Obviously what makes SpotterChat so great is the members.
In just 30 days we have over 250 members!

Each day you can find 20-30 people just talking about the weather, chasing or even current events, there is something for everyone.

I would like to take a moment to encourage you to invite your fellow weather enthusiasts to SpotterChat

Membership will be closing soon and you will need a “sponsor” to get in

If you have some time add “Find Me On SpotterChat.org” to your signatures on forums and links on your blogs/websites

Remember more members means a more active community

We have some EXCITING chats planned, special subjects like “How to choose a camcorder” to “Forecasting For Dummies” so make sure to check the website often for scheduled chats

Please send us a link to your shout to SpotterChat and we will be happy to add you to our wall of fame!

If you would like to get more involved with SpotterChat shoot us a line, we would love to get volunteer “speakers” for our special chats.

We have been having some discussions about usernames in the Chat room, I know everyone is tired of being asked to change them over and over so here is the official policy.

Usernames in Chat must comply to one of the following.

• Your First And Last Name Only -  Bob Test
• Your First Name And Last Initial - Bob T.
• Moderators and Admins will be identified with a mod or admin -  Bob Test - mod

One exception to this rule will be if you are a present or past member of the media and you use(d) a different name on air.

If you have a group you would like created please use the contact us page and send a list of usernames.  We will create you a group others in your group can see.

If you want to put your call in the “Buddy List” that’s fine, just do so after your last name.

These changes should help clean up confusion over who is who and make the chat experience better for everyone.

When I get a chance I will post a how-to change these in the program, if you do not already know how to do this please ask for assistance.

Thanks,
Scott

Again, the potential for severe weather is knocking on the door for Texas and Oklahoma on Monday.  The severe threat doesn’t warrant an official forecast chat session although there will be some chatter Sunday night alongside the weekly “Storm Chasers” chat beginning at 9pm CST.
Friday evening brings a night launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.  Join us at 6:30pm CST and chat about it!

• Nov 9: Weekly “Storm Chasers” chat begins at 9:00pm CST in the Lobby
• Nov 10: Potential for severe weather exists - Chat will be ongoing during the event in the Lobby
• Nov 14: Space Shuttle Endeavour launch - Chat starts at 6:30pm CST

Thanks everyone who participated in our various chats over the past few days!

Although some of us made some crazy trips… IE Danny Neal & Crew (And Myself for that matter) the storms were somewhat a bust.    Regardless a chance to chase in November I did not hear anyone complain.

The good news it was a BOOM for SpotterChat as a grew another 25% to almost 200 users!

The day did give a chance to find some bugs in the system I need to work on, I also was able to get some suggestions out in the field.

Models indicate a widespread weather event will occur on Wednesday, November 5^th. While this doesn’t appear to be an “outbreak” there is a good chance for multiple severe thunderstorms from as far north as South Dakota to as far south as central Texas. What better time to flex some of SpotterChat’s muscles than during a fall severe weather event?

Coverage for this event will begin with a forecast chat scheduled for 9PM CST on Tuesday, November 4^th and will pick up again as the event unfolds on Wednesday the 5^th. Make sure to click the “Conferences” tab and look for special event rooms to log in.

This week:

• Tuesday at 8PM CST: Election Chat
• Tuesday at 9PM CST: Forecast Chat for Wed severe wx potential
• Sunday at 9PM CST: StormChasers watch party chat
• The “Lobby” is open 24/7 all week. Join us in chat when you have time!

See you in chat!

Steve

Yes I am having a bit of trouble with it myself but anything to get in another chase day is ok in my book!

Here are some upcoming events for SpotterChat.org

• Tonight is the weekly StormChasers watching party, each week the group has been increasing make sure to stop by!
• Tuesday night we will have a special Election chat in the “Election Room” sure to be somewhat charged and hopefully we can make it all night without anyone getting banned!
• Wed-Thur HOPEFULLY we will be talking about some STORMS!   As of Sunday AM SPC is still putting a risk out for a line from TX to IA.

To those anxiously waiting for my Blackberry instructions I am still not happy with the client I have found, I will let you know when I have something better.

One feature I hope to release before Wed is Severe Alerts, I am working on completing the integration and MIGHT have it done on time, if you want to Beta it please send me your user name.

Thx,
Scott

SpottterChat user Christopher Zenzel has been kind enough to write this how-to use the SpotterChat service with an iPhone.

At this time you can only chat in IM as rooms are not supported.
You will also need to buy the app from the app store.

Thanks for the tip Christopher!
(Please note although this software will work with the SpotterChat service all features will not be available and is not officially supported by SpotterChat)

I have PDF’ed the doc to keep the screen shots and all intact.

Tomorrow I will do a How-To on Web Messenger for Blackberry

iPhone Mobile Chat Instructions

Strange the site is 1 week old and already changed to a new format!

I did not feel I had what I needed with Joomla (the old engine) without some major modifications so I decided on a Blog type of view.

I think this will do a little better as we can set the topic for the general chats based on the weather situation much like Severe Studios does.

I am working on cleaning up the pages so they all look nice but most of the content is moved and ready to go.

Enjoy!
Scott

Join us once again this Sunday at 9 Central to watch Storm Chasers on Discovery Channel.

Last weeks episode the consensus was that the TVN crew was much more entertaining than the TIV circus, lets see what this week holds in store.

For more information on Storm Chasers see http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/storm-chasers/storm-chasers.html

Released Version 2.5.8 because of a bug in the Spark versioning on the client was causing the Fastpath modules not to load.

This upgrade allows for the VOIP phone and “Chat With Me” clients to work.

You should get an automatic upgrade notification, if you follow the instructions you should have no problems.   If it keeps telling you to upgrade and you already have, completely uninstall the application and download the Upgrade from the download area.