Introduction

The Weatherzone Forum is intended to provide a forum for you to exchange information, opinions and comments with other like-minded weather enthusiasts. The following Rules and Guidelines are intended to help you enjoy and make the most of the Weatherzone Forums.

People may initially find the Forums a little intimidating, as there appear to be hundreds of people who have their own personas, cliques, connections and relationships. But the Forums are just like any other community, there are many connections between people which are not necessarily visible at first glance. To quote the "ski.com.au Forums" on the topic of introducing yourself to the forums "Make the right splash and you will be welcomed with all the enthusiasm of a New Years Eve party. Overstep the mark and you will find yourself on the outer like an unwelcome used car salesman."

If you're new to on-line communities, have a read of this page so you can have a general understanding of what to expect in the forums. If you are a regular at this type of on-line community, you'll enjoy the introduction to the Weatherzone Forums also.

Please remember that this is a public space, open to all age groups, so whilst we welcome your opinions, please word your comments appropriately. Foul language will be moderated. We prefer to allow the Moderators to use their good judgment.

It is your responsibility to know the boundaries for acceptable behaviour in the Weatherzone Forums. Unacceptable behaviour may result in being banned from Weatherzone Forums. We will usually provide a warning but warnings are not issued twice.

Weatherzone Forum Rules

The forum's primary objective is to provide to provide a forum for you to exchange information, opinions and comments with other like-minded weather enthusiasts. The rules below will be enforced without fear or favour.

1. Rights

   Weatherzone is PRIVATELY OWNED. Access and conduct on the Weatherzone Forum is not a "right". Members must adhere to the rules and abide by our standards. Posts or topics that have the potential to harm the image of Weatherzone or The Weather Company will be removed. We also take a negative view of members being unaware of these rules.

2. Purpose

   The Weatherzone forum is intended for discussion about WEATHER. The "Lounge" area is for Weatherzone members to discuss non-weather topics. It is not intended to serve as a primary focus of conversation. Users who have an exceptionally high proportion of non-weather posts may lose their account at any time.

3. Conduct

   Weatherzone is not a venue for "free speech". Hostile, abusive, and offensive conduct is prohibited. Ridicule and intimidation of another user constitutes a serious breach of our standards, and will often result in suspension or expulsion. When debating, be civil at all times and attack the point, not the person. Ad-hominem arguments are not tolerated.

4. Quality and Spamming

   High post quality is a goal of the Weatherzone Forum. Do not contribute excessive numbers of "one-liners", "LOL", and "smilies". Using more than !!! or ??? or three smilies in a row (punctuation spamming) is ugly and annoying. Do not post in the "Lounge" without a corresponding number of quality weather posts. Breaches of these rules will result in warning, suspension, or termination without notice.

5. Third-party content

   Weatherzone forums are an area for the exchange of weather ideas. Third-party material such as Bureau of Meteorology forecasts, quotes, news stories, weather data, statistics, and reference information may not be posted on Weatherzone unless it is (1) clearly provided as a brief quote and (2) includes informative comments by the poster. If you are unsure, simply post a link to the resource. For exceptions please contact a Moderator or Administrator in advance; in many cases an exception will be granted, especially if you want to share the results of a study you have done.

6. Copyright

   Finding material on the Internet does not mean it is copyright free. If you use someone else's material or images in your posts ensure you have permission and/or acknowledge appropriately. This is entirely your responsibility. Weatherzone and its representatives do not monitor for copyright infringements.

7. Commercial content and the Classified area.

   Weatherzone allows responsible posting of relevant and related commercial content. This must be placed in our "Classified" area. The Classified area is available by application only. To qualify you must be a regular contributor to Weatherzone and a long term Weatherzone Silver subscriber. To obtain posting access to this area please apply to the site administrators. Spamming, bumping or repetitious posting in the Classifieds forum is not allowed. Please only post once per product.

8. Nicknames and identities

   Weatherzone forum members can be identified by a nickname. It is a requirement that nicknames not be offensive, breach somebody's copyright or operate as a de-facto advertisement for a commercial organization. Identities in breach of this rule will be changed and locked or deleted if the member does not voluntarily change upon request of the moderators or admins.

9. Moderators

   The Administrator delegates authority to a team of Moderators who assist with management of the forum. The decision of a Moderator is binding unless the Administrator overrules the Moderator. Disobeying a Moderator will be treated the same way as disobeying an Administrator and may result in suspension or termination. Do not post public criticism about the Moderators. Many of the Weatherzone Forum moderators are volunteers and abide by the Moderator Guidelines set down by the Administrators. If you have an issue with the actions of one or more Moderators, direct all correspondence to the Administrators via the "Contact Us" link available at the bottom of every Forum page.

10. Control

    The Weatherzone forum Administrator reserves absolute control over the forum, including but not limited to modifying operating policies and access privileges without notice; removing, editing, or closing any topic at any time; and suspending or deleting any user for any reason.

General Etiquette on all Forums

• Observe what each Forum is about before posting.

• Be polite, respect people's opinion.

• Criticise ideas, not people.

• No swearing (that includes ASCII swearing).

• No flaming or trolling (i.e. deliberately picking fights with other members). Any personal attacks will not be tolerated.

• No posting messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violate any laws.

Posting guidelines

1. Lurk before posting

   Get a feel for each forum before you post. Each of the forums has a guide to what it is about, so a little time spent looking at each will mean you won't get upset about your thread being moved. Get to know the community etiquette, both written and unwritten.

2. Do not use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS

   Do not type your subject and/or message body in ALL CAPS. This includes posting message titles in mostly CAPS. It is considered the on-line equivalent of yelling and rude. It's common etiquette to type predominately in lower case as per normal written English.

3. Post topics in the appropriate Forum

   Resist the temptation to post something off topic because you think you'll get "better responses" in a particular forum. If you post a topic in a forum where it does not belong it will be moved by the moderators. Know what each forum is for.

4. Use descriptive subject lines

   This reduces the chances of double-posting, and it also makes it easier for people to see what they do/don't want to read. Remember there are archive forums and there is a plethora of useful information in them. Also check back through the last three or four days to see if a similar thread has already been started. For major weather events, put a date (or range of dates) of the event in the subject, so that people don't get confused as to which event the thread is about.

5. Using UBB code

   UBB code is enabled on the Weatherzone Forums, useful for inserting hyperlinks, images, smilies and formatting. HTML is currently not permitted; neither is the use of Java, JavaScript, iframes and embedded objects. Do not attempt to disrupt the display of Weatherzone Forums.

Purpose of each Forum

General Weather

General weather discussion. Discuss forecasts and local conditions in your area. Ask a question about the weather. This area is a friendly area for newbies to the world of weather, where they can ask questions about the weather. Topics covered in General Weather include:

• General day by day weather discussion
• Question and Answers on weather and climate
• Discuss forecast techniques and computer modeling
• Climatology and historical weather events
• Weather stories and folklore
• Weather stations and other measuring equipment
• Discuss weather software such as Grads, digital atmosphere and other weather related products

Briefing Room

This is the forecasting room for upcoming significant and severe weather events. This is the opportunity for all amateur (and not so amateur) weather enthusiasts to have a go at producing their own forecasts and discussing the event. We strongly encourage participation and all posters should make an attempt at justifying their forecast to the best of their ability.

Breaking Weather Updates:

Discuss severe weather events, thunderstorms, cold outbreaks, severe fire weather and other significant weather events. If you want to follow an evolving event in real time, or you want to post reports about severe weather in your area, this is the place. Severe weather and damage reports in particular are appreciated. When describing hail size, please provide a measurement where possible. Hail that looks like a golf ball is not always as big as a golf ball. However, we know people can get excited during major weather events, so try not to flood the forum with reports every minute. This will rapidly fill the thread with posts telling us the same thing we read just before.

Weatherzone Q and A

Members can post questions, feedback and comment regarding the Weatherzone website, the forums or any of the other Weatherzone services. Please note that urgent operational issues should be posted into our feedback form which will raise an issue with our support staff.

Tropical

Anything to do with tropical weather. Mainly tropical cyclones and monsoons but any weather that happens between 23°S and 23°N is discussed here. This area really only gets going in the summer months. Northern hemisphere typhoons and hurricanes are also discussed here.

Marine Weather

Discuss the weather related to surfing, sailing and fishing. How big is the swell at your break? Are the fish biting or not and why?

Ag Weather

How does the weather affect the agricultural industry of Australia? Discuss climate indicators, rainfall patterns and prospects. Future and past trends in the climate.

Photography forums

Images not to exceed 75kb per image and not to exceed 700 pixels on longest border. Please use thumbnails and/or hyperlinks to larger versions of your images. Please do not post images in these forums if you are not the copyright owner. Important, please note that images posted on the Weatherzone Forums may be used by Weatherzone as short-term feature images elsewhere on the site. Copyright will continue to reside with the original owner.

Weather Photography

Are you a keen photographer? Have you taken some interesting weather images you would like to share? This is the place to browse through our current and past season's weather images and find discussions on photographic techniques, cameras, video equipment, software and related accessories.

Non-weather Photography

This is the place to showcase your "non weather" photography. From holidays to family snaps, any images non-weather related can be posted here. Please note that both the Photography Forums have a 75kb limit on each image, or please use thumbnails were possible.

Classifieds

Established Weatherzone members can post commercial messages within the classifieds area. Posting rights in the Classifieds forum are granted by application only. The intention is to provide an area where long term Weatherzone members can advertise commercial products or services. It is important that the classifieds must have some relevance to weather, the Weatherzone website or weather watching. It is the poster’s responsibility to make this relevance clear. Posting rights will only be granted to members who are ongoing subscribers to Weatherzone Silver.

Spamming, bumping or repetitious posting in the Classifieds forum is not allowed. Please only post once per product.

The Lounge

The Blah Blah Bar. This is the place for non-weather related discussion. The Lounge is a more relaxed area, and as such, vigorous discussion will be allowed, but threads which degenerate into slanging matches may be closed.

Threads that primarily discuss sex, drugs, politics or religion are tightly controlled. These topics have the most potential to cause offense, extend beyond the forums general audience nature or result in harmful arguments between members. Threads that primarily deal with these topics may be closed by the moderators at their discretion.

Threads may also tend to head off topic on occasion, but that is generally accepted. Also, remember to keep language clean. Swearing will not be tolerated and will result in a warning for a first offence, and further action will be taken if the behaviour persists.

Events

Organising a meeting? Let the Weatherzone know of the arrangements here. ASWA/AMOS meetings, Drink Nights, organised storm chases and Chat Sessions. WARNING: Do not post personal details.

Archives

All the old threads over the lifetime of the Forums. Most topics end up in here once they have been silent for a while. If you are bored and want a history of the forum and its characters, this is the place to go.

Breaking Weather Updates Posting Guidelines

• Threads should be based around a weather system that is expected to produce significant weather. (eg NSW East Coast Low 12/7 - 14/7, Thunderstorms in SE QLD 24/12/2003).

• No blanketing of dates for a location (eg Possible storm chances SE QLD 12/12 - 19/12, Sydney weather 24/11 - 1/12).

• Locations should cover reasonable geographical areas (eg NE NSW/SE QLD, southern inland NSW, southwest WA). Two threads covering closely located regions for the same weather system will be combined into one thread (eg separate threads covering Hunter Valley and Sydney rainfall will be combined into one).

• Threads should only be starting within a day of the expected event. Threads opened earlier than this will be locked until the day before the start of the event. When starting a thread, add a link to the corresponding forecast thread in The Briefing Room. To eliminate confusion, we recommend using the same thread title as The Briefing Room thread with '[OBS]' appended.

• Moderators reserve the right to close or move threads from Breaking Weather Updates to General Weather once the event has passed. This way the post-analysis of the event can take place without the thread being used for the next spate of thunderstorms or cold weather.

• Where possible, post links to images, or use thumbnails rather than putting the full size image directly into posts, especially if you're putting up a series of or large images. It slows down the loading time significantly for a single page (especially for those users on dial-up connections).