How Should We Proceed?

General Weather Discussions and Analysis
Andrew
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All,

As most already know, our time here at KHOU is more than likely coming to an end. I have personally been with this community for over a decade now, and to see how much we have grown, along with the impact we have on the local community has been nothing short of incredible. While times have changed, this community not only persevered with the support from our long-standing members but from the countless individuals who have joined since. That is why the moderating team is asking you, the community, what to do next. We noticed the overwhelming support in the other thread about keeping the forum alive, but how we accomplish that is complicated.

The largest issue is financially supporting a forum that not only supports general weather talk but also handles the large impact events where thousands and thousands of new visitors stream in. This involves having some sort of dedicated server that ideally can accommodate our changing bandwidth needs. Even from a conservative estimate, the board will likely cost $100-200 per month to run, and that doesn’t even include the possible impacts a hurricane or other high impact event could have on the site.

That is why we want to know from you, what the best course of action should be. Should we take the forum to another website where donations and advertisement support it, move it to some sort of social media-based platform like Facebook, or should we even consider letting the board die? While we, as moderators will continue to donate our time, we alone cannot support the costs of running a separate site. This is why we are trying to spark a conversation to try and gauge how much support there would be. Please let us know your suggestions and what you would like to see next. Thanks everyone, I look forward to the comments and I hope this post did not come off too "preachy" or "needy". We wanted to lay it all out for everyone and let the community decide what to do next.
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oleander
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I would be willing to pay for access to this great resource!
sau27
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I would also be willing to contribute a small fee. Perhaps a Patreon site with different levels of contribution possible?
CrashTestDummy
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I don't remember if I have donated to this forum, or not, I do support others, and will apologize right now if I haven't done my duty. That said, I would be happy to support a new forum with periodic donations, but would think that putting such a forum behind a paywall would lead to it's rapid demise. That, and as a local weather forum, sort of owe it to the community to remain accessible for such weather emergencies, for any assistance and information it can provide.

Facebook and other social 'things' are horrible options, IMO.

The Admins may want to check with the Admins of the Gulf Coast Weather forum (http://stormcastforums.com/) and see how they do it. IIRC, it's 100% donation-supported, and a very lively forum.

Thank you for keeping this forum a great source of Southeast Texas weather information!!
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

"You can learn a lot from a Dummy."
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MontgomeryCoWx
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I’ll chip in.
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Texaspirate11
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I'll chip in too
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davidiowx
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I vote a strong NO to facebook or any social media platform.. The forum layout is by far the best for this site.. I will also contribute to help keep it up and running!
Andrew
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Alright thanks for all the responses everyone. I will talk to Srain and the others more to try and see what we can bring together. Please continue sending in your responses they do help.
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weatherrabbit
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I will too. To much of a resource to let go.
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srainhoutx
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We thank everyone for their responses both in this and the other Topic. It is clear that the majority of folks want to keep some sort of Weather Forum Platform such as the php platform we were provided by KHOU in 2010. The truth is that the current php platform is extremely out of date and unfortunately there was no strong commitment from KHOU/Tenga to maintain the upgrades that have been needed for many years. The current platform lack the modern security requirements and in fact isn't that stable. We have experienced down time events throughout the history of this php platform as well as recently. We have had support from KHOU, but is parent company is a big National Operation with many Media Markets across the Country. I want to make it very clear that our local KHOU folks have been extremely helpful throughout the KHOU Weather Forum History dating back to 2001. They have been faithful to our Weather Community and honestly would like to maintain that commitment. Unfortunately in the current situation, the Parent Company is calling all the shots.

We will continue to explore options for keeping the Weather Forum alive and look at different platform possibilities. As Andrew stated, the financial aspect of a monthly dedicated server and hosting fee, maintain and upgrades of a platform and making sure we have enough bandwidth during High Traffic Events would have to be a priority.

For those that have reached out to us via this Weather Forum, social media feeds, private messages, texts, e-mails and phone call offering your encouragement, promise of support and just a good neighborly "what can we do to help" has been nothing short of amazing. That support goes to the highest levels of the Weather World, be it public, private and media. More importantly it's been you, our members, friends and followers throughout the years that have touched our hearts so much. We have known that this Weather Forum is important to so many across our local area and the Region, but the outpouring has extended well beyond and across the Country. Thank You All!

We ask that you keep your comments and input coming. I know for a fact that the powers that be and the entire local KHOU Team is monitoring what we are discussing very very closely during this time of transition. We ask for your patience as we attempt to come to a solution that will not let this Weather Forum die. It's too important to so many and we fully understand that.
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