Topic: IBM has turned this into a big piece of S**t!

[captgadget]

Most websites over time will make an effort to imporove their websites but not WU. Big piece of crap now days!

[ConligWX]

its been like that for years.  I left the WU scene ages ago, not worthy of my data lol and i dont have to comment everytime ( or day something goes wrong and check-in here with other members if there is an issue.

[Mabcmb]

I do NOT have a web cam but for me WU has been working A-OK for the past 7 day's . First time in a long time it has worked this good for over a couple of day's . My station is refreshing ever 10 to 15 seconds . Sure hope I don't jinks it .

[kc2kzz]

I am at the point where I am about to stop sending data to them.   

[mcrossley]

I am at the point where I am about to stop sending data to them.   

Already have!

[AlanD96]

I do NOT have a web cam but for me WU has been working A-OK for the past 7 day's . First time in a long time it has worked this good for over a couple of day's . My station is refreshing ever 10 to 15 seconds . Sure hope I don't jinks it .

Mabcmb --  You're right.  I noticed also that for the first time in a long time, my data IS updating that frequently.   I'm happy to see it.

[ConligWX]

I am at the point where I am about to stop sending data to them.   

Already have!

ditto. It just wasnt worth the hassle of chasing up all the issues. plenty of other sites just work. I have my own gold stars too lol

[galfert]

Say what you want, but WU was definitely much worse in 2018 with service outages and later in 2019 during the transition to the new UI with missing decimals and webcams not working at all, and many other issues and even recent issues like the wind vane spider that came and went a few times. It isn't perfect today as you notice rapidfire issues sometimes and Wundermap disappearing stations, but this is all minor to where it all was. This by no means is an endorsement nor a pat in the back to WU, but I just want to put it into perspective that they have accomplished a lot after they have had just about 100% turnover in employees that built the service in the first place. Imagine all the personal knowledge that they lost as employees left the company and that they had to deal with. The fact that WU is even running today given the amount of undocumented spaghetti code that was at hand was probably a huge undertaking.

Even still it is nice to see sites like PWSweather with really nice new interface and recent new services like Windy that have come to exist. But, WU is still the only free service that provides live rapidfire updates. It is nice to have these other service options, and I don't criticize those that have decided to stop uploading to WU, but there is nothing that replicates 100% of the functionality that WU has to offer (when it works).

If you want to criticize WU for not being perfect that is fine. Just realize that you should probably either be done with them and not upload to them or you should be providing constructive and supportive criticism so that the service can become better. WU employees (and IBM) need to be encouraged that WU is still worth the investment. I suppose you could decide to throw in the towel and if you think that is your form of negative encouragement that is required then that is your prerogative. Just realize that it probably isn't fair to say that the service is all crap as many improvements have been made in the last year. There was a worse period. Let's not forget that. WU has come a long way and overcome a lot given what transpired behind the scenes.

 

[waiukuweather]

I agree
(and I am the first person to send data to WU )

[ocala]

Say what you want, but WU was definitely much worse in 2018 with service outages and later in 2019 during the transition to the new UI with missing decimals and webcams not working at all, and many other issues and even recent issues like the wind vane spider that came and went a few times. It isn't perfect today as you notice rapidfire issues sometimes and Wundermap disappearing stations, but this is all minor to where it all was. This by no means is an endorsement nor a pat in the back to WU, but I just want to put it into perspective that they have accomplished a lot after they have had just about 100% turnover in employees that built the service in the first place. Imagine all the personal knowledge that they lost as employees left the company and that they had to deal with. The fact that WU is even running today given the amount of undocumented spaghetti code that was at hand was probably a huge undertaking.

Even still it is nice to see sites like PWSweather with really nice new interface and recent new services like Windy that have come to exist. But, WU is still the only free service that provides live rapidfire updates. It is nice to have these other service options, and I don't criticize those that have decided to stop uploading to WU, but there is nothing that replicates 100% of the functionality that WU has to offer (when it works).

If you want to criticize WU for not being perfect that is fine. Just realize that you should probably either be done with them and not upload to them or you should be providing constructive and supportive criticism so that the service can become better. WU employees (and IBM) need to be encouraged that WU is still worth the investment. I suppose you could decide to throw in the towel and if you think that is your form of negative encouragement that is required then that is your prerogative. Just realize that it probably isn't fair to say that the service is all crap as many improvements have been made in the last year. There was a worse period. Let's not forget that. WU has come a long way and overcome a lot given what transpired behind the scenes.

Galfert are you on their payroll or what. Their service stinks. For several years now their service has stunk. The only reason they are still around is because of name recognition.
Why you keep defending them I'll never know.

[galfert]

I'm most certainly not on their payroll. Go and read the massive now locked WU thread back when WU employees still posted. I've criticized WU a great deal and I made them honor their word (when they said that they would keep the old UI until decimals were fixed). I think the pressure I laid had a lot to do with them leaving this forum. I started off being nice and giving them the benefit of the doubt, then they went back on their word and I lost it and I encouraged others to let them have it. This was after having endured more than a year of the worst times ever and then a terrible new UI roll-out. I participated in their new UI private design feedback project months before it went live. I provided them the constructive criticism for them to get it right and they messed that roll-out big time. I'm not making any excuses for WU. I agree that their service is not perfect and that there are things to still button up. I'm just saying that there was a worse time and that they have overcome a great deal and all of it done by new employees working with zero to minimal documentation of the old systems.

To anyone new to WU it may seem like WU is just garbage. But I'm trying to put some things in reference for those that either have short term memory, or they were not around back in 2018 and 2019 or they haven't read up on what has transpired. The golden years of WU was certainly back before TWC bought them out (way before IBM). It started to go to crap before IBM came into the picture. Then it got really bad and now it is just....well less than perfect but not terrible. I'm just being honest with myself having seen what I've seen. And there is no alternative to WU live rapidfire unless you put up your own website.

 

[WSWeather]

"WU employees (and IBM) need to be encouraged that WU is still worth the investment."

Except, it isn't.  IBM has pretty much picked the carcass clean.  The rapid decline started in 2017 right before Hurricane Irma came ashore in Florida and the place has been in an uncontrolled power dive since.

[waiukuweather]

. Their service stinks.

except its not exactly a service
its a free way to get your weather data on the internet

[funsutton]

To anyone new to WU it may seem like WU is just garbage.

...And there is no alternative to WU live rapidfire unless you put up your own website.

As someone who's been in this a very short period of time, I must say that looking across the landscape WU is still one of the best sites out there, if not the best. They aren't garbage to me at all.

I've seen them when their updates are over 8 minutes behind and that sucks, especially when a big storm is rolling through. But as mentioned, their rapidfire updates are working well right now and hopefully they will continue. There just isn't another weather site that updates as quickly as they do.

Also I like their graphs and their summary data for each day. Their layout is clean and isn't busy. And I like the fact that most people in the weather station world contribute to WU, meaning I can easily compare my data to davis or other stations nearby.

I do use other sites like AWnet, especially when a storm rolls through. I like that they, when in radar mode, show the rate rate of other ambient stations. But they still only update at most every minute, just like Ecowitt and others. Which is why I'm always back to checking WU.

I know I don't have the time, knowledge or experience of many of you, so just my two cents for what it's worth.

[awsum140]

You haven't been around for the heyday of WU to know what it was like before Itty Bitty Machine so your viewpoint is too new to grasp what it has degraded into today.

[Bunty]

Are WU rapid fire updates still based on Flash?  If so that can't last much longer.

[galfert]

Are WU rapid fire updates still based on Flash?  If so that can't last much longer.

Rapidfire (we are talking about the dashboard) was never based on Flash. Some WU widgets were based on Flash and I believe that they have long since perished.

[Glenn]

Both my stations have been chugging along just fine on WU for a few months now. I haven't had any issues with the website or the app I used that pulls data from WU. The new WU app is OK and I miss the fact that station owners no longer get "premium" features for sending their data to WU. But it has been reliable for me.

[davidmc36]

Downright lost for 6 months during "Upgrade" and spotty outages for camera are the norm it seems. A couple weeks now this time so far. The tiles suck.

It's too bad because the attraction for me was the all in one data and image format plus Rapid Fire.

I keep it for a quick graph check and Rapid Fire. Live feed for camera trumps all.

[wxthomson]

Some of us have had different experiences I guess.

I may not use all the features but I've been sending my data since 2006 and haven't had any problems.

Just checked,  My data from July 1 2006 is still there.

[catdon]

Some of us have had different experiences I guess.

I may not use all the features but I've been sending my data since 2006 and haven't had any problems.

Just checked,  My data from July 1 2006 is still there.

Yeah for all its problems, it's still my go to site...some of the other sites that have had redesigns lately, have missed the boat imo. There's been an opportunity now for awhile for other sites to take over from WU, but they can't seem to do it.

[ocala]

Some of us have had different experiences I guess.

I may not use all the features but I've been sending my data since 2006 and haven't had any problems.

Just checked,  My data from July 1 2006 is still there.

Yeah for all its problems, it's still my go to site...some of the other sites that have had redesigns lately, have missed the boat imo. There's been an opportunity now for awhile for other sites to take over from WU, but they can't seem to do it.

I agree about the other sites missing the boat. The latest being PWS. Was really looking forward to it but I was pretty disappointed. In fact I stopped sending them data because I would never use it. Weathercloud the same thing. Not impressed. Weatherlink is ok and I do use it but not real wild about it.
It's all the same data but how it's presented is the key. If you could customize it to your liking then I would pay for something like that but these one size fits all just don't do it. I know, get my own website and be done with it. Did that many years ago but didn't like the upkeep.

[johnd]

I agree about the other sites missing the boat.

Trouble is that the sums just don't add up. Users' expectations of the features that a weather platform should deliver, the customisability that ocala would like and all with good modern aesthetic appeal, it all ends up becoming a significant project.

Let's say you need to employ (on an ongoing basis for continuing development, bugfixes etc) one full-time developer at $60K (with perhaps a pre-launch year to build v1) and an additional admin/support etc etc person at $40K. Then add in $50K pa to run the platform.

So you'd need 2000 paying subscribers each willing to pay $50pa, plus hopefully make another $50K pa on selling the data (if there's still a market for that) and a limited amount of advertising.

Very probably those cost figures are underestimates (and anyone putting up some capital for initial financing would expect a return). Plus it's not a good business model or for resilience to have everything dependent on a single developer.

I can see why no-one is prepared to take the business gamble!

[DoctorKnow]

I am observing the dashboard working better than it has since they created the new version. The map seems to be updating almost instantly now when you move it around. I am not seeing any lagging in the update times either like what we saw just a week ago or so.

[bvstation]

How come their app now wants me to sub to something when I thought being logged into it and providing data to a station allowed me to bypass ads since I was helping?
Is there no login now for the app to do this?