Topic: Gold Star monitoring service

[nincehelser]

For those worried about such things...

https://www.wugoldstar.org/

Gold Star Alerts

What is this?
If you have a weather station on Weather Underground, we will notify you via E-Mail when your station(s) gain or lose their gold star status.
We also keep historical gold star status data about your station(s) so you can reference past gains or losses.

What is a Weather Underground Gold Star?
The Gold Star is Weather Underground's way of saying your station is passing their arbitary quality checks.
You can read more about it here

Can I monitor stations other than mine?
Sure, you can receive notifications for any station on Weather Underground.

What does it cost?
Nothing!

I'm providing this as a service because it was requested by a few people.
Donations for my time and hosting costs are appreciated, though!


© 2019 wugoldstar.org • support@wugoldstar.org
This service is not affiliated with IBM, The Weather Channel, or Weather Underground

[Mabcmb]

Seems weird that they have this at the bottom of the page " This service is not affiliated with IBM, The Weather Channel, or Weather Underground " ??

For those worried about such things...

https://www.wugoldstar.org/

Gold Star Alerts

What is this?
If you have a weather station on Weather Underground, we will notify you via E-Mail when your station(s) gain or lose their gold star status.
We also keep historical gold star status data about your station(s) so you can reference past gains or losses.

What is a Weather Underground Gold Star?
The Gold Star is Weather Underground's way of saying your station is passing their arbitary quality checks.
You can read more about it here

Can I monitor stations other than mine?
Sure, you can receive notifications for any station on Weather Underground.

What does it cost?
Nothing!

I'm providing this as a service because it was requested by a few people.
Donations for my time and hosting costs are appreciated, though!


© 2019 wugoldstar.org • support@wugoldstar.org
This service is not affiliated with IBM, The Weather Channel, or Weather Underground

[galfert]

Seems weird that they have this at the bottom of the page " This service is not affiliated with IBM, The Weather Channel, or Weather Underground " ??

Why is that weird? The website was created by some enterprising individual and they are telling you that they are not affiliated with WU nor IBM.

[galfert]

Very nice website. Probably took some time to create. But this makes no sense. The WU golden star is meaningless. Stations that are offline and not reporting still have gold stars. I lose my gold star for no apparent reason and so does everyone else. Nothing wrong with my station when I lose my gold star.  I'm not shooting the messenger, because I know the messenger OP knows. I'm just venting and letting anyone less informed know that this service as nice as it seems is probably less than useful at this time until WU decides to actually make something of the gold star initiative.

[CW2274]

The Gold Star is Weather Underground's way of saying your station is passing their arbitary quality checks.

Yours truly,

P.T. Barnum

[Notsorusty]

I do not recall any explanation from WU regarding their reasoning controlling the issuance or removal of Gold Stars other than the same statement posted on their web site that hasn't changed in years. They either are monitoring sites or there is something else that is randomly removing and restoring Gold Stars. Until WU makes the appropriate adjustments to the site and documents it then the appearance of Gold Stars is meaningless. You got one or you don't, it really doesn't mean anything.

I am seeing some slight improvements to the site and they must be working on it but I am sure the Gold Stars are listed somewhere in the volumes of issues that still need to be addressed.

By the way, I do have a bridge for sale if anyone is interested.

[CW2274]

I do not recall any explanation from WU regarding their reasoning controlling the issuance or removal of Gold Stars other than the same statement posted on their web site that hasn't changed in years.

It doesn't matter. The GS was an absolute farce then....just as it is now. To think that WU can even remotely monitor the status of 300,000+ PWS's and others and determine if data is bogus or not is a pipe dream. Why oh why people hang their hats on this...I'll never understand, WU can't even do the simplest things right, let alone something of this incredible complexity and magnitude.
Not saying you are, but hat hangers, enjoy your worthless GS.

[miraculon]

Thanks for the link. This will help with my Goldstar Loss Anxiety Syndrome (GLAS).

I will monitor it regularly to make sure I still have my Gold Star.

 

Greg H.

p.s. I really did sign up just for yucks...

[awsum140]

Somehow, this seems like a pilot light to monitor another pilot light.  The "gold star" isn't even a participation trophy anymore and seems to be posted arbitrarily, capriciously and at the whim of some software code or the mood some "administrator" is in.  Saying it's based on data reliability is, indeed, GIGO.

[Platokidd]

Late to the party here...

Signed up for the gold star thing..  Lost my last gold star when I shut my ws-2000 down for cleaning.

Now, does it tell you why you lost your gold star??

[Michael M]

Hello
Yes you can check your data with your WU API
Log in to your account and go to devices
You will see three tabs on top of window
Last one is your API
Get your API
In the API you will see Qcstaus and it will have a #1 behind it
-1 is the time is off on your weather station
0 means no wind data from your weather station
You want it to be a 1 means all the data is correct

Here is an example of the API

https://api.weather.com/v2/pws/observations/current?stationId=Station ID HERE&format=json&units=e&apiKey=API GOES HERE

Hope this helps

[rormeister]

You want it to be a 1 means all the data is correct

using the little API URL I checked mine. I’m guessing WU is still (since 2017) FUBAR, as my result string is indeed “qcStatus:”1.

But alas my hopes are brightening, as Ambient has been purchased by Neilson-Kellerman and perhaps the new owners will add more features to the Ambient weather pages.

[Michael M]

ok
so looking at your API is there any sensor data that shows null?

[Platokidd]

Interesting, today is the first time I noticed this api key usage. Still have my gold star for now .............


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[rormeister]

ok
so looking at your API is there any sensor data that shows null?

Only null value reported is "realtimeFrequency":null, but I doubt I have any control over that.

[c_kyr]

For those worried about such things...

https://www.wugoldstar.org/

Gold Star Alerts

What is this?
If you have a weather station on Weather Underground, we will notify you via E-Mail when your station(s) gain or lose their gold star status.
We also keep historical gold star status data about your station(s) so you can reference past gains or losses.

What is a Weather Underground Gold Star?
The Gold Star is Weather Underground's way of saying your station is passing their arbitary quality checks.
You can read more about it here

Can I monitor stations other than mine?
Sure, you can receive notifications for any station on Weather Underground.

What does it cost?
Nothing!

I'm providing this as a service because it was requested by a few people.
Donations for my time and hosting costs are appreciated, though!


© 2019 wugoldstar.org • support@wugoldstar.org
This service is not affiliated with IBM, The Weather Channel, or Weather Underground

I know this is an old topic, but the https://www.wugoldstar.org/ website doesn't work anymore. Does anybody know if it is has been moved? Are there any alternatives? Thank you

[SteveFitz1]

Looks like the domain name has expired and is available for anyone who wants it.

[c_kyr]

Looks like the domain name has expired and is available for anyone who wants it.

Thanks. Are you aware of a similar service?

[Jasiu / JJ]

Maybe gold stars have been replaced by blue check marks? Only $8 a month. /sarcasm

[chief-david]

Maybe gold stars have been replaced by blue check marks? Only $8 a month. /sarcasm

The craziness of that is beyond understanding. Real world problems.

I quit sending to WU a long time ago.

[havtrail]

Some background: The gold stars on WU seemed to be issued and withdrawn randomly, and people who have been on this forum for a long time realized that the stars had no real value. WU has been in decline for several years now, and many people here (who have alternatives) have simply dropped WU or discontinued sending their data to it for "free" since any reciprocal benefit coming back their way has been greatly reduced.

Rich K.

[Jim_S]

Thanks. Are you aware of a similar service?

This hasn't worked in a while and I'm not aware of a similar service. I was curious about what the original site looked like and tried the wayback machine. Unfortunately this is all I could find. https://web.archive.org/web/20200809174916/https://www.wugoldstar.org/

While I agree that the gold stars are mostly a joke and WU isn't what it used to be, I still send data. I costs me nothing and I enjoy checking my local weather when I'm away. As an Acurite owner (another company that isn't what is used to be) WU is the only place I can easily see my station's data online.

[c_kyr]

Thanks. Are you aware of a similar service?

This hasn't worked in a while and I'm not aware of a similar service. I was curious about what the original site looked like and tried the wayback machine. Unfortunately this is all I could find. https://web.archive.org/web/20200809174916/https://www.wugoldstar.org/

While I agree that the gold stars are mostly a joke and WU isn't what it used to be, I still send data. I costs me nothing and I enjoy checking my local weather when I'm away. As an Acurite owner (another company that isn't what is used to be) WU is the only place I can easily see my station's data online.

Thanks. I am mostly curious to get a "QC" of my data, but based on the responses the gold star is not the way to go. As described above, you can also get the qcstatus of the station using the API. Is it possible to get historical data using the API? Maybe that's the data that wugoldstar.org was mining?

[billybob]

Me and everyone around me has their qc stuck at "-1" for I don't know how long. I like WU for rapid fire wind rates during storms otherwise its worthless.

[zoomx]

WU has been in decline for several years now, and many people here (who have alternatives) have simply dropped WU or discontinued sending their data to it for "free" since any reciprocal benefit coming back their way has been greatly reduced.

IBM exploring sale of its weather business - report

IBM (NYSE:IBM) is exploring a sale of its weather business and the unit could fetch more than $1 billion.
A potential sale is at early stage, according to a WSJ report on Wednesday, which cited people familiar. Private equity is the most likely buyer for the business, which includes weather.com
IBM (IBM) agreed to buy The Weather Company's B2B, mobile, and cloud-based Web properties, including Weather.com and Weather Underground, in 2015, for a reported price of about $2 billion.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3956131-ibm-exploring-sale-of-its-weather-business-report