Request for the Upcoming Season

[Rainband]

I have a suggestion, too. Why not make all the threads on a particular storm stickies?

The only problem with that is... if we have multiple storms. Imagine a couple of active storms in the Atlantic. If we have at least three threads per storm... that's at least 9 stickies. That doesn't include the other handful of stickies regarding rules or various things. Before you know it... the first page becomes mostly stickies, pushing all the "new" threads to the second page, which isn't customer-friendly.

I agree.

[senorpepr]

Okay... here's a suggestion...

Whatever we decide that is best for the board... PLEASE follow it. Especially, regarding the silly non-descriptive/incomplete titles that jschlitz commented on. The more of these threads that the moderators have to lock or move, the harder it becomes to manage the board. I witnessed this last year from a "normal member's" perspective. The moderators were running around like crazy trying to keep order on the forum while trigger-happy yahoos are posting non-descriptive/incomplete titles like they are Enron stock.

This season, I get to few this from the other side of the fence. Thankfully we have a strong moderator team that will help keep order in the forum, but we need everyone's help in doing that. The less "OMG!! 994MB!!!!!111" threads we have to delete, the more time we have to make sure things are running smoothly and the more time we have to make sure everyone is behaving.

[Rainband]

Gotta admit last year was way better than 2004, when there was absolutely no organization and there was a new thread for every new vortex.

Thanks. We do our best to keep the board organized

[Jim Hughes]

Something like this?

TD#1 General Discussion thread

TD#1 Analysis,Models,Sat Pics thread

Sticky=TD#1 Advisories

Sticky=TD#1 Recon thread

TD#1 Recon discussion thread

I used as the example TD#1.

It looks like you have allot of TD's there cycloneye. Might I also suggest no taunting or spiking in the end zone after a TD. Maybe a limit on the dancing afterwards also.



Jim

[whereverwx]

Something like this?

TD#1 General Discussion thread

TD#1 Analysis,Models,Sat Pics thread

Sticky=TD#1 Advisories

Sticky=TD#1 Recon thread

TD#1 Recon discussion thread

I used as the example TD#1.

Looks pretty good, IMO.

Can I make a suggestion that people post links to images rather than the actual pictures? As well as slowing the whole board down when it is busy and loading each time I load the thread it also uses lots of bandwidth for whoever's image you are directly posting. This is the reason why I only post links unless I've uploaded the file myself. Also it keep asking me about security certificates or something for https images which gets a bit annyoing.

This is something I do agree with. While I, and a lot of other people, have been guilty of this from time to time, we should definately watch this. While hotlinking images doesn't use S2K bandwidth... it DOES use up the host's bandwidth. For example, imagine all the hotlinked NHC graphics that are loading down their webpage. The last thing we want is to crash an important website from hotlinking.

Secondly, while most of use have unlimited cable/broadband, we still need to think about those with dialup.

Finally, while most of us in the states don't worry about this, we should respect those, espeically in other nations, that have restricted "downloading" on their internet connection. Many places only allow a person to "download" (which includes viewing threads on S2K) only so much, and having the same image hotlink over and over again is killing that allotment. A simple link would do the job and will allow the page to load quicker.

I agree 100% with you guys; although, like you, I have also been guilty of hotlinking. What I'm starting to do now is hyperlinking a load of images, similar to this here:

Is this what you're talking about?

Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 01
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 02
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 03
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 04
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 05
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 06
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 07
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 08
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 09
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 10
Christmas Sub-tropical thingy 11

Also, Hurricane Guillermo was another biggy, and hurricane at a high latitude:

Guillermo 01
Guillermo 02
Guillermo 03
Guillermo 04
Guillermo 05
Guillermo 06
Guillermo 07
Guillermo 08
Guillermo 09
Guillermo 10
Guillermo 11
Guillermo 12
Guillermo 13
Guillermo 14
Guillermo 15
Guillermo 16
Guillermo 17
Guillermo 18

Not only does it save tons of vertical scrolling, but it also prevents horizontal scrolling with large URLs. And, it also looks much more professional. The code for hyperlinking is below:

Code: Select all

[url=http://url]URL text[/url]

Another thing that needs to be stressed is the use of the Search Feature. It's a gift from God.

[DoctorHurricane2003]

On the sticky idea, we could reserve a spot for all the threads of ONE storm to be stickied if and only if that storm is a major threat to a land area.

[cycloneye]

To add about what our new moderator senorpepr said,that is why I started to create those comments,sat pics,models thread ones to let those type of posts go there and not have new threads about another example=It's wobbeling west etc. As Mike said when things get really busy it is difficult to watch everything at the forum as things go very fast.That is why the ideas from Doctorhurricane are good ones that we will consider to then have much more control and make the forum run more smoothly.

[DoctorHurricane2003]

I agree cyc...and thanks. One of the major reasons why I didn't participate much last season in the threads is because things just moved WAY too fast in the single storm threads (Comments, Sat Pics, etc.) and it was hard to keep up with, especially with my busy schedule of work and getting ready to move to PA and such.

This way I just think it will be a lot easier to keep track of things.

[MiamiensisWx]

Hyperlink test...

Andrew: Ten Years Later

Much better!

[DoctorHurricane2003]

Oh I just got another idea (sorry, I'm full of them tonight)

I don't know if it is available on this board, but on another one that I occasionally visit, at the bottom of a thread you go into, there are links to similar threads.

For example, if I was to go into the Tropical Storm Alberto (01L) General Discussion thread, it would probably have the links to all the other Alberto threads at the bottom of the page. If that is a possible option, I highly suggest it!

[gatorcane]

Something like this?

TD#1 General Discussion thread

TD#1 Analysis,Models,Sat Pics thread

Sticky=TD#1 Advisories

Sticky=TD#1 Recon thread

TD#1 Recon discussion thread

I used as the example TD#1.

I read all of your posts...hmmm...DoctorHurricane2003 while your ideas are good in theory I think you miss the underlying purpose of this board -it's the opinion and thoughts of people that make it interesting not just the facts alone. That is why I feel the Tropical Analysis forum will not have the kind of activity that we see in the Talkin Tropics forum. Most people on this board are not looking for technical/complicated explanations and "rigidness". The reason I don't like the above layout is because it is going to end up causing redundancy in practice and it is not only going to make things more complex for users but there will be much more "bookkeeping" for our moderators (e.g. the General Discussion thread is going to have alot of what is in your proposed Advisories thread).

When I look at the list above, I think the "value-add" of this board is really only in the following:

All threads below should include comments/discussion from users (not separate threads -- too much redundancy)

TD#1 Analysis,Models,Sat Pics thread <--- not a sticky
Sticky=TD#1 Advisories <---- sticky
Sticky=TD#1 Recon thread <----- sticky

The general discussion thread should be combined with the Analysis, Models, Sat Pics thread since I can just go to the NHC website for the Analysis, Models, Sat, Pics. It's the COMMENTS from people embedded in this thread that add value to this site. Often times you reference a sat pic or another diagram so you will have many images if you have two threads as you are proposing.

Basically we should stick with the way it was last year. It worked out nice in my opinion. We just need to work on the little things that have been brought up such as Misleading Topic titles and repetitive posting. Let's work on the little things rather than trying to make a drastic change to the overall architecture

[DoctorHurricane2003]

The General Discussion thread is for the people's comments, boca_chris. That is why it exists. If someone wants to reference a pic or something, they should provide a hyperlink to that pic in the GD thread or give a good description of what they are explaining.

[MiamiensisWx]

Can this thread be stickied?

[gatorcane]

The General Discussion thread is for the people's comments, boca_chris. That is why it exists. If someone wants to reference a pic or something, they should provide a hyperlink to that pic in the GD thread or give a good description of what they are explaining.

Links don't always work. For example, have you considered the Storm2k markup maps? People use those all of the time. Do you want a link for that? Why not stick with what we did last year. User comments should be embedded in the Analysis, Sat, Models thread. I think many members would agree with me that it wasn't that difficult keeping up with the thread. Also it was fun seeing how many pages we could get it.

[gatorcane]

I just think we are going to see many overlapping pictures and analysis in your proposed general discussion thread and the Analysis, Sat, Models, Pics thread. You cannot always explain something easily without referencing a picture or diagram that is embedded within your post. Many times, people don't want to be bothered with clicking on the link - not to mention that, as somebody mentioned, it puts undue burden on the server where the webpage is originating from.

Here is an idea - it's all about democracy. Let's propose this change and have a poll to see what everybody votes for.

[DoctorHurricane2003]

Well Sat Pics I'm still not completely set on, they can still be in the GD thread, but only if there are NOT multiple instances of one pic, but then that would also mean we would have to take them out of the AMSP thread.

It's just something we have to juggle around with.

All other pics (SSTs, TCHP, etc.) should go into the AMSP thread

[Cookiely]

To add about what our new moderator senorpepr said,that is why I started to create those comments,sat pics,models thread ones to let those type of posts go there and not have new threads about another example=It's wobbeling west etc. As Mike said when things get really busy it is difficult to watch everything at the forum as things go very fast.That is why the ideas from Doctorhurricane are good ones that we will consider to then have much more control and make the forum run more smoothly.

If everyone would put all discussion in the discussion thread it makes it so much easier to keep track of everything. I will never understand someone making a new thread on a system. It doesn't make sense. I really would like the images on a separate page from the discussion. My hands are bad and scrolling back and forth drives me batty.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

When I make a forecast on a storm, can I just say this on top.


This is a wishcast I repeat this is a wishcast.

[meteorologyman]

Here is my request

The Talkin Tropics alone has 653pgs which leads up from 2003, I think it is time to delete those pages

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

No I think its good to look back to that time. WHY!!!