There is much talk about the new BOM site here in the bush.
Lots of frustration from locals.
I was willing go with the thesis that it would take time to get used to finding things, but I think it’s more than that.
I think it reflects a modern trend or phenomenon: tailoring things to yourself. Things that perfrom a function for the individual. So it seems to me the new BOM site looks after ‘My Weather’.
Me? I’m actually interested in ‘The Weather’. Around Australia. Synoptic chart. National radar and clicking on specific places. Observations and forecasts for Tanunda (Nuri), Roseworhy, Adelaide, Yunta, Oakey, Brisbane, and so on.
Important pages to me included the tabulated latest observations sections where a lot of information was presented in a way the eye could pick up so much, so quickly, and zero in on a town by clicking on it, and then go a click further and get ‘recent months at X’.
Maybe I just haven’t worked out what to do with this new site.
But why do I feel like the BOM has suddenly dumbed everything down?
About John Harms
JTH is a writer, publisher, speaker, historian. He is founder and contributing editor of The Footy Almanac and footyalmanac.com.au. He has written columns and features for numerous publications. His books include Confessions of a Thirteenth Man, Memoirs of a Mug Punter, Loose Men Everywhere, Play On, The Pearl: Steve Renouf's Story and Life As I Know It (with Michelle Payne). He can be contacted [email protected] He is married to Susan. They have three school-age kids - Theo, Anna, Evie. He might not be the worst putter in the world but he's in the worst four. His ambition was to lunch for Australia but it clashed with his other ambition - to shoot his age.
Yea and amen to all that, JTH. I wonder who was actually consulted in the preparation and presentation of this mess of pottage. Certainly not the wide range of those who have launched a tirade against the new format. What chance an admission that they (BOM) just plain got it wrong, misread the room, didn’t read the tea leaves, whatever? Please, please, please, go back to the drawing board and consult widely – there’s no shortage of takers willing to offer details of what they want and need from this essential national service. Ah, ‘service’ – now that’s an interesting concept!