Let’s All Take A Deep Breath

I have tried to spend a little time this afternoon reviewing blog comments; I was pretty much off the grid this weekend, and busy as usual this morning with radio duties. Long time readers know the comments get a little heated during any mention of the word snow, complete with everybody from people looking for information, bringing their opinion to the table, constructive criticism, kind words, and of course, the trolls, haters, and know-it-alls.

Let me make a few points, and then, in the words of Forrest Gump, “that is all I have to say about that”.

*Open comments will always be a part of the blog. Media today should be a conversation, never one way. Having said that, we do not allow personal attacks, profanity, or people posting mis-information that can be harmful to the general public. Some comments go to moderation; sometimes based on our input, and at other times based on the automated comment filtering system we use. Moderated comments are posted as soon as we can get to them. And yes, some are banned due to multiple violations.

*One of our system administrators, Trey Nolen, made these comments concerning the “high traffic mode”, and I think you need to see it here:

“As one of the system admins, I’d like to address the high traffic mode comments. To avoid high traffic mode would require at least two additional servers, with corresponding increase in cost. Over the weekend, this server was pushing 100Mbit for several hours, which is the limit of the network card installed in it. The blog is based on WordPress, which can be scaled up through load balancing and distribution of the database, but these costs represent a minimum of 200% over and above what is in place now. High traffic mode was used minimally over the last few days even though the traffic in the last month represents 20% of the total traffic in the last 10 months – meaning we are averaging double the traffic. The peak of that traffic came in three days. Those three days represent the maximum traffic seen in several years. We also implemented a Live Chat section which does not shut down in the event of high traffic mode. People are welcome to log in to live chat and ask for whatever information they need. As for the majority of users, they need to be able to receive information as quickly as possible. You can think of it like you do a news cast — you watch the news, but you don’t have a forum on the TV. There are many active readers that do like to comment, and we do understand that and try to keep the use of high traffic mode to a minimum, but we do have to look out for the interest and safety of the majority of users who just need to get the latest information from the blog. Trust me, if it were up to me, we’d put it in high traffic mode and leave it there for the duration of an event – it would be much less work. Our staff has to monitor the server for usage and switch it over when needed (or not needed). But James and his partners have been clear that they want comments enabled as much as possible.”

*Do a search on “weather blog” on Google… and see who comes up first. Among the thousand of weather blogs in the world. Yep, our little weather blog that serves the people of Alabama and the southern U.S. The number one Google rank is due to the very high volume of traffic we generate, along with the active participation of our readers. We work long, hard hours on producing the discussions and videos here, and will continue to do so. We consider all you part of our “blog family”, and like any family, we have squabbles from time to time. You just have to forgive, forget and move on.

*I am honestly amazing by the number of people we serve here day in and day out… we are clearly aware of the responsibility that comes with it. Trust me, I don’t take it lightly. It is why I am up at 4:52 a.m. weekday mornings after getting home at midnight, and why we have 8 meteorologists here that can handle the load when I am handling other duties. Thanks for being a part of the family.

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