenet]

Yeah, the Backyard Stations are there (on WeatherBug.com), but they default to our professional stations since that's a decision QC wants. I need to work on QC and see if I can persuade them to change this. Let me work on them.

Wow! I can not believe you said that.
 

[Sigdigit]

Honesty is refreshing actually.

[DaculaWeather]

Just confirms what I knew though. It's obvious which stations they choose to display. The rest of us that send them data on a regular basis get limited exposure compared to them.

I'm beginning to see less and less reasons to send my data to WB.

[DougW]

Yeah, the Backyard Stations are there (on WeatherBug.com), but they default to our professional stations since that's a decision QC wants. I need to work on QC and see if I can persuade them to change this. Let me work on them.

The 2 "professional" stations here in town are both air-parks. The local newspaper contacted me a couple of years ago to use my data because the "professional" stations were either off line or just dead wrong. In fact a guy I work with calibrates one of the stations and he ask me to let him know if the data looked bad. Also I found out, which probably most of you know but was news to me, is that most "official reporting stations" like these in my town are not owned by the NWS.

Doug..

[neondesert]

Just confirms what I knew though. It's obvious which stations they choose to display. The rest of us that send them data on a regular basis get limited exposure compared to them.

I'm beginning to see less and less reasons to send my data to WB.

I agree with Steve.  Although I'm sending data to WB for now, I find myself asking "Why?"  What's in it for me?
Although, I do have the dubious distinction of being the sole "backyard" weather station in the entire Las Vegas Valley at the moment. 

[Sigdigit]

I just added WB to my uploads this past week thinking I would easily see my data on WB Mobile for my phone.  Since I can't, I'm personally giving WB a month to sort this mess out.  If it's the usual BS I've seen for the past few years, I'm pulling the plug on my uploads to WB.  Nathan, I appreciate your loyalty to your employer and your enthusiasm.  But I think you could do better.  Not the first time I've seen an unappreciative and unresponsive organization sap the motivation and can-do attitude of an otherwise dedicated employee.  Leave before it's too late if things don't change, or you will end up being just like 'them'.

[wxbugnathan]

Also, when you go to backyard.weatherbug.com, the map that should come up showing the backyard stations says this feature is unavailable now.  Has been that way for the past few days I've bothered to check.

Thanks for letting me know about that. Something to do with Bing Maps changing the apps on us. Let me hunt down where they moved our app to and re-link it.

BTW, still not seeing what in the world Bing did to our map. If you happen to run across a "Bing Maps Apps" page, let me know. Seems Bing removed it on us,

[wxbugnathan]

You can tell QC that most of us are already QC'd and do fine thank you. Apparently they have no QC and therefore can't tell who's good and who isn't or they only assume those stations are better than everyone else's

+1 for what Daculaweather said.  When a visitor goes to Wunderground and enters a zip code for local conditions, the closest weather station should appear.  The visitor is NOT going to go to the stations list and muck around looking for a particular station.  When a visitor enters 07830 into the the local weather station search, my station comes up by default, NOT one miles away in another town.

Yeah, the Backyard Stations are there (on WeatherBug.com), but they default to our professional stations since that's a decision QC wants. I need to work on QC and see if I can persuade them to change this. Let me work on them.

Nathan it's not a case of whether you can persuade them. IT HAS TO BE DONE.
If not WB is pretty much telling all the contributors who didn't buy the package from them that your data is second rate and we don't want it.
It also flies in the face of everything you are trying to do on this forum.
It seems the old way of thinking may still be alive and well at WB.

Just confirms what I knew though. It's obvious which stations they choose to display. The rest of us that send them data on a regular basis get limited exposure compared to them.

I'm beginning to see less and less reasons to send my data to WB.

Just confirms what I knew though. It's obvious which stations they choose to display. The rest of us that send them data on a regular basis get limited exposure compared to them.

I'm beginning to see less and less reasons to send my data to WB.

I agree with Steve.  Although I'm sending data to WB for now, I find myself asking "Why?"  What's in it for me?
Although, I do have the dubious distinction of being the sole "backyard" weather station in the entire Las Vegas Valley at the moment. 

Way back before I got here it was more of an issue. With our brand re-structuring recently, I'm hoping it'll be easier to persuade them. Some people had this "fear" way back when that unless we owned and operated all the stations that appeared on the network, we could risk putting data into people's hands that was "inferior" to the stations we own and operate. Especially since we were selling this data to TV stations, schools, government, etc. for mission critical work, they wanted to ensure it was "top notch" quality, so the saying was "keep Backyard separate". Well, "WeatherBug" as a professional brand is no more. It has been replaced by the new "Earth Networks" brand for all our pro stuff. Pro customers no longer purchase "WeatherBug" stations, they purchase "Earth Networks" stations (same station, new name). "WeatherBug" is now the name going for all consumer apps/products. Since consumers with Backyard Stations are the ones operating the new "WeatherBug" stations when sending data to us, I don't see what the big deal is not easily tweak our system so that it defaults to one's nearest weather station, whether it's an NWS, Earth Networks, or WeatherBug Backyard Station. It makes perfect sense now with out new branding in place that we can give Backyard Stations equal treatment with our professional stations in our consumer apps. If our professional team has issues, then we can keep Backyard Stations out of our professional (Earth Networks) apps (services most of you probably don't use anyway), but since our consumer apps and websites are now separate from professional anyway brand-wise, and since consumers are contributing data to us, they should be able to easily view their data on any of our services.

Actually, that sounds pretty good.

As for the "quality" issue, there really shouldn't be an "issue" with it. Most Backyard Station owners (especially on here) are quite intelligent, purchase a good enough station and spend enough time with mounting and calibration to send us quality data (some of your stations are probably better mounted than even my own Backyard Station). Since QC has access to our Backyard database, like Wunderground, AWEKAS, etc., if we see a station really under-reporting, they can simply reach out to the owner and say correct the bad data or we disable it. When my readings are off on certain networks, I get an email that says correct it or else. So QC could have the same access to Backyard Stations and ensure our data is "quality" while still giving Backyard Stations equality on the network for consumers.

Those are my personal thoughts. Let me know what you think and if it's a plan I should submit to my teams.

[wxbugnathan]

Yeah, the Backyard Stations are there (on WeatherBug.com), but they default to our professional stations since that's a decision QC wants. I need to work on QC and see if I can persuade them to change this. Let me work on them.

Wow! I can not believe you said that.
 

Unfortunately, I did.

[wxbugnathan]

Yeah, the Backyard Stations are there (on WeatherBug.com), but they default to our professional stations since that's a decision QC wants. I need to work on QC and see if I can persuade them to change this. Let me work on them.

The 2 "professional" stations here in town are both air-parks. The local newspaper contacted me a couple of years ago to use my data because the "professional" stations were either off line or just dead wrong. In fact a guy I work with calibrates one of the stations and he ask me to let him know if the data looked bad. Also I found out, which probably most of you know but was news to me, is that most "official reporting stations" like these in my town are not owned by the NWS.

Doug..

Just saying, back before I came to work for WB, during a hard freeze once, our local school's WB station temp sensor froze. My VP's temp sensor kept ticking. THis was way before they even had a Backyard Network and I was sending data to CWOP. So Backyard Stations can be pretty dang good stations. Especially if you purchase a good station (like a VP2) and mount it correctly, it's pretty pro-grade. Lots of people rely on DAVIS. They're good.

[wxbugnathan]

I just added WB to my uploads this past week thinking I would easily see my data on WB Mobile for my phone.  Since I can't, I'm personally giving WB a month to sort this mess out.  If it's the usual BS I've seen for the past few years, I'm pulling the plug on my uploads to WB.  Nathan, I appreciate your loyalty to your employer and your enthusiasm.  But I think you could do better.  Not the first time I've seen an unappreciative and unresponsive organization sap the motivation and can-do attitude of an otherwise dedicated employee.  Leave before it's too late if things don't change, or you will end up being just like 'them'.

Yeah, I'm really sorry about the whole mobile issue. For now you can see if it's on M.WeatherBug.com, but I know that's a rather clunky way to see your Backyard Station. I can't promise it'll be fixed in a month, but I'll assure you from my end I've done all I can do. I've listened and made it crystal clear what a top priority you all want Backyard Station data.

Actually WeatherBug is not my only company. I'm a CEO of an IT Firm (Mallard Computer), as well as a CTO of a real estate firm. The main reason I've stuck with WeatherBug is not so much a job, but because I enjoy taking care of people's support issues and enjoy helping people like you. When I'm able to know that someone's problem has been solved, I feel good about it, and it's because of the people I assist is the main reason I wake up and login to the Backyard Community every day. I care about all of you, and I know many of our Backyard Community members care about me, and that's the motivation I have for continuing to do what I do.

[ocala]

As for the QC issue I think reaching out to the contributors is a risky idea. Also keep in mind the micro-climates that exist.
The micro-climates  seems to be a bigger issue in the western US in the desert and mountainous regions as opposed to the east. Just because station A is much different then station B 2 miles down the road doesn't mean one or the other is wrong.
Telling a contributor you will disable their data because you feel it is wrong you risk losing that data for ever. I don't know how your QC works but you could be walking a fine line there.  

[wxbugnathan]

As for the QC issue I think reaching out to the contributors is a risky idea. Also keep in mind the micro-climates that exist.
The micro-climates  seems to be a bigger issue in the western US in the desert and mountainous regions as opposed to the east. Just because station A is much different then station B 2 miles down the road doesn't mean one or the other is wrong.
Telling a contributor you will disable their data because you feel it is wrong you risk losing that data for ever. I don't know how your QC works but you could be walking a fine line there.  

Yeah, good points. Especially with topography, etc., micro-climates could create differences and variations. To re-phrase my point, if the temp differences between both stations were normal, we probably wouldn't say anything. Only if it was like EXTREME (such as a station showing 32F in 90F weather, but then again the station operator would probably already know that and be in the process of working on a fix). Just because Station A and Station B down the road had some variation due to the micro-climate, I don't think we'd say anything. Only of it was insanely off, which is rare.

[Sigdigit]

Glaring error example:http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KNJBUDDL1 Barometric pressure is always more than an inch below everyone else.  Check out the humidity level of 9%.  This is NJ, not the desert.  Somebody like this SHOULD be notified.

[wxbugnathan]

Well, I have some good news, good news, and more good news...

First of all on the Bing Map, we found where they moved our app too. I'll get it linked back up tonight and get that fixed.

Second of all, status update on WB7 and Backyard. Our teams are working on the issue as we speak. Should have an update shortly.

Lastly, better news about Backyard and WeatherBug.com. I chatted with my CTO about this over the morning, and he said nowadays it's not really a QC issue at all. Maybe in the past, but nowadays the "quality" issue isn't an issue at all. He knows that Backyard Stations are good, and there's no need to "convince" QC because they don't need convincing. He said it's really just a technical decision one of our web programmers made back during the last revampment on WeatherBug.com, and it's a technical decision we can change. All we need to do is simply change WeatherBug.com to default to any type station instead of our own. It's not really difficult at all.

And on top of that, more good news. One of our web techs emailed me today, and he and I are going to have a consultation about WeatherBug.com since they're wanting to re-design the site and add more features to it. All of the feedback I've gotten so far I will definitely tell him. He also wants to interview a few of our users about what YOU want to see on WeatherBug.com. So I need a few (maybe about 3-5) people with a passion to make a difference to let me know if you're interested in having a personal, one-on-one interview session with our web techs, and I'll send over your info to him and have him arrange for an interview. It's a chance to have your voice heard and let them know what you want. If anyone's interested, let me know!

[wxbugnathan]

Glaring error example:http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KNJBUDDL1 Barometric pressure is always more than an inch below everyone else.  Check out the humidity level of 9%.  This is NJ, not the desert.  Somebody like this SHOULD be notified.

Yeah, it's things like this we want to avoid, but I think if we "do it right", people like this can be reported, and everyone else with good data can have better access to their data.

[wxbugnathan]

Update on Bing Maps app. Works in IE and Firefox, but not working in Chrome or Safari. I've got some feedback to Bing on it. This is something that's not even our problem this time. It's all Bing (Microsoft)!

[Sigdigit]

Tried twice in last hour to access backyard station map via link from backyard.weatherbug.com using IE7.  Still broke.  I hate Bing anyway.  Google maps stuff seems much better.  Been submitting data to WB for almost a week now.  Totally disappointing experience.

[SkiMedicKC]

The Bing Map works fine on Chrome.  used it both yesterday and today.  You have to zoom in quite a bit before the stations begin showing up on the map (for logistics reasons, I'm sure). 

[DaculaWeather]

Imagine. Not working in their competitors browsers. Not Microsoft? 

You should partner with people that have more compatible products. In the almost 30 years I've been involved in technology, it is rare if Microsoft has a better or more compatible product than their competitors.  Their web servers still suck, designing a website that also looks good in IE is an exercise in futility sometimes, Word still never caught up with WordPerfect in terms of ease of use, everything has to be proprietary, and on and on. Now they TRY to play catch up with Google with maps.

[Sigdigit]

"We are unable to load the selected map app.  Please try again later."   I've tried for a week without success.  Again, that's using IE7.  Just tried again this morning.

[ocala]

Looks like there will be no instant gratification here.
I guess we have to take Nathan at his word that things will eventually come around.
I guess that means be patient.

[wxbugnathan]

Tried twice in last hour to access backyard station map via link from backyard.weatherbug.com using IE7.  Still broke.  I hate Bing anyway.  Google maps stuff seems much better.  Been submitting data to WB for almost a week now.  Totally disappointing experience.

Yeah, we use Google Maps and Bing Maps interchangeably. Bing Maps for some things because the data is a little higher-res than Google, but I'll see if we have a Google Maps app I can link to as well.