The Local Weather Link On This Board

[tex]

Hi All,

I don't know how many of you use this option to view your local weather forecast, available by clicking on the link at the top of most pages on this site - some members have probably never even noticed it. I used to use it a lot, because back when I originally added it to the board, The Weather Channel allowed website owners/programmers to display up to a 10-day forecast. A year or so ago, they required us to limit the forecast to 5 days, and they imposed a few other limitations, (such as not allowing mobile access to the data), and they did a survey that suggested that they were considering going to paid use, only, so I was not at all surprised when I received a notice last week, stating that unless I agreed to subscribe to one of their paid services, (for commercial use), our existing agreement with them, and our XML data feed will be terminated on Nov. 11. Up until now, of course, the service has been available free of charge, for non-commercial uses, while commercial users paid a subscriber fee, determined by the number of user hits.

Since virtually all of us can get weather forecasts free, in about a zillion other places, I can see no reason to pay them for an XML data feed offering a totally unremarkable weather forecast, at an unacceptable price. Accordingly, unless someone can name a really good reason why I should accede to their demands to pay for their data feed, (especially in view of the fact that this board is a non-commercial entity), I will be removing the code that accesses, interprets, and displays their data on this board, sometime this weekend.

So if you're really attached to that weather service, and would truly hate to see it go, please respond to this post, and I'll reconsider.

Tex

[Martha]

I'm sorry, Tex, I never noticed the link and never used it. I think it would be pointless to pay for a service that we can get free elsewhere.

Thanks, though, for having put that there back when it was free.

Martha

[Gloria]

I don't think I've ever noticed it, either. If I want the weather, I look at the TV or go to the weather.com website. I think you can safely delete it.

Gloria

[sarkin]

That is a sweet faeture - but I totally agree, non-essential.

Actually, it's going to be so unpleasant here in the next 24 hours... I am hoping that eliminating this feature can only help!

Hope we all stay warm/dry/cool/drought-free - depending on location (and luck)!

Love,
Sara

(p.s. - I bet they lose a lot of users on this round... and thank you, Tex, for taking care of so many of these important housekeeping details!)

[MaggieRedwings]

Definitely non-essential and nothing you need to pay for.

Weather this w/e was terrible and 30 hrs without power and still not phone or TV. YUCK!

Love, Maggie