How Should We Proceed?

General Weather Discussions and Analysis
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nlosrgr8
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:19 am
Location: Sugar Land (First Colony), TX
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I have to say I haven’t checked this site lately as the weather has been rather uneventful. However, this has been my source of expert information for many many years, and while I offer nothing in the way of any sort of weather knowledge, I often send friends a link if they want the best information during precarious weather. I remember feeling lost when WWL lost their forum, and now there is a danger of this forum being dismantled. Please, I implore you to find a way to communicate with the concerned folks out there who read the forum in silence. The expertise found here is very valuable, why, I remember boasting to friends that I had known who Jeff Linder I was, before he became famous! :)
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
Anthony J. D'Angelo
Waded
Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2017 12:32 pm
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I wouldn't mind moving the community to Storm2k, if they would be willing to let us have a southeast Texas subforum or thread. I know many of us, weather professionals and lay folk, already frequent that forum. Storm2k seemed eager and welcoming enough to accept us when the KHOU suddenly went down a few days ago.

The most important thing is keeping the community together. I work in the weather everyday and have been depending on this weather community since Hurricane Ike. The forum the community uses doesn't matter.

Even so, it would be sad to see all the posts on this forum disappear. They offer valuable historical insights of people going through major metrological events. It be shame if they were lost to history.
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srainhoutx
Site Admin
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Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:32 pm
Location: Maggie Valley, NC
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I wanted to provide an Update of where we are as of this morning regarding the future of the Weather Forum. With KHOU's permission, we have been able to backup all the data from this platform and the dedicated server, but we believe that data may be useless due to corruption and an extremely out of date platform. Several Upgrades from php have not been performed over the years which likely impacts the data we have saved for historical purposes. Andrew worked diligently on completing that task the past several days.

We are exploring the possibility of a new platform away from php that will be extremely user friendly and that will be a cleaner, easier and an updated modern platform with many more functions than what we currently have and will actually look tremendously better. We do want to prepare folks that the historical data may not be useable or transferable even if we stay with a php platform. The folks at S2k are and have been an extremely longtime ally for the Weather Forum and we actually work in tandem when issues crop up both on their side as well as ours. That relationship will continue regardless of what the future holds. Truth be known, our two Weather Boards are the longest active Boards still around. The Admins and Staff at S2k fully support our Weather Forum and will in the future.

This coming week we will be talking and exploring operations that can host our Weather Forum with a dedicated server that is large enough for a smooth and fast operation and is big enough to handle high use events. We also want to explore any technical support that will be needed as well as a change in domain names to transition to a new Weather Forum. We will be looking at the monthly cost of operations and provide that information as we have the final details. It is our intention to be completely transparent in the cost of operation of an independent Weather Forum. We owe that to our Members and anyone that would potentially donate to maintain the operations.

I want to personally thank the folks at KHOU locally. I believe there are still some "behind the scene" activities exploring options and if there can be a future with KHOU/Tenga and maintain the Weather Forum. Frankly, we believe it is an uphill climb and without a secure platform (HTTPS versus our current HTTP in the URL) that Tenga is requiring, we do not believe that will be possible before the current server host contract expire on December 15th.

This week will bring a lot of activity to finalize where we go in the future. The Thanksgiving Holidays are nearing and many of us will be busy with Family and Friends. After that December begins and the clock/calendar will be against us to be operational before the final end of the current forums.khou.com end. We are working as quickly as possible to come up with a workable solution...if we can. We absolutely want continued discussions about the situation and welcome everyone's input.
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texoz
Posts: 291
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:01 am
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Two things.
1) A big thank you to all the professionals and just regular weather nerds (said with affection) who have contributed here over many years. I grew up in Houston and my interest in weather is directly related to experiencing so much of it while living in Texas. I've lived in locations (LA, CA) where I've gone years with very little "weather." I didn't like it.
2) I hope KHOU can find a solution to keep this forum in house, but I'll follow this group of weather experts on to the next destination because you guys/gals provide great info.
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nlosrgr8
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:19 am
Location: Sugar Land (First Colony), TX
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I have a selfish question. How will we know how to locate whatever platform you guys chose? I afraid of losing my connection to this valuable source of info. BTWI would donate just like I do to Wikipedia every year..
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
Anthony J. D'Angelo
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Heat Miser
Posts: 229
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:48 pm
Location: FM 528 @ I45 border of League City, Webster, Friendswood
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I would suggest the Vbulletin platform. Most forums I belong to have this platform which is user friendly and probably the securest one out there. Of course this cost money. Any forum I have been a Moderator/Administrator at used Vbulletin.
Andrew
Site Admin
Site Admin
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Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 9:46 pm
Location: North-West Houston
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texoz wrote:Two things.
1) A big thank you to all the professionals and just regular weather nerds (said with affection) who have contributed here over many years. I grew up in Houston and my interest in weather is directly related to experiencing so much of it while living in Texas. I've lived in locations (LA, CA) where I've gone years with very little "weather." I didn't like it.
2) I hope KHOU can find a solution to keep this forum in house, but I'll follow this group of weather experts on to the next destination because you guys/gals provide great info.
The new site would still feel like the same board just with an updated feel and look. It will also be more versatile, easier to use, and more secure. The last thing we want to do is change the dynamics and feel of the community though and that will be key. At the end of the day we still want the new forum to be a place for enthusiasts, meteorologists, and anyone else to come and talk about weather and be properly informed.
nlosrgr8 wrote:I have a selfish question. How will we know how to locate whatever platform you guys chose? I afraid of losing my connection to this valuable source of info. BTWI would donate just like I do to Wikipedia every year..
When we decide the final location of the new forum we will make sure to make a post here and on social media letting people know. We will try and post a week or more before this forum is closed on the new location to give some time for the changeover.
Heat Miser wrote:I would suggest the Vbulletin platform. Most forums I belong to have this platform which is user friendly and probably the securest one out there. Of course this cost money. Any forum I have been a Moderator/Administrator at used Vbulletin.
We are looking at paid platforms like VBulletin, but the latest version has not been as polished and the reviews are not nearly as good. I have a couple of other options I am currently looking at that can provide similar features. The key here is to get a platform that is easy to use, mobile friendly, and looks good. As a community we don't need a lot of the plugins or add ons that some other boards have.
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CAK
Posts: 98
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Kingwood, Tx
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I'm definitely in for contribution. This is the first place I go whenever we have a weather event here (which is frequent) and really is an invaluable resource.
Ounce
Posts: 470
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Houston
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I would contribute, as well.

I'm sure y'all have thought of hitting up some companies as Gold, Silver, or Bronze sponsors. Heck, TEGNA may even be up to contribute half of their annual expense of this forum for the new forum for a couple of years.

They can think of it as 'alimony.'
jojotheidiotclown
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:01 pm
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Not sure anyone would want, but I can set up this forum on my host/server and setup current mods with permissions. Just another option. Let me know. Would be glad to help.
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