3 ms·

There used to be this amazing hobbyist weather station sharing site. Weather Underground. But like so many they turned commercial and kicked off all the hobbyi

There used to be this amazing hobbyist weather station sharing site. Weather Underground. But like so many they turned commercial and kicked off all the hobbyists that made them big. It was a really nasty move. I have never found a suitable replacement. I don't know what it is about weather that gives people so much greed.

hackernewds 2y ago
What are some other examples? Ultimate Guitar Tabs comes to mind too
screamingninja 2y ago
> But like so many they turned commercial and kicked off all the hobbyists that made them big. It was a really nasty move. Yes, their acquisition by IBM really messed things up. I went from totally loving the app to uninstalling it and never looking back. Definitely going to feed my local data to weather.gov.
Brybry 2y ago
The hobbyists are still on wunderground, I still use it to regularly check some in my neighborhood. The only "bad" thing Weather Underground did was they ended their free API for non-contributors. [1] I believe personal weather station contributors still get free access to a different API that wunderground moved to. [2][3] [1] https://archive.md/xe9B1 https://archive.md/xe9B1 [2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eKCnKXI9xnoMGRRzOL1xPCBihNV2rOet08qpE_gArAY https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eKCnKXI9xnoMGRRzOL1xPCBi... [3] https://github.com/cytech/Home-Assistant-wundergroundpws/?tab=readme-ov-file#weather-underground-pws-api-key https://github.com/cytech/Home-Assistant-wundergroundpws/?ta...
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Well that is pretty bad IMO. What's the point of sharing it if people can't access it? And I don't think there is even an option to pay for personal accounts. It was a wonderful community-driven service and they basically canned the whole community, and moved to focus on commercial users. I think that's very bad. Even the site is totally useless now. Only crap news and some basic weather reports but it's very hard to find anything community generated. What's worst though is that no alternative emerged. I had expected that to happen. It's sad that community alternatives always end up selling out. The same with ADS-B Explorer.
- sunshinesnacks 2y ago
  The web-based “history” tool’s content and usability has been significantly reduced, as well. You used to be able to view and download a lot of detailed hourly data - now it’s reduced to things like daily summaries when selecting long time ranges.
firesteelrain 2y ago
I have sent my weather data with my Ambient station to wunderground for the last 7 years without issue. It has been used to track local weather patterns due to hurricanes and tropical storms too

hackernewds 2y ago

What are some other examples? Ultimate Guitar Tabs comes to mind too

screamingninja 2y ago

> But like so many they turned commercial and kicked off all the hobbyists that made them big. It was a really nasty move. Yes, their acquisition by IBM really messed things up. I went from totally loving the app to uninstalling it and never looking back. Definitely going to feed my local data to weather.gov.

Brybry 2y ago

The hobbyists are still on wunderground, I still use it to regularly check some in my neighborhood. The only "bad" thing Weather Underground did was they ended their free API for non-contributors. [1] I believe personal weather station contributors still get free access to a different API that wunderground moved to. [2][3] [1] https://archive.md/xe9B1 https://archive.md/xe9B1 [2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eKCnKXI9xnoMGRRzOL1xPCBihNV2rOet08qpE_gArAY https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eKCnKXI9xnoMGRRzOL1xPCBi... [3] https://github.com/cytech/Home-Assistant-wundergroundpws/?tab=readme-ov-file#weather-underground-pws-api-key https://github.com/cytech/Home-Assistant-wundergroundpws/?ta...

wkat4242 2y ago
Well that is pretty bad IMO. What's the point of sharing it if people can't access it? And I don't think there is even an option to pay for personal accounts. It was a wonderful community-driven service and they basically canned the whole community, and moved to focus on commercial users. I think that's very bad. Even the site is totally useless now. Only crap news and some basic weather reports but it's very hard to find anything community generated. What's worst though is that no alternative emerged. I had expected that to happen. It's sad that community alternatives always end up selling out. The same with ADS-B Explorer.
sunshinesnacks 2y ago
The web-based “history” tool’s content and usability has been significantly reduced, as well. You used to be able to view and download a lot of detailed hourly data - now it’s reduced to things like daily summaries when selecting long time ranges.

firesteelrain 2y ago

I have sent my weather data with my Ambient station to wunderground for the last 7 years without issue. It has been used to track local weather patterns due to hurricanes and tropical storms too