Origins of website

[rob83]

I'm just curious as to how this site got started and how it has managed to get so many professional mets and how it has a site statistician and people like Cycloneeye who give such valuable posts. When did this forum get started, i.e. what year? How did you guys manage to bring it to such high quality and how did you manage to get pro mets to post on your board? Basically, I'm asking the question: are you guys just amateur web page developers or is this a major web page operation like say CNN.com or MSNBC.com", etc? Do you have people in a meterological office like the NHC analyzing data during the day?
What do you guys think the key to your success is? And how did you real in such good forecasters?

[OtherHD]

Here's another question: Why are you a guest?

[chadtm80]

About Storm2K
STORM2K.ORG was founded on October 8, 2002. The initial site was brought on-line on a free hosting service as Storm2k.f2o.org. The goal was, is and always will be to provide a safe, fun, family environment for our members and guests. We wanted a board “run by members for our members”! While the central focus of the site is the discussion of weather events, we encourage discussion and debate on almost any topic. The only rigid rules are that these discussions are conducted in a respectful and courteous manner.

Many of the initial cadre to join the site were old friends, many of who met at the various incarnations of the Lowe’s Storm97/98/99/2000 site, now known as GoPBI. Most of this original group not only posted on the message board there but also were active members of the same weather chat room. Over the course of several years, many of us became increasingly concerned over the “flaming” and other non-friendly trends that developed on that board and others. The idea for our own site was born over several nights as a way to provide a more user friendly place for people to gather. By creating a “place of our own”, we could ensure that the environment was what we wanted it to be.

A series of problems with our initial host drove us to start looking for a commercial site. On Feb 21, 2003 we became http://www.storm2k.org on our new commercial host iPowerweb out of California. As they say timing is everything, shortly after we came on-line on our new host, The Weather Channel decided to close their off-topic section. This left a lot of people looking for a new place to call home. Luckily, that home for many became our site! We have since moved to a new Semi-Dedicated server that has been presented to us by one of our members, Droliver!! The growth continues mostly by word of mouth advertising. The great thing is that the initial goal of the site is and will be maintained. The common statement from new users is that the family atmosphere is what makes STORM2K special!

We may never be the biggest weather site on the web but that’s fine with us. We just want to be the best and friendliest one! Thanks to all our members for helping us maintain that goal!