Messages

766

General Discussion / Re: Celebrating 30 Years of The Weather Channel

« on: May 02, 2012, 05:15:55 PM »

Am I the only one not seeing a 30-year design on weather.com?

Zach, what 30-year design are you talking about?   From my understanding, the new design was supposed to launch today in honor of their 30th anniversary, but I don't recall there being plans for a 30-year design, whatever that means.

767

Everything Else TWC / Re: New weather.com design: April 2012

« on: May 02, 2012, 03:38:56 PM »

There is currently a live chat on weather.com to discuss the new layout.  It says discuss the "sneak preview" though, so does this mean the site is not permanent yet?  From the looks of the posts on the chat, a lot of users do not like the "vertical" layout of the Hourly, 5-Day, and 10-Day forecasts (which I can't blame them for).  I, as well as a few others, also miss the "Right Now" page having the current conditions AND the 36-hour forecast.  According to TWC, supposedly they are working on a new design for the 10-Day that will bring back the horizontal view.

Oh, and one more thing, why does TWC ALWAYS neglect to re-design the "Monthly" page???  I mean, I guess it's alright that they don't, but I can't even begin to tell you how old that design is.

768

General Discussion / Re: Celebrating 30 Years of The Weather Channel

« on: May 02, 2012, 02:22:11 PM »

I really like the 30th Anniversary images on weather.com, especially the ones showing the logo progressions and the different slogans.

And I had no idea there were so many different logos.   In fact, according to the image (though the '80s logos looked very similar and only had slight modifications to them), the present logo has been used the longest of any logo that has been used at TWC.  So for those of you who thought a logo-change was ridiculous, you may want to think again.

769

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: May 01, 2012, 10:06:37 PM »

Regular taped programming was on at the start of the 5pm ET hour.

So what was Crystal talking about when she said "continued coverage" and "hour #4"?  I'm very confused.   Did they pre-empt at all today?

770

Programming and Graphics / Re: Another Flick and a Forecast situation is happening

« on: May 01, 2012, 09:50:46 PM »

Yes the Weather Now updates air at :28 and :58 during the local forecast.

Just now (8:48 CT), they did a Live Weather update using the L-Bar.  Was this the case last night?  I did not see an update at the bottom of the hour (8:30 CT).

771

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: May 01, 2012, 09:04:37 PM »

"Crystal Egger
25 minutes ago
Heading into hour #4 now - continuing coverage on TWC of severe weather (possible tornadoes) in MN, IL, IN, OH, KY & NC! Be safe everyone...it's gonna be a long night!"

They are done with storm coverage at 8pm and not back till 10pm ET. This is getting embarrassing.
If there are tornadoes on the ground they should provide live coverage.

What "continuing coverage" and hour #4 is she talking about?!?!   Right now, Turbine Cowboys is on, and I surprisingly saw the tail end of Weather Caught on Camera at 7:58 CT, which is odd because weather.com advertises that WCL was supposed to be on then.

772

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: May 01, 2012, 01:12:07 AM »

Well guys, I am just going to end with this before we try to put tonight's horrible situation to rest:

April 30th must be an infamous day in the life of TWC.  To my knowledge, there were tornado watches, there were 15 (maybe more at this point) tornado warnings, there were even tornadoes on the ground, and TWC did not bother to give any special coverage.  Maybe it was because the tornadoes were only in rural areas?  IMO, that shouldn't stop them from providing coverage.  Heck, TWC should really provide good coverage for severe t-storms (why limit it only to tornadoes?), but that's beisde the point.  But, alright, maybe they couldn't pre-empt because they didn't have enough OCMs available, or the right equipment, or whatever.  I don't know.  What really surprises me is that weather.com, their #1 go-to source for information, was also severely lacking.  No red banner.  The tornadoes weren't even the top story.  I don't CARE about April's best weather images, when other important weather is currently in progress.  At least there were no stories on the Top 5 about a "Nice Northeast" or "Cool Northeast," or I would really have been irate. (No offense to anyone living in that reigion).

Is TWC "mad" at Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas?  I don't think so, because they did a good job covering the DFW tornadoes, the Norman tornado, and the outbreak a couple of weeks ago.  Those were in heavily-populated areas.  TWC is definitely biased in their coverage, I guess, but it's never consistent!

And I am very tired of hearing the over-used statements: "If you don't like it, then turn it off" and "I'm sure the general public didn't care."  Both of the statements don't apply here.  Trust me, I turned TWC off the minute I saw they weren't providing any coverage, or any worthwhile coverage.  And the general public does care, because TWC's Facebook page had some comments from viewers complaining about the lack of weather coverage.  Granted, it wasn't swarming with posts every two seconds, but it still had quite a few.

Alright, I'm done with my rant.  If you read all the way through it, thank you.  Let's move on...

773

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: April 30, 2012, 09:33:41 PM »

And just wow, this is just the worst night for them to be doing this for those who remember two years ago on this same night...

Yes guys, as Zach has pointed out and told me, this is the exact two-year anniversary of the horrid FaaF incident, when TWC refused to report about tornadoes in Arkansas that did, unfortunately, cause deaths.  Jim, thankfully, gave his two cents about the situation, but this obviously did not help tonight.  It's very ironic that this incident occured on the same date.

And, we can't use a "general public" excuse here, because TWC is receiving some angry posts on their Facebook page.

774

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: April 30, 2012, 08:44:11 PM »

Excuse me for this, but why the is TWC not pre-empting right now?  There are numerous tornado warnings out.  I don't care if 8 PM gives me a different story.  I want that live coverage NOW!

Tornado Central?  Yeah, I don't think so.

775

Everything Else TWC / Re: New weather.com design: April 2012

« on: April 28, 2012, 08:19:44 PM »

Travis, that's not the new design.

I don't know why I'm always the first to see these new designs.  Trust me, I'm not joking.  I am going to provide several screenshots in just a few minutes.  It looks like this must still be in beta test mode, and for me, it is also only showing on IE.

EDIT: Alright, I've provided the screenshots.  The first two show the top and bottom half of the homepage.  The next two show the top and bottom half of the local page.  The third shows only the top half of the 10-Day on the local page.  There are certainly a great deal of changes, and it's difficult to show you everything from a screenshot point-of-view.  But hopefully you get the idea what may be rolling in the next few days or so.

ANOTHER EDIT: As you can see, this is certaily a very Facebook/Twitter-friendly site now.  Also, the "Make it Your Weather" you see on the last screenshot in place of the weather.com logo means that you can essentially change the logo to say something like "Andy's weather."

776

Everything Else TWC / New weather.com design: April 2012

« on: April 28, 2012, 07:25:04 PM »

Well guys, weather.com has changed again.   It amazes me how they now feel they have to change the design every year.

But this is a HUGE change!!!   Everything looks different now...even the local weather pages!  I don't like it; everything looks too cluttered.  What do you guys think?

777

Everything Else TWC / Re: General TWC Discussion

« on: April 27, 2012, 03:57:19 PM »

According to TWC's Facebook, the Emp State Building in NYC will be lit in all blue on May 2, in honor of the network's 30th anniversary.

I wonder what else is going to happen?      I hope it's not a marathon of long-form programming.

I would hope they would at least show some of the older footage from TWC like they did during the 25th anniversary.  It would be far better than any long-form marathon.  Of course, everything here ought to be weather pending in case an outbreak occurs.

Does TWC have celebrate every 5-year anniversary with a bang?   I mean, 25 years is considered special because it is the "silver" anniversary.  IMO, they shouldn't have another big celebration until 50 years.

778

Programming and Graphics / Re: New 2012-2013 Graphics?

« on: April 24, 2012, 08:49:01 PM »

I mean, guys, the picture I have attached is something I always imagined TWC doing with their logo (not sure what the right font for it is, but you get the point).  I know it's likely never, ever going to happen, and I hope I am not going to get greatly criticized for just throwing the idea out there, because I know there are certainly other NBC Universal stations do not use the peacock in any way.  It just seems like TWC ties itself very closely to NBC (and TWC ends in a "C" ).

779

TWC Fan Art / Re: Weatherlover's Artwork

« on: April 23, 2012, 09:58:07 PM »

SmartCast Warning Tone Test

This is regardomg the project you began making at the beginning of the month, but I am surprised how well those icons fit with what you've made!   I wonder if they will eventually make it on-air?  Because they look like crap on weather.com but really good on your "SMARTCAST STAR."

780

Programming and Graphics / Re: Updated Graphics

« on: April 23, 2012, 09:03:04 PM »

This may be better in the new thread about graphics, but I'll go ahead and put it here.  TWC's map showing the summer outlook has some impressive graphics!!  Do you think it's a preview of what's to come at all?  They may just have wanted to create a fancy graphic for a high-interest subject, but I think it would look good everywhere.  Really like the 3-D affect.

P.S. This post was created for the graphic-talk, but you can also use it to see how your summer will shape up temp-wise.