Topic: Change station name

[falkunmalti]

Hi

I have a WMR200 weather station on weatherunderground.  When I set up my account in WU years ago, I used the name of the area I live in (Cherry Valley) as my station name.  I would like to change it to something more unique that identifies my station so I thought of changing the name to my street name.  However I cannot figure out how to do it or if it is indeed possible.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[awsum140]

Under the current conditions of WU, there is no way to do this.  Just be glad your station still has a name other than the town it's in.  There are several threads discussing this problem, http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=36803.0

[falkunmalti]

Thanks for this.  It's comforting in a way to know I'm not the only one with this issue!!  Hopefully WU will find a way of fixing this.  Actually I have noticed some improvements in the interface over the months.  Some other annoyances seem to have gone away.

[farcus]

you can actually log into your device on WU and change the name to whatever you like. However, it won't display this name until (if and when) WU fix the issues with stations displaying their given name rather than neighbourhood.

[falkunmalti]

That's what I did and was surprised when the name did not change on the main page.

[WSWeather]

I ran across this on the WU API Community site.  Evidently IBM thinks we're all children who can't be trusted to name our PWS to their liking...

Victoria Gardner, Official Rep

    566 Posts 81 Reply Likes

I had someone yell at me today because they didn't like the name that had been assigned.  There really isn't anything terribly nefarious about it -- there just aren't enough man hours for someone to make sure the names are appropriate all around the world (which of course implies knowing every single language and spelling system all around the world) for all the PWSs, so that we don't end up with screwy names like "XX Street -- Please send help!" or "Dog". I don't think anyone at IBM wants anyone to be a Borg, but we probably all would like to see some level of professionalism and consistency with the names.

As I have said before, they hope to be able to bring back self-naming in the future.  But for right now, this is the system that is in place.

--Victoria

[galfert]

First they took away Station Status because some people were abusing it and putting in some not so nice statements in there. Remember that feature? Well since they took Station Status away what do you think those people did? Exactly, they then used the station name to accomplish the same nefarious purpose. So now they take away station name. What do you think will happen next? I predict the Disqus section will be gone next.

I think there is more to this. I'm reading between the lines an I think WU employees are very disgruntled. I think IBM has the squeeze on WU. I think WU would like to do more but they aren't getting the resources they need. I think WU is deliberately sabotaging the platform to get IBM to provide better resources and perhaps even pay raises. I think there are most definitely internal struggles that we are not hearing about.

Are there any ex-WU employees who are willing to talk?

I wish that WU gets bought out again by some company that sees the value and merit in WU existing how we all envision it to be. Either that or I think at this point there are enough holes and kinks that some competitor may come about and provide a better platform. I know PWSweather is working on an overhaul. This would be good timing to release their new site and impress us all.

[galfert]

There are several simple solutions to abuse of Station Status and Station Name. It does not require a dedicated policing staff. One method is called a reporting system where users submit reports of abuse. Another method is you let the community police itself. You can even automate it like Nextdoor does where if 4 Leads vote to remove a post it is deleted everywhere.

Lke I said there is some internal struggles occurring. Nothing else makes sense.