What happened to WeatherSpork?

WannFly

WannFly

Final Approach
Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
6,553
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KLZU
Display Name
Display name:
Priyo
A few months ago I received an email from them saying they are moving to new platform etc and to set up my account there. I didn’t get a chance to review the platform until very recently and even then I didn’t have a lot of time playing with it. My first impression is it’s not ready for prime time and the features that were there in the previous app are no longer available on the new one or the old one.

So anyone knows what the poop is going on? As a paying customer I am borderline livid that they removed the feature from the old one without a comparable one in the new one. Needless to say, I don’t think I will be spending money on them anymore.
 
spending money on what 999 out of 100 people know is inconsistent, unreliable information seems pretty silly to me. but it's your money.
 
The app still works great. I use it all the time. I don’t use the website too much though.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I found it quite useful at representing the raw data gathered from various sources.

Back to the point, anyone knows the back story?
 
Peter Anderson said:
The app still works great. I use it all the time. I don’t use the website too much though.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Yeah the app works but they have removed a bunch of planning tools and imagery that I used to use on a regular basis.
 
I thought I read on Beechtalk that Scott D. parted ways with Weatherspork and came up with the new EZWxBrief app, now a part of his AvWzWorkshops. I think you're taking about EZWxBrief. Weatherspork still exists.

Before Scott D. got kicked off of Beeechtalk there was discussion about some gov't weather products being retired which also meant some functionality of the app also going away...at least I think that's what I read but could be wrong.
 
baboss said:
I thought I read on Beechtalk that Scott D. parted ways with Weatherspork and came up with the new EZWxBrief app, now a part of his AvWzWorkshops. I think you're taking about EZWxBrief. Weatherspork still exists.

Before Scott D. got kicked off of Beeechtalk there was discussion about some gov't weather products being retired which also meant some functionality of the app also going away...at least I think that's what I read but could be wrong.
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yeah the new one is EZWxBrief and there is nothing easy about it. I will just go back to using 1800-wxbrief
 
scottd said:
It's actually quite easy to use, but I understand it's not meant for everyone. It is a bit different than other apps since it incorporates your personal weather minimums to help you decide when it's the best time to depart. It also provides turbulence and icing on the route profile and meteogram and incorporates the guidance from a couple dozen forecast models using a 50 mile wide corridor that has a product resolution of 2.5 km along the route vs just pushing out the basic GFS MOS and a rudimentary relative humidity scheme from the GFS model to show clouds (a very bad approach), wind, ceiling and vis that you'll find is used with most of the other apps. It also contains the complete set of imagery that has always been available with avwxworkshops memberships.

Did you have a chance to look at the dozen or more vids I posted on the YouTube channel? I do a weekly weather chat on Tues at 3 pm EDT as well on FB Live. Or perhaps take a few minutes to look at the 130+ page pilots guide? There's actually a quick start guide in there to provide the basics of the application. Please reach out to me and I'll do a free 30 minute 1-on-1 session with you prior to your next flight. Or if you are coming to AirVenture, stop by Hangar C where I'll have a booth so I can demo it for you. You can also catch me at one of the 8 presentations I'm doing throughout the week.
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Thanks, Scott for the good work. I was a user of WeatherSpork and now EXWxBrief. I don't know if this is the right avenue for suggestions, but it'd be nice if:

1. The profile view had a button to shrink the route to one screen instead of having to scroll left/right to see the entire route.

2. Remember the altitude button selected. It seems every time I look at the route, the FL500 button is defaulted, and I have to reselect 15,000'.

3. Instead of Clouds/Icing/Turbulence being "buttons" that can have only one selected at a time, make them check boxes so you can display multiple items as overlays much like WeatherSpork did.
 
If you are accepting suggestions, then replying to a customer saying "it is not easy to use" with "it's actually quite easy to use" is really tone deaf and rather a bad look. In that one sentence, you:

1. Discounted the value of feedback from the customer with what is basically a "Nu uh" response.

2. Worse, in disagreeing with the feedback from the customer -- if they think it's hard to use, and you tell them it isn't -- you're basically saying they're an idiot. Publicly.

3. Rather than convincing them of how easy your tool is to use, you have with #2 likely turned them off to any product you may care to come out with now, or in the future. If I was @WannFly I'd probably look for every opportunity to badmouth you in any hangar bull session now and in future.

Perhaps a "here's how I use it" response followed with a "How could we make it easier?" would have been better here.

$0.02. I liked weatherspork a lot, haven't tried the new one yet, so have no opinion on its actual ease.
 
schmookeeg said:
If you are accepting suggestions, then replying to a customer saying "it is not easy to use" with "it's actually quite easy to use" is really tone deaf and rather a bad look. In that one sentence, you:

1. Discounted the value of feedback from the customer with what is basically a "Nu uh" response.

2. Worse, in disagreeing with the feedback from the customer -- if they think it's hard to use, and you tell them it isn't -- you're basically saying they're an idiot. Publicly.

3. Rather than convincing them of how easy your tool is to use, you have with #2 likely turned them off to any product you may care to come out with now, or in the future. If I was @WannFly I'd probably look for every opportunity to badmouth you in any hangar bull session now and in future.

Perhaps a "here's how I use it" response followed with a "How could we make it easier?" would have been better here.

$0.02. I liked weatherspork a lot, haven't tried the new one yet, so have no opinion on its actual ease.
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Well said. I was going to reply but chose not to and take my business elsewhere.
 
schmookeeg said:
If you are accepting suggestions, then replying to a customer saying "it is not easy to use" with "it's actually quite easy to use" is really tone deaf and rather a bad look. In that one sentence, you:

1. Discounted the value of feedback from the customer with what is basically a "Nu uh" response.

2. Worse, in disagreeing with the feedback from the customer -- if they think it's hard to use, and you tell them it isn't -- you're basically saying they're an idiot. Publicly.

3. Rather than convincing them of how easy your tool is to use, you have with #2 likely turned them off to any product you may care to come out with now, or in the future. If I was @WannFly I'd probably look for every opportunity to badmouth you in any hangar bull session now and in future.

Perhaps a "here's how I use it" response followed with a "How could we make it easier?" would have been better here.

$0.02. I liked weatherspork a lot, haven't tried the new one yet, so have no opinion on its actual ease.
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As long as I’ve been on here, I’ve seen this attitude (and worse) from Scott. I decided over a decade ago he’d never get a dime of my money for that exact reason. For all the times he’s said he’s leaving PoA permanently (I think one or two have been in response to posts I made like this one) , he keeps coming back.
 
WannFly said:
Well said. I was going to reply but chose not to and take my business elsewhere.
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Don’t blame you. I also found it clunky and not as good as WeatherSpork. A few minutes at his booth at sun n fun and he explained all my confusion, but initially, I too found it unintuitive, and there are some annoying quirks.

I also agree with the feedback that was given above. I also felt like I was being called stupid for not understanding it immediately.

i don’t get the feeling he means it, but somehow it just comes out wrong. JMO
 
Why would Scott D get kicked off Beechtalk? That’s what I’m wondering about.
 
sourdough44 said:
Why would Scott D get kicked off Beechtalk? That’s what I’m wondering about.
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There a thread about it. Short version is he was offering to sell a presentation to someone and wasn't a sponsor, which is against their ROC. When they called him on it he got butthurt and told them off.
 
schmookeeg said:
If you are accepting suggestions, then replying to a customer saying "it is not easy to use" with "it's actually quite easy to use" is really tone deaf and rather a bad look. In that one sentence, you:

1. Discounted the value of feedback from the customer with what is basically a "Nu uh" response.

2. Worse, in disagreeing with the feedback from the customer -- if they think it's hard to use, and you tell them it isn't -- you're basically saying they're an idiot. Publicly.

3. Rather than convincing them of how easy your tool is to use, you have with #2 likely turned them off to any product you may care to come out with now, or in the future. If I was @WannFly I'd probably look for every opportunity to badmouth you in any hangar bull session now and in future.

Perhaps a "here's how I use it" response followed with a "How could we make it easier?" would have been better here.

$0.02. I liked weatherspork a lot, haven't tried the new one yet, so have no opinion on its actual ease.
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Mike's comment is spot on - I also liked weatherspork, but it was obvious to me that Scott wasn't listening or willing to hear what was said by the users.

I worked over 20 years in the IT world before retiring this year. a comment you'd hear fairly often was along the lines of "This job would be so much easier if we didn't have users" The tech guys who said this broke into two groups -
  1. The ones who were being facetious and were subtly commenting that we needed to improve on what we were delivering and how we supported it. This group understood that we were building solutions for customers who paid us and who wouldn't be paying us in the future if we didn't listen to them and constantly improve
  2. The tech guys who thought users were not as smart as them and therefore the bugs in a product, were actually product "features" that the users were too stupid to properly understand. These guys were constantly unhappy and either didn't last, or were like mold that just wouldn't go away. Speaking as one of the senior leaders in a large IT division, these guys were a pain in the butt.
 
Funny, as a dev, I see sometimes customers get used to defects and consider them features. If you fix/remove them, they get annoyed that they're back-door to do things is removed. But that being said, a good UX dev is worth their weight in.. something. Not gold, but they're pretty valuable.
 
I don't know, I use exwxbrief and I think it works pretty well. Yes I get lost occasionally but it's easy to find my way back. The way he allows you to slide through the weather service charts helps me see trends, plus his face book sessions really help me with my briefings. Well worth the few bucks a month it costs. I did like weather spork, but I use this service quite a bit, especially for longer trips.
 
First time I used EZWxbrief, it seemed like it was still in beta mode (maybe it is). Not very intuitive to navigate at all. I’m sure if it was the only product/app of its kind and i spent several hours on it, it would get more intuitive. But while there is WeatherSpork and other apps still available, will default back to those.
 
Hi there! Sorry to revive the old post but wanted to assure everyone that WeatherSpork is alive and well.

@WannFly if there are any particular features you liked from the "old" WeatherSpork that are missing since the split, please do respond here or via our support email and we can have a look.

Thanks to everyone for their loyalty to WeatherSpork over the years!

David B.
 
WeatherSpork said:
Hi there! Sorry to revive the old post but wanted to assure everyone that WeatherSpork is alive and well.

@WannFly if there are any particular features you liked from the "old" WeatherSpork that are missing since the split, please do respond here or via our support email and we can have a look.

Thanks to everyone for their loyalty to WeatherSpork over the years!

David B.
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Just wanted to say - great product!
 
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