Regional or National Cold Spell Threads?? (Poll closes at midnight/ Please Vote)

Storm 10

Which would you prefer?

Poll closes at midnight.

Aerohead

Agree completely with the above as I dont find it exciting anymore we are all over the place and its time consuming changing over to the other threads, I am missing charts now and all the latest gossip from around the Country.

PLEASE MODS CHANGE BACK TO THE WAY WE WERE.

fizzycyst

there is also a national thread, most of the experts are posting there. MT said this morning that he would be putting all his updates in the daily forecast thread

ro_chez

I disagree.

I thought it was nearly impossible to find any meaningful info from the posters who know what their talking about in amongst all the chitchat, banter and numerous "when will it snow in my back garden" posts.

Aerohead

Yeah but you are going to find that happening as well on the other threads if it snows in all of the other areas.

ro_chez

Well then go back to one thread but ban everyone from posting in it apart from the resident experts!

ninebeanrows

I personally don't like the idea of regional threads but it was getting far too messy, and i think more people want regional threads than don't.

We will reconsider it for the next spell (if we get another one!) but for the moment we are giving this a shot.

Feel free to keep commenting below though.

Aerohead

ro_chez wrote: »

Well then go back to one thread but ban everyone from posting in it apart from the resident experts!

What about a thread for National chit chat about the weather and as you say one for experts posting what the charts are showing etc with non expert guys being banned from posting. Let the experts register so only they could post and the we will chat about it on the other threads.

odyboody

I feel that the way it was set up yesterday was ideal. 1 thread for forcasts and charts, strictly no chit chat and another for discussion of the charts and forcasts.

TheInquisitor

Yes i think we need a National Chit chat thread and a separate proper charts/ discussion thread

Cionád

Completely agree with the OP.

I reckon there should be two threads, as previously - 1 on charts/forecast/analysis, and the other for chat about the oncoming cold spell.

Perhaps a mod warning should be to include your current location in your post if you are just saying "graupel now" or something similar.

Also, where is the Isle of Man thread??? :eek:

Pangea

Regional threads are the way forward, it was ridiclous in the last cold spell by the time you actually wrote and posted something it would appear a page back. By the time it actually starts snowing it will be mayhem on here. Look at the province thread that you are from and dont worry about the rest.
If you want information go to the National thread.

cherryghost

Agree. Multi threads are a mess. I'm from Athlone and I have to keep an eye on all three wandering threads

cabot

I need a UK thread, and an Athlone/Roscommon one to keep an eye on family lol

wingnut32

Two threads:

One for the experts to discuss the charts etc.

One for general chit chat and "any chance of.."

lord lucan

Great idea to split them imo. Whilst i'm interested in what's happening around the country my main concern is with what's going to happen in my area(ie. Dublin). The last couple of weeks have been very difficult trying to wade through pages upon pages of posts posted while i've been in work and trying to find out proper information amidst the all the extra posts.

BoardsRanger

Whilst I agree with Weathercheck that the previous system got a little messy- I would still prefer to have two threads:

• One for educated forecasts and chart analysis
• One for general chat and reports of snow

Ireland is not that big and I have an interest in knowing what the rest of the country is getting and also, depending on the wind direction, what the north gets, might be what we (Wicklow) will get a few hours later.

kstand

Best to leave one for the experts to discuss whats going to happen - national.
Then regional threads for general chit-chat about how the cat went very close to the fire the night before or how the roads are impassable in some places etc.

opr

Agree with the OP. Don't like these regional threads. Don't understand what the problem was ? The main threads was full of everything and if you needed an update the model threads had most of the updates and serious stuff.

Also it seems to me far more people preferred it the old way.

Add a poll to the OP ?

Opr

inabina

also agree with OP. Too much of a chance of missing something in the other threads. i know we can dip in and out but i really think dipping in and out of 4 threads constantly is too much. Experts are posting randomly in each of the threads, and their contributions can often be valid for all regions as showers/fronts move through the country.

joe199

I agree the old way was much better

Storm 10

Just paid a visit to the charts thread and already they are posting stuff that is not about charts.

L.O.F.T

Storm 10 wrote: »

Just paid a visit to the charts thread and already they are posting stuff that is not about charts.

There is so much important and useful information being lost in threads since the snow in November. Even MT's weather forecast has random chit chat in it which dilutes one of the best threads here.
There are a number of expertise posters here that I notice have stopped posting because of the clutter and those specific contributors & posters were always my reason to view these pages as they knew what they were speaking about. Alas they cant be seen or heard because of the constant requests for details on snow in specific locations or even travel arrangements that cant be decided without the say so of fellow posters.
I dont think you will satisfy the need of everyone here but the core benefits that the regular contributors / experts made are being lost and that has been the single biggest problem.

WallyGUFC

No. Go away. Last week was painful. "Oh we're getting a dumping right here right now." "WHERE CHARLIE?" "Could people please name the area where it is snowing in their post blah blah blah!"

inabina

L.O.F.T wrote: »

There is so much important and useful information being lost in threads since the snow in November. Even MT's weather forecast has random chit chat in it which dilutes one of the best threads here.
There are a number of expertise posters here that I notice have stopped posting because of the clutter and those specific contributors & posters were always my reason to view these pages as they knew what they were speaking about. Alas they cant be seen or heard because of the constant requests for details on snow in specific locations or even travel arrangements that cant be decided without the say so of fellow posters.
I dont think you will satisfy the need of everyone here but the core benefits that the regular contributors / experts made are being lost and that has been the single biggest problem.

we definetly need an experts only thread that only experts can contribute to. I agree - I really felt the experts were lost in the last thundersnow series. but i guess it is difficult to restrict to experts...many would probably claim to be experts and are not.....

Harps

The problem with the two thread idea is that the one for the 'experts' always ends up the same as the other one, we did tha last time and non regulars just come on, click on the first thread they see and ask if it'll snow wherever they are. Someone will make a good detailed post and within seconds theres a new page so everyone misses it.

At least with the regional threadds hopefully everyone will keep to their own area. Its not perfect but most of the regulars didnt even bother posting last time around it got so bad so its worth a try at least

BlackWizard

Sorry I just hate the idea of lots of threads about the same subject.

I have to go into each one of them to see whats going on.

In the end I just stopped reading them.

Please go back to a single thread!

Mmcd

I'm not sure if this is at all possible but I'd be happy to let people have their regional threads if there was a single thread where every post in the regional and national was duplicated so I could read them all in one place. It would be just for show, it doesn't even need to be possible to post in this new thread. Just a way to read everything at once without being all over the place.
Btw I'm not talking about people posting twice, moreso that there is a way to combine threads!

Tom Cruises Left Nut

Perhaps add a poll OP ?

Mr.Boots

Hate this idea, stupid stupid stupid!
You have just ruined a good board, well done!
Ireland isnt that big guys.

irishdub14

Can we please have one discussion thread and one forecasting thread, it worked perfectly last time and the regionals will just split up all the info!

dav3

I don't understand what everyones problem is with regional threads. The 100+ page threads are a nightmare. If you live 100's of miles away from me I really don't care if you don't have any snow or if you have 10 feet of snow.

It should go further and have a separate thread for Dublin exactly the same way that Met Eireann does it.

HellFireClub

I think it's very unfair to expect the experts on here who give us so much information, to have to post what is usually national weather information, in terms of countrywide radar images and precip animations, continually across 4-5 different threads or stickies.

Some people on the forum seem to have very little patience and wade into a thread demanding info on their particular region/area. When it isn't forthcoming because the request has landed into the thread on top of another discussion, the tribalism then gets aired and requests start being made for their very own area thread!

Personally I'd much rather one thread, and more patience and respect for users, if you are not going to get snow, then you are not going to get snow and no amount of regionalised threads is going to remedy that for you.

I think also that folks who start getting impatient or start going on about tribalism on thread should be warned once and then banned. A lot of the petty tribal arguing that goes on in this forum would lead to bannings on other forums, I know our experts and mods give us great discussion here but there are days I'd wish that the whip got cracked a bit more and obvious trolls were made an example of.

HellFireClub

dav3 wrote: »

I don't understand what everyones problem is with regional threads. The 100+ page threads are a nightmare. If you live 100's of miles away from me I really don't care if you don't have any snow or if you have 10 feet of snow.

It should go further and have a separate thread for Dublin exactly the same way that Met Eireann does it.

You only really need to look at the last few pages of posts to get a good angle on what is happening, there is no need to go reading 100 pages of redundant information, the latest imaging and analysis is all you need to digest.

Also, I want to see how a national weather system is developing and changing either in my favour or against my area.

Just throwing up data for each area is just pandering to the lazy and those who have no real interest in the way weather systems develop, this is just pandering to forum users who want exact data for their area on demand, folks who it seems to me are just too lazy to step up to the learning curve and learn how to read the images and charts and the data and form their own analysis with the help of the forum experts.

Cionád

Just in case anyone doesn't realise, you can edit the amount of posts that appear on each page...

Log In
Go to User CP (Control Panel)
Then select Edit Options
Scroll to Number of Posts to Show Per Page
Then pick Show 40 Posts Per Page

Only once has my comment appeared on the previous page once posted, and that was a thunder-snow event somewhere over Dublin.

HellFireClub

Weathercheck wrote: »

I personally don't like the idea of regional threads but it was getting far too messy, and i think more people want regional threads than don't.

We will reconsider it for the next spell (if we get another one!) but for the moment we are giving this a shot.

Feel free to keep commenting below though.

It only got messy because people started whinging and moaning about regional threads when they didn't get any snow in their area and were reading about 4 hour blizzards in Drogheda or wherever. If the folks who started moaning and stirring sh*t on the forum when they were not getting snow were banned for a day or two, I don't think the single thread approach would have had been messy or had any issues. I like the fact that a bit of banter is allowed, but area specific trolling has been tolerated on the threads far too much I think...

TheZohanS

WallyGUFC wrote: »

No. Go away. Last week was painful. "Oh we're getting a dumping right here right now." "WHERE CHARLIE?" "Could people please name the area where it is snowing in their post blah blah blah!"

Multi-threads won't cure that, the provinces are big.

I liked the old way, in fairness we're all here for one thing and that's snow...'twas interesting having updates from all around the country because you could track the snow showers etc. and the craic was good hearing from posters all over.

giggsirish

Being a newbie I am just putting in my 2pence worth.

I really enjoyed the single thread we had for the last event. Yes it did mean refresh after refresh but I doubt anyone can deny it was exciting.

All the regular seasoned weather experts really showed great spirit in explaining what it was the models translated to and answering questions left right and center. Very accommodating and patient with us newbies.

By not having all the experts in the one place knocking ideas back and forth against each other the overall atmosphere "excuse the pun" is lost.

Again im just a blow in and new to the weather forums. But I have an appreciation for it and a growing interest thanks to the weather forums.

This aside I can see how constant silly "will it snow in 5 minutes at my front door" question can be trying on the regular users.

nacho libre

you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

what is a mod to do?

BlackWizard

nacho libre wrote: »

what is a mod to do?

They can bring it back to the one single epic entertaining thread

opr

nacho libre wrote: »

you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

what is a mod to do?

Please the vast majority ?

Opr

nacho libre

opr wrote: »

Please the vast majority ?

Opr

Correct. so maybe a poll could be done to determine what the majority want?

ninebeanrows

This poll will close at midnight.

The chosen option will be pursued for the upcoming cold spell.

HellFireClub

Weathercheck wrote: »

This poll will close at midnight.

The chosen option will be pursued for the upcoming cold spell.

I think the regional thread approach is pandering in the large to people who are not even getting snow, and are just p*ssed off reading about other parts of the country that are getting blizzards. Is it really a good idea to run with a regional thread which a lot of people seem to want, but who are actually not getting snow, so therefore whatever they may have to say in terms of their objection to not getting snow is really completely off-topic?!?

Mmcd

HellFireClub wrote: »

I think the regional thread approach is pandering in the large to people who are not even getting snow, and are just p*ssed off reading about other parts of the country that are getting blizzards. Is it really a good idea to run with a regional thread which a lot of people seem to want, but who are actually not getting snow, so therefore whatever they may have to say in terms of their objection to not getting snow is really completely off-topic?!?

I agree. I wouldn't be particularly delighted to hear that they are after having 2 feet when its raining outside but I still want to know. Everyone watching the news every night rarely see good news. That's not why you watch it though. Next people here will want downgrades to be kept in a seperate thread!

mickger844posts

I think everything is too diluted with these regional threads. Bring it back to the way it was for the last cold spell. One thread for general stuff and another with models, charts and a place where the experts can express their opinions.

TheMilkyPirate

I don't mind the regional threads but most people do so the obvious thing to do is just have one thread for models and forecast discussion and one thread for discussion and general chat/banter.

Rebelbrowser

Agree with mickger84posts - one thread for chat, one (rigidly enforced) for analysis by the knowledgeable and intelligent questions to them.

TheInquisitor

We need 4 regional Threads, and 2 national threads. The national threads being one for chit chat and one for model discussion.

There'll be 1000+ people on here later and without that there'll be so many posts for IMBY that charts and proper discussion will be lost

Wine Goddess

wingnut32 wrote: »

Two threads:

One for the experts to discuss the charts etc.

One for general chit chat and "any chance of.."

agree completely otherwise we'll have arguments about what places belong in which regional thread!!!
Also I really like hearing people in the Rebel county (and others) talking about their experiences....it makes it more of a community feel than just us Leinsterites!!!

Godge

Thematic rather than regional

- MT's forecast thread, only for him
- Expert thread for discussion of charts etc.
- Chit chat thread
- Current conditions thread