Author Topic: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation  (Read 26427 times)

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Offline saratogaWX

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As Accuweather.com forums have published that they are intending to cease operation, we are pleased to offer a 'clean, well lighted place for discussions' so our fellow weather enthusiasts can continue discussions on weather topics.

So, a hearty welcome to you, Accuweather 'refugees' :)

The Accuweather Current Weather - United States was organized as one forum/board with several sub-forums as shown in the image below.  We have a slightly different set of boards to use for your topics located under the "General Weather/Earth Sciences Topics" area.

For specific storms (like posts in the accuweather main US forum, I suggest you use the Weather Conditions Discussion or Severe Weather discussion boards for posts.   The Tropical Weather and Long-Range U.S. Forecasts boards here match the usage on Accuweather boards.

We have a separate Posting Games section for games (on which post counts for members do not increment).

The Weather Conditions Discussions area is the place to put Personal Weather Discussions.

Non-weather related stuff should go in Chit Chat and non-weather related technical discussions in Tech Corner

Be aware that posting counts do not increment on topics in Posting Games or Chit Chat boards, and posting counts are not indicative of expertise/quality -- only of number of postings.

The forum rules are very simple:
Quote
You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.
(that is in the registration agreement)





 
« Last Edit: July 19, 2018, 12:10:20 PM by saratogaWX »
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Offline KnightRavenseye

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2018, 12:45:50 PM »
Thank you for the orientation Ken!


I appreciate the addition of the Long Range boards!



-Mike

Offline Bruiser

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2018, 12:52:24 PM »
The Accuweather forum peeps are good people.  I have been a member there (As Robb) since 2004.  I have been a member here since 06, just as not voracious in my posts :)

Thanks for the work put into this forum.

Regards,

Rob

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2018, 04:28:11 PM »
A slight addendum to my orientation posting regarding forum registration:

Yes, we have TWO separate captcha instances (Google reCaptcha and a noCaptcha) to prevent spambots from autoregistration and flooding the forum with bogus postings.  Since we did that, very few miscreants have made it through the gauntlet to annoy the members.  We recommend using gmail or hotmail addresses .. due to the shared mail gateway used by our hoster, we sometimes end up on spam blacklists so comcast, sbcglobal, att, rr addresses may bounce the validation email (and so you can never complete the registration/activation process).

But.. the noCaptcha image rotation captcha has a couple of downsides:
1) it doesn't work well on iOS/Safari (can't move the controls easily) and
2) doesn't support folks with diminished visual acuity.  For that, send me a note (use the contact form at Saratoga-weather.org ) and I'll help with registration.

New registrations with the forum results in an email sent to your registered email address -- in that email, is a link for you to click and thereby validate the email address and activate your registration.  Be aware that sometimes that email "Welcome to WXforum.net" may get stuffed in your Junk/Spam folder, so look there additionally.  The email is sent immediately at the conclusion of the registration process on the forum.  At present, there is no other admin approval needed for new registrations, only self-validation of your email.

Best regards,
Ken
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2018, 05:06:50 PM »
We recommend using gmail or hotmail addresses ..


Best regards,
Ken

Not to steal your thunder, but I would never recommend G anything.  I use G products only very sparingly and only in cases where there is no option.




Offline saratogaWX

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2018, 12:55:28 PM »
I only recommend them because we've never received an email bounce message from them (even when the others have our email egress server IP on the 'naughty' list).   It is a pain to have to share email egress with other sites bent on spam activity, but such is the case with shared server hosters.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
Davis VP1+ FARS, Blitzortung RED, GRLevel3, WD, WL, VWS, Cumulus, Meteobridge
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Offline Snowman11

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2018, 09:25:19 AM »
Hey everyone

Glad to be part of this forum

Offline geeter1

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2018, 10:02:03 AM »
Hoping to see everyone from the old forum over here 8-)
Always thinking snow

Offline Blizz

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2018, 09:05:48 PM »
Thanks for providing a welcoming place for us. Hopefully it works out... really disheartening situation.

Offline bunnyohare1

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2018, 10:02:23 PM »
Another Acuweather "refugee" posting just to say hi and let my fellow "refugee's know I am now a member of this site.  :)

Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2018, 07:10:55 PM »
I just put this one in service too.  Aim is to be a companion to this site that might fill in some of the gaps the newcomers feel might be a problem.  I've read some thoughts over there that they might want to start fresh.

It's nearly blank right now, sort of a work in progress.  Also a learning tool for me.

http://community.central-us.net/Forum/index.php

Signed up on AccuWeather too, but haven't been approved to post yet to add the link there.





Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2018, 09:46:06 PM »
'Newest Member" over there shows ...  Joined: 22-May 18

I see several under 'Validating' that have dates back to July 15th.

Have they stopped adding members?

Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2018, 08:26:49 AM »
Sent an inquiry, got this back:

"Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
AccuWeather.com Forums (weathermatrix@accuweather.com)
The email address you entered couldn't be found. Please check the recipient's email address and try to resend the message. If the problem continues, please contact your email admin."


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2018, 12:25:13 PM »
Also sent a couple of message through the Contact Us link on their main site.  No response.

Is AW as a whole shutting down?


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #14 on: August 05, 2018, 10:40:33 AM »
Seems like they didn't like any of our ideas and have gone off on their own.


Offline WeatherHost

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #15 on: August 05, 2018, 04:15:33 PM »
They've actually scarfed the domain name from here and added an 's' to the end.  But it doesn't appear that anyone is reading this thread anymore, including the Admins, so ....


Offline saratogaWX

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #16 on: August 05, 2018, 04:51:41 PM »
Not quite right.. I've been closely following the threads on the Accuweather.com forums (I've been a member there since 2008 when they rolled the WeatherMatrix membership to it as Jessie Farrell joined the dark-side of commercial weather).

Yes, they've picked a very similar name wxforums.com like our long time wxforum.net (and weatherforum.org) but it doesn't bother me.  They're building a honking-big dedicated server with terabytes to spare for lots of graphics for their interest in near-realtime weather commentary.   S'Ok by me.. I'd offered them a place on our forum (and they are still welcome to use it) -- their membership seems much more interested in having a dedicated site that uses the same forum software (not SMF) and plugins to make their experience as close as possible to the existing (soon to be discontinued) Accuweather forums.

Also, their membership is more interested in current weather, forecasting (with lots of images posted) and multi-moderators to keep it organized and much less interest in our popular topics of weather station hardware, software, personal weather websites.
I think they'll have a more enjoyable time on their own server setup  with it's familiar software and forum organization.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Offline Middle of Nowhere Guy

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #17 on: August 05, 2018, 11:22:19 PM »
I thought the name is subject to change.  If I recall the creator just grabbed something to get it up and running.  I could be waaaaaayyyy off base though.

It would be nice for it to be a bit different just for simplicity and less confusion. 

I am an AW refugee, but I have found much here that interests me.  I also have an interest in what is discussed on the AW forums as I'm always trying to learn.  I plan on frequenting both, depending on what interests me in the moment!  I purchased a PWS not long ago and am now just diving into that a little deeper, so there's plenty here to keep me interested.




Offline WeatherMonger

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #18 on: August 06, 2018, 03:44:45 PM »
Seems like they didn't like any of our ideas and have gone off on their own.

I think what happened was several things.

The announcement of Accuweather forum's imminent demise took everyone by surprise, except for a select few sworn to secrecy. A few of the all seasons posters on there started panicking, for obvious reasons, and started looking for an alternative forum choice. A few quick boards were implemented by a few willing to give it a go and others posted links to established forums such as this one.

This forum looked to have a lot of content similar to accuwx and people started signing up. I PM'ed saratogawx when a lot of people started posting they had signed up, first I wanted to make sure such an influx of users was welcomed, as while similar a lot of the members there wanted the same set up and some even wanted to transfer a lot of the content already posted. Secondly I wanted to be sure that this board could handle some of the load accuwx takes on during big weather events. The server there has crashed several times, especially when related to the Northeast/Mid Atlantic areas, it's not uncommon for their to be 32 pages on a thread and the storm is still 3-5 days away.

There's two main forums I know of being developed. One is the one you mentioned after this post with a reserved domain name very similar to this one. I as well was not keen on the name being so close to this one, especially after a lot of us had already signed up and posted here. There was a request for users to submit choices for a permanent domain name.

The other forum is being built by a couple other accuwx members, but have not seen an update on that one in a little while.

When it was announced, 6 months did not seem like much time to find a new place that would both welcome and accomodate the members from there, but Ken quickly  put that to rest by stating his willingness to make it work here, as well as many of this forums established members did.

There was a lot of uncertainty at that point not having an actual closing date. The more people that announced they signed up here, the more people went ahead and signed up too.

It took awhile before the members with the brainpower, sources and financial means to create something caught wind of the forums closing.

Regardless of where we all end up, there won't ever be another accuweather and i wouldn't want any other established forum taken over and made as such.

As with anything, change is hard to accept, and whether it be this forum or a new forum there's going to be changes that some don't like and those members go elsewhere.

I still come by here often, the current weather sections are not as active as I am accustomed to but, in that same breathe the accuweather forums are not nearly as active as they normally are either.

This got a lot longer than anticipated. In the end I don't think 80% of us know where we will end up. A few of us have already signed up to 3 or 4 sites just because they were mentioned. A lot of members signed up where everyone else was and then the brainpowers showed up and offered to make a new forum using an accuweather mold.

We were pretty much banded together over there by regions, NE/MA had by far the most members and other regions slowly waned off and headed to AmericanWX.

Now that the initial excitement has dwindled a bit it' more of a wait until accuweather shuts down and see what else pops up between then and now and what have you.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2018, 03:50:00 PM by WeatherMonger »

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #19 on: August 06, 2018, 04:47:47 PM »
Thanks for the update and good clarification about what is happening over at the accuweather.com forums.

Migrating from a forum to another for whatever reason is always a big change for the membership.  We've been there--done that when our original forum (weatherforum.net) died in 2006 and we migrants founded this one.  Later in 2008 the ambient weather forum was shut down, and many members there found a home here.

Personally, I think that the PlanetMaster efforts to create a dedicated accuweather-like forum is likely the best bet for existing accuweather.com forum members as it is trying to replicate the existing look/feel on a hosting that is not commercially sponsored, so should not be influenced by the vagaries of corporate sponsorship.

Y'all are welcome to post here too if that suits your needs.   
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Offline Solstice

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #20 on: August 07, 2018, 07:20:39 PM »
Hi all, just wanted to post an update. The name will likely be changed to wxdisco.com, if current poll results hold. Hopefully this should keep a good distinction between the websites.

Link to Poll Thread
https://wxforums.com/forums/topic/12-site-name-domain/

Offline GreenHills

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #21 on: October 02, 2018, 02:28:54 PM »
Hi all, just wanted to post an update. The name will likely be changed to wxdisco.com, if current poll results hold. Hopefully this should keep a good distinction between the websites.

There's a 301 redirect from wxforums.com to wxdisco.com now.

Offline ncinthenext3

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #22 on: November 21, 2018, 10:34:12 AM »
Nice to see Robb above and WeatherMonger from the old Accuweather forums!  Since Winter storms was when I would be on the Accuweather forums the most, I had no idea they were shutting the forums down until I went to take a peek in.  I think I was in there since 2004 or so.  Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing some old 'faces' and tracking the big ones again this Winter.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2018, 10:44:09 AM by ncinthenext3 »

Offline saratogaWX

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #23 on: November 21, 2018, 12:26:38 PM »
I think that the members from Accuweather forums are now mostly hanging out (and posting a lot) on the new forum they created at https://wxdisco.com/ . While all are still welcome here, the bulk of the conversations you were seeing on Accuweather are now taking place there.
Ken True/Saratoga, CA, USA main site: saratoga-weather.org
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Offline ncinthenext3

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Re: New members from Accuweather forums .. a bit of orientation
« Reply #24 on: November 21, 2018, 12:43:27 PM »
I appreciate the heads up.  Learned a lot here already though!......