The forum admins have been tossing around a few ideas around the shoutbox. We are increasingly finding that the shoutbox is being used to report current weather conditions. We don't want to go down the path of overbearingly managing this - this is after all a community forum, and it should be largely able to manage itself.

There is always a daily conditions thread ( http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/daily-weather-updates/ )created at the beginning of each day, and we ask that daily conditions are posted in that thread. There are a number of good reasons why we ask members to do this:

• Guests can not view the shout box, and therefore do not see current weather condition posts, if they go into that part of the forum.
• Guests can obviously see parts of the forum, and can see the current weather conditions thread. There are many guests that visit the forum on a daily basis, and more regular posting of daily conditions in the correct thread will encourage them to join the forum.
• Search engines can not index posts in the shout box.
• Posts in in the shout box can not be pushed up to Facebook, G+ and Twitter. Posts in the current weather conditions thread get pushed up to Facebook, Google+ and Twitter throughout the day, increasing the forums audience
• Due to size constraints on the Shout Box window, posts in the shout box scroll away and are lost.
• When members regularly post into the current conditions thread, the thread stays up the top of the latest post list, making it obvious and easily accessible.

At this point we are still allowing current conditions to be posted in the shout box, but do ask that you also post the same report in the current conditions thread. Of course you can also just post the information into the current conditions thread.

We will continue to monitor the use of the shout box particularly where people are reporting current weather conditions, to ensure that corresponding posts occur into the current conditions thread. Our preference is of course that members manage this responsibly themselves.

Thanks in advance for your co-operation

Understood, I for one post weather conditions in the shoutbox , but also in the daily local weather today. So that it is recorded, Posting in the shoutbox is a quick reference as to what is happening at that time but Most still seem to post in the daily weather report.

I will try, but using a tablet most of time makes posting difficult, but as I said I will try and obey the guidelines

Well . . . looks like i stepped on a toe or two!  I also see that I have received some bad Karma, maybe that person should man (or woman) up and not hide behind an anomyous screen.

Seems my posts have been shifted to this thread by a higher power http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/forum-feedback-and-issues-log/forum-speed/msg13353/?topicseen#new

Kind Regards

Yep the op was about shoutbox usage not about the speed of the forum as a whole or some of the other points you raise. Best if these are kept seperate to give both topics a good airing.
Cheers

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