tgsnoopy wrote:Tabloid sensationalism? Get real, very few people can afford to pay for that info. It's suppost to be free and accessible for everyone in NZ. It should be able to handle the load and be available.
I stand by what I said. Metservices stance seems to be to play it down and get around to it later. I say that their stance could cost a life or lives... Not good enough. OSH would have them for breakfast if they were employers and their customers their employees.
Metservice needs to realise the system let us all down and can't cope, then do something about it as soon as is reasonably practical, not ignore it and pretend there is no problem.
How would you feel if your loved one died cause they chose to hide their head in the sand?
Long shot? Perhaps, but not worth the risk.
People who really need that info can afford it. The fact that it's (as in MetConnect) the only way to get continuously updated rain radar means it should be indispensable for outdoor activities centres.
They are probably playing it down because they don't want to draw attention to the problem...can't blame them for that. I do recognise that there's a problem and I'm willing to bet they see a problem there also. Even if you take the most cynical, pessimistic view of their "top brass", you can see that if the site is down, they lose advertising revenue from lack of clicks and hits in general. That's not good for a business.
To be honest, if I were planning a personal trip that was highly weather dependent, I would be utterly pissed off if their site was down. But then I'd turn on the radio, or if it was really, really important to me I'd phone them (yes, I realise it's not free but then my health and safety is worth more than a few dollars)! I'd say "It's not good enough" that a person got in trouble in a storm because the website was down and they weren't smart enough to realise there are other ways of getting the information.
I also think you are making strong assumptions, that they are burying their heads in the sand, and not trying to fix it. How do you know? It's easy to get on your soapbox and say "it's not good enough" but do you really know what's going on?
Razor wrote:
I'm with ya pal
I've thought about this, I think the Metservices needs 2 levels of website...a broad one for the "passing interest" joe blow, and a separate more technical one for us junkies. That might take the heat out of peak demand a little.
Or else the top brass could just take the gorse out of their pockets and install a half decent server...
They do have two levels, one is Metconnect, the other is Metservice.
Having said what I've said, I do find it irritating that you see adverts for their site plastered everywhere and then it fails when it's needed most. But I've never missed out on valuable information because it's gone down. Let's "get real" here, we can't be completely reliant on the internet.
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