User blog:StevDev/Vision for 2020, planned design changes

As you all know, this decade is coming to a close. This decade will be very memorable for sure, being the decade I grew up from a child to an adult. I went from being a prepubescent boy at the decade's beginnings, reached puberty in the next couple years and became a teenager, spent the middle years of the decade as a teen, and grew into adulthood in the last few years of this decade. I've also first developed an interest for tracking hurricanes back in September 2010, creating an account here and at Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki a few years later. Since then my interest has remained pretty strong and I've witnessed many users of this wiki come and go. I joined this wiki at a time when it was replete with users who are now inactive. However, over the years, it seems like overall activity and the quality of this wiki has declined a bit (with the exception of a spike in activity and number of users around 2016-2017). There's now barely anyone even active here anymore (although that could be due to it being off-season, but there's still activity in the WPac and SHem this time of year), with the main page saying this wiki only has 10 active users. I only see a few of these post actively on the forums and it seems like no one is interested in SHem cyclones.

A couple of months ago I warned you guys how the fate of this wiki could be if we didn't take action to improve this wiki and get it noticed elsewhere. My vision for 2020 aims to solve much of the problems the wiki faces. First of all, we need more users who are interested in the SHem or other non-NHC basins so this wiki can have good activity all year-round instead of just in the summer and fall. Secondly, various forums that don't get much activity (such as Hurricane Talk, Favorite Storms, Worldwide Activity Discussion, and Prediction Intercomparison) are all good ideas and should really be more noticed by the community as a whole. BTW I posted my favorite storms of 2019 at this link, I would love to see your lists as well. Thirdly, many parts of this wiki are outdated. The most laughably outdated part has to be the "Storm Names" section on the right-hand side of the main page below the blogs, it's literally still the storm names from 2012-13 and 2013! Other outdated things include the social network links listed in the "Index" menu. The IRC link should be replaced by Discord because no one uses IRC anymore as far as I'm aware. In the "Social Network" sub-menu, this wiki's Facebook page appears to no longer work (probably deleted or something), and the other link points to a Google+ page (a defunct social network). I hope to update the social network in the coming months, replacing IRC with Discord and adding new pages for this wiki on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I might create a new Discord just for this wiki because the current Discord is for WPTC, and I've been hesitant to join it because I'm not an active Wikipedia user anymore and most users there might be unknown Wikipedia users with no knowledge of this wiki's existence. Lastly, this wiki needs more articles. Many recent seasons and storms don't even have a page on this wiki, while back in the 2000s and early 2010s article creation occurred much more frequently. My aim is to make this wiki not just a forum site, but also a complete guide for all tropical cyclones and seasons past and present. This would require a truckload of articles to be created and I would love for you guys to help.

As part of the new vision, we will advertise this wiki on other sites (such as Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki, Storm2k, WikiProject Tropical Cyclones, and other tropical cyclone-related forums and chatrooms). Once it's ready, I also plan to submit this wiki to the Spotlight to get it even more noticed by featuring this wiki at the bottom of every Wikia site, probably appearing within the "Explore Wikis" menu. Once we reach the start of the next Atlantic hurricane season, I hope this wiki returns to its former glory or even surpasses it.

TL;DR:
 * Goodbye to a memorable decade in which I grew up from a child to an adult and developed an interest in tracking hurricanes, joining sites such as Hypothetical Hurricanes and this wiki.
 * This wiki's activity and quality seems to be really suffering compared to a few years ago and when I first joined.


 * My Vision for 2020:
 * We need more users interested in non-NHC basins who can post on those forums during off-season to keep this wiki active.
 * More users should notice and post on the other forums like Hurricane Talk, Favorite Storms, Worldwide Activity Discussion, and Prediction Intercomparison. Check out my favorite storms of 2019 and post yours too!
 * We have to update outdated parts of this wiki, such as the main page and the social network.
 * It would be nice to expand the article section of this wiki so it's not just a forum but also a complete guide for all tropical cyclones and seasons past and present.
 * Advertise this wiki elsewhere and submit it to the Spotlight in order to return this wiki to its former glory or even surpass it by the start of the next Atlantic season.

Design Changes
I'm also going to post some planned design changes here for the new year. If there are no opposition votes by January 1, they will be implemented on that day.

New logo
My planned logo seems to have a bit more of a streamlined feel to it. I'm not a real fan of the current logo because the "hurricane" in the logo lacks an eye and has four points, while a classic "hurricane" style has just two points. I understand that the extra points might represent a spinning hurricane but that version just looks a bit ugly to me and a spinning hurricane would be better represented by an animated GIF. A classic-looking hurricane with an eye like in my logo below just looks better and more understandable. Also, the font used in the current logo seems a bit "formal" for my taste and all-caps is a bit ugly in that font. My planned logo also contains a description at the bottom to help new users understand what this wiki is used for, as a forum and a guide for tropical cyclones.



How do you guys like it? :)

Wiki background image
I suggest a few better backgrounds using the most notable storms of this year. I'm thinking of including pictures of Dorian, Lorenzo, Hagibis, Idai, and maybe another storm in the background. This background will change at the end of every year to represent the most notable storms of the past year. The Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki uses a background similar to the one I'm proposing.

Active storms template
The current template is very vague when considering where the storms are occurring in the world. The only hints are in the names - "Hurricane", "Typhoon", "Cyclone", etc. and where they link to. I propose a version that is more straight-up with where the tropical cyclones are occurring and also adding a section for AOIs and invests that are being monitored for development. That section would give more attention to the systems which are being monitored for possible tropical cyclone development - only invests and non-invested AOIs currently being monitored by agencies will be allowed (no long-range model storms or other interesting systems that might be posted about on forums but are not invested or monitored by any agency).

Here's a comparison between the current template and my proposal.

Current template: Current Systems: ', ' , and 

My proposal:

Active Tropical Cyclones:


 * West Pacific: 


 * South Pacific: 


 * South-West Indian:
 * Areas to watch for development: 

Currently active tropical cyclones (depressions and higher) go after the name of the basin, while disturbances, PTCs, invests, and AOIs go under the "Areas to watch for development" sub-bullet. In this proposal, I hid all basins that are not producing storms and other currently unneeded parts under the tags in order to simplify how the final product appears. If a system develops in a basin, simply remove the tags before adding it, and add those tags back if the basin goes dead.

Color Guide for my proposed Active Storms template
Tropical Cyclones:
 * NIO Depressions - #80CCFF
 * Tropical Depressions (Atl, EPac, CPac, WPac (including JMA TDs), SPac, SWIO), NIO Deep Depressions, AUS Tropical Lows (with "U" designation) - #5EBAFF
 * Tropical and Subtropical Storms (Atl, EPac, CPac, WPac), Moderate Tropical Storms (SWIO), Cyclonic Storms (NIO), Category 1 (AUS scale - AUS and SPac basins) - #00FAF4
 * Severe Tropical Storms (WPac and SWIO), NIO Severe Cyclonic Storms, Category 2 (AUS scale - AUS and SPac basins) - #CCFFFF
 * Typhoons (74-96 mph per JMA) - #FDAF9A
 * Category 1 (SSHWS - Atl, EPac, CPac basins), NIO Very Severe Cyclonic Storms, SWIO TC, Category 3 (AUS scale - AUS and SPac basins) - #FFFFCC
 * Category 2 (SSHWS - Atl, EPac, CPac basins) - #FFE775
 * Category 3 (SSHWS - Atl, EPac, CPac basins), WPac Very Strong Typhoons, NIO Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storms, SWIO Intense TC, Category 4 (AUS scale - AUS and SPac basins) - #FFC140
 * Category 4 (SSHWS - Atl, EPac, CPac basins) - #FF8F20
 * Category 5 (SSHWS - Atl, EPac, CPac basins), WPac Violent Typhoons, NIO Super Cyclonic Storms, SWIO Very Intense TC, Category 5 (AUS scale - AUS and SPac basins) - #FF6060

This part excludes systems that are not considered true tropical cyclones, such as PTCs or disturbances. For those systems, see the "Areas to watch for development" section below.

New to the scale: Very Strong Typhoons and Violent Typhoons. These are actual classifications on the JMA scale but are just not used on Wikipedia season articles. From 2020 forward, these intensities will also be used as headers on the Western Pacific forums. See the JMA scale on this page for more info. As for the reasoning behind this change, I just find it unfair to equate a 75 mph typhoon with a C5-equivalent typhoon and believe that the intensities in the Active Storms template and the headers on the forums should truly show off the typhoon's intensity if it gets really powerful.

Areas to watch for development:
 * Invests or AOIs not monitored by the NHC, CPHC, or JTWC - #0000FF
 * Near 0%-30% Chances (48 hours - Atl, EPac, CPac), Low Chances (JTWC) - #FFFF00
 * 40%-60% Chances (48 hours - Atl, EPac, CPac), Medium Chances (JTWC) - #FF7700
 * 70%-Near 100% Chances (48 hours - Atl, EPac, CPac), High Chances (JTWC) - #FF0000
 * Potential Tropical Cyclones (Atl, EPac), Zones of Disturbed Weather (SWIO), Tropical Disturbances (SWIO and SPac), and AUS Tropical Lows (without "U" designation) - #80CCFF

In place of the windspeed and pressure, these systems will instead have chances of formation. See the examples below for how this will work:





For AOIs that are not invested, it will look like this. Note that I prefer to leave out the "AOI:" part from the header and just put in the area's location:



For Potential Tropical Cyclones and other systems marked with "#80CCFF", both the chances of formation and the windspeed/pressure will be present like in the examples below:





If a system becomes a full-fledged tropical cyclone according to non-JTWC agencies (using the classifications listed under "Tropical Cyclones"), chances of formation is not needed if the JTWC has yet to declare it a tropical cyclone. If the JTWC has declared it a tropical cyclone before an official agency does, only the windspeed and pressure is required.

If an invest is not being monitored by the JTWC or any other agency, it will just say that the chances for development are unknown:



It is preferable to base the colors of NHC AOIs on 48 hour formation chances rather than 5 days because the latter can be considered too long-range while 48 hours is a more prioritized time. NHC AOIs that are on the 5-day outlook but not on the 48 hour outlook can be marked yellow because the chances for 48 hours, Near 0%, is still within the yellow range. However, the 5 day percentage is still included as seen with the examples above.

The systems with the "#80CCFF" color, while having advisories issued for them, should not considered true tropical cyclones. They are often too weak, disorganized, or lack closed circulations.

The new active storms proposal can seem a bit complicated and confusing at first glance, but with the storms now ordered into their basins, it will be easier to know where the storms are occurring around the world. And the addition of AOIs and invests will add for an interesting touch to this template and probably increase attention for areas being monitored for development. How do you guys like all my ideas for the future of this wiki and the design changes for the new year? Let me know down below. Again, unless I get significant opposition, these design changes will be implemented on New Years Day.

~  Steve 🎄   Happy  Holidays!  🎅🕯  06:38, December 29, 2019 (UTC)