Tim's ST Decision: An Analysis and Thoughts.

This just in: Tim from the Stormtrack forum has made a decision concerning the massive upheaval with CFDG members vs. Stormtrack members. Here it is:

"Myself and the moderators have had a long pow-wow on the highly controversial CFDG issue that boiled over on this board last week. Our decision is that suppressing discussion about the group is a departure from our editorial policy and is against the best interests of Stormtrack.

However, for the past 30 years, the spirit of Stormtrack has been to share weather knowledge and strengthen the social bonds within the severe weather community. Our members are fully expected to adhere to these standards. Alienating other people within the chase community does not fix anything... working for positive change does.

To further defuse any perceived conflicts of interest, I resigned my CFDG membership this morning... that way you can be assured that from here on out I am representing the interests of Stormtrack.

Tim"

Paragaph one:

Man, oh man, do I sometimes wish I was a fly on the wall in the ST administrative hidden thread. It must have been interesting - I am glad that they were open and honest with their pow wow. That's good to hear, and I am glad that moderators were chosen who (I hope) expressed their true opinions and feelings regarding the actions of the administrator. I am even more pleased to read of the decision not to suppress discussion about a group. That's great!

But pardon me, I need to get this off my chest. HELLO!!! HELLO!!! This should never have come to this point! Read again what Tim said. "Suppressing discussion about the group". So that was it! It was NOT that the thread had gotten out of hand, as Tim said when he locked the thread in question. It was that CFDG was being discussed, which in turn eliminated their secrecy even more then it was. It's clear that the whole point of Tim locking the thread was to suppress discussion. Sad, sad, sad. This is something I am hopeful will never, EVER be repeated again. I'm glad the decision was made to NOT suppress discussion but hello, this is a no-brainer, people.

Paragraph two:

This is disturbing still. It's almost as if Tim has to get his digs in to say " Ok, fine. Talk about it then, have it your way. But don't say anything that could alienate another member". Let's be clear about how internet forums operate. Remember, I am an admin myself, I have a vested interest in these areas.

This internet forum, Stormtrack, has an area called "Chase Bar and Grill". It's hidden to guests, and you can talk about anything you like in there.

Let's look at rule 12 of the Stormtrack rules.


12. Content disclaimer. Although the owners of Stormtrack have discretion to delete offensive material according to their personal judgement, these rights are rarely exercised. We depend on the free flow of debate and discussion to keep Stormtrack healthy and reduce administrative load. You must discontinue using Stormtrack and find another venue if you feel that the moderators or administrators are not censoring content to your satisfaction.

This is the rule that should continue to be the rule. It is pointless for Tim to come out in point 2 and say they are fully expected to adhere to standards that "do not alienate people". Here's the thing: People are going to have differences of opinion, different thoughts and different processes and reactions. In a forum where free flow is allowed (AS IT IS STATED HERE, FREE FLOW OF DEBATE AND DISCUSSION), what then defines conduct or activity that "alienates" others? Alienation is when a member leaves because they disagree with an opinion in the forum world. If they disagree and want to leave that's their choice. The duty of an administrator and/or a moderator is not to dictate what is talked about so long as it is of legal content and does not directly attack or is hostile to another member as per the ad hominem guideline. Therefore, it is not the concern of the administrator, the moderator, or the member if it alienates another member whatsoever. That is between the one who made the post and the one who took issue with the post. The administrator and the moderator team are there to ensure there is no violation of forum rules. There should never be, outside of illegal or previously restricted content (such as religion or politics) administrative action placed on conversation, especially civil conversation about a civil matter. Period. Don't put an umbrella over people's heads telling them to think twice about what to talk about if it is outside of politics and religion. The day that happens is the day I am gone.

Paragraph Three:

Bravo. HUGE Kudos to Tim here, this was the proper decision and the best one he could have made. He alleviated the perception of a conflict of interest and has pledged his allegiance to Stormtrack. Good move, yes. Now let's make sure that the "CFDG group" doesn't still appear to be "running the board" behind closed doors by complaining to Tim every time someone says something about their group and demanding suppresion of conversation. So long as discussion - ANY discussion - is civil, straightforward, and is not in violation of any established rule, let it be, so this kind of needless and senseless fiasco is avoided in the future from now on.

Ending comment: None of this had to be in the first place. This is a positive step. I'm concerned about the veiled "members are expected to adhere to these standards" statement because it appears to be a broad, wide open policy with unnamed consequences. It would have been best just to leave that out. But over all, a great step in a better direction.

Man, come on spring, just get our minds off all this bull and give us some freakin storms already!

The Look.

I woke up this morning and immediately recognized "The Look".

You know "The Look". The icy, milky look in clouds that can only suggest the presence of ice crystals - the look that almost causes snow shovels to grow feet and salt grains to excite themselves with potential work prospects - the combination of these icy clouds against barren trees creates the excitement for winter weather that only a weather lover would know.

However daunting it was this morning, it was a fantasy. The temperature profiles had risen just enough to prevent the precipitation to fall as frozen precipitation. What could have been some delicious eye candy proved only to be a dampening light rain creating drear instead of beauty.

Though it ruined my hopes for the stray mixed flake - it wasn't to be - it let me know the arrival of winter's breath is certainly not far at all from this moment in time.

ST in the eye, models come back around

Stormtrack is in the eye of the storm as members await the decision of Tim as to the new "Policy" regarding discussion of "The Other Forum", CFDG. It's calm now, but what in the world is going to happen when Tim makes his decision?

Truth be known, Tim's not going to win no matter what he does.

If he clamps down and says "Shut up! Don't talk about CDFG or post their public material!", there will be a loud, vocal and angry outcry and revolt from some ST members. If he does not, there will be a loud, vocal and angry outcry from the CDFG'ers. Tim, being a CDFG member, certainly has his hands full. We shall learn where his priorities are when the decision comes out, shall we?

On the weather front, models coming back around to a wintery thanksgiving so watching that closely. I saw what appeared to be a flake of snow tonight. Could of been a bug. Watching yard light effects can be deceiving.

It's November - nothing to chase. See you next post!

Just yours truly.

Yeah, yeah, this is me. Obviously not the most respectable photo. So you know, this great shirt I was wearing right? The day after the photograph it ripped totally down the back - all the way down, and I didn't know it. As fate would have it, I was fortunate enough to not realize it until walking all the way down my workplace aisle - and having 2 managers notice it.

They ended up taping it up - literally - till my workday ended.

Working with a scotch-taped shirt. Brilliant!

Waiting for winter

Ah the big early season flip flops of the ol GFS good for sh*t weather models. Dont you love it?

I'm not holding my breath on any winter storm over the next week - but yesterday's charts looked great with a strong closed low developing in the central plains accompanied by an arctic intrusion and strong gradient producing wintery, windy conditions -- right? right?

Hello, GFS? make up your mind?

Of course I know that this is par for the course - definately this early out, and not to discount this - also know to rely strongly on ensembles and cross model comparison. For these reasons I am not holding much hope on this one - because the GFS is coming in line with ensembles, not the other way around.

The good news is this winter being the first storm I dont have a bias to point to with past winter storms yet - this is the first - so I wont really know till it's 2 or 3 days out. Which is coming closer and closer. Time will tell - but I really, really need some meteorological excitement. After all, there's no severe weather - that's gone until springtime.

Oh, the drama of internet forums.

You have got to love the drama of internet forums. I have to share some here tonight.

I am a member of Stormtrack, the forum board for chasers. Stormtrack is a very diverse and well run internet forum for storm chasers - novice to professional. Stormtrack is a board with an eclectic and diverse group of people from all around the world. Tonight things got quite a little heated.

You see, there's an alternative forum as well. That forum is called CFDG. It stands for "Chase Forecast Discussion Group". The group was formed by close-knit friends as an email-based discussion group which transformed to a quite secretive forum - hidden and quite reclusive by most standards. It's purpose is to apparently share a large breadth of chase forecasting knowledge amongst each other without outside "interference".

The fireworks started tonight when members of the Stormtrack forum began discussing the CFDG group - and one member decided to post their then-public membership list. Apparently this conversation greatly ired some members of the CFDG group - because within minutes the list was pulled from public view. Not only that, but the administrator of the Stormtrack forum - Tim - who ordinarily does a great job - decided to lock the thread because, in his words, it got out of hand, and we were to take the discussion off Stormtrack.

This upset me greatly. Why, you ask? Because, a few days earlier, there were other heated discussions amongst members concerning another highly volatile subject - and the actions in this long winded, debatable discussion were lightly moderated, even when there were pretty near ad hominem attacks - the highest offense in the Stormtrack world, it seems. The thread was split, and some posts were moderated - but there was no locking of the thread.

Suddenly when the CFDG forum is listed and is being discussed - civily and courteosly, I might add - and the member list is posted (which does not violate any rules whatsoever, it was publically obtained), the thread is locked and the members are silenced. The admin of ST, Tim, is a member of CFDG.

The owner said this was done because he was getting floods of angry emails from people concerning the thread's conversation about CFDG. This is ridiculous. They know they are known and recognized - what then is the point of trying to contain secrecy. I am not, have not been, and will not be a member of CFDG even if invited (fat chance) but I think it is quite clear concerning their true intent - to retain knowledge, remain secretive, and invite only those elite enough in the chasing circles to make it into their club.

CFDG has a right to run their forum the way they want to, as does Stormtrack, and any other internet forum on the planet. I administrate one myself I shall not name, due to its popularity and subject, so I am aware of how these forums work. However stated, when the actions of one forum spill over through the actions of another forum due to perceived outcries from the - dare I say - elite - forum, there's a problem. There's a conflict of interest that is squarely on the shoulders of the ST administrator. To him its not fair, and to me the whole thing is just boggling.

I dont care if CFDG hides out in a swamp, or remains secretive for the rest of their internet lives. It's not my business. My concern is when a thread is locked and shut down because of the cries of the members of another forum over what the content of the admin's forum is. It's not right, and policies should not have to be set forth to restrict speech to ease the minds of the other group. Let people say what they are going to say. If you don't like it, and as long as it does not break established netiquette and rules, for crying out loud, let it be. I am in strong disagreement of how this was handled. There will, it seems, always be this rift between CFDG and ST - and I dont know of a way to heal that at this point - it just grows and grows.

Welcome

Greetings everyone.

My name is Jeff Miller, I've been a weather observer pretty much my entire life since I was a wee kid around 7 years of age - and a storm chaser for near 10 years now. I've always had a love with severe weather. There's been times where I've been burned out with chasing, but I've never, ever lost the passion and love associated with severe weather observing and chasing.

Life has not been easy for me for quite a variety of reasons, but one thing that has kept me going is my love for meteorology. Staying up till 3 AM to watch snowflurries. Squall lines in the Ohio area and supercells out here in the plains. The extremes of seasonal temperatures. The beauty of snowfalls and winter weather declare the absolute beauty of the atmosphere's design. It's a wondrous thing.

I've had the joy of seeing almost every sort of atmospheric phenomena through a combination of observing and chasing. Through this blog, I hope you will see the passion I have for meteorology and join me in watching our atmosphere work in wondrous ways.