Change to the ability for guests to view attachments

[WesL]

Good afternoon TalkWeather members,

We want to be an inclusive community that allows anyone to join our discussion at any level of weather or science knowledge. We see our members as valuable members of our community, which is why we offer members the ability to see fewer ads and use our live mode feature before and during high-impact events such as winter, severe, and tropical weather. We also have a small but growing list of member benefits that bring value through discounts and special affiliations.

However, with all those added value benefits, we still struggle to convert guests to members. After reviewing the recent ice event, it became clear that much of our bandwidth usage comes from members viewing the attachments. So as of 2/6/2023, we have turned off the ability to view full-size attachments for guests. This isn't meant to hinder anyone; instead, it will hopefully encourage guests to make the jump to becoming a member.

As always, membership is free and only takes a few moments to complete at https://talkweather.com/register

Member Benefits:

• View attachments
• Fewer ads
• Discounts with affiliate partners
• LIVE mode for high-impact events (Live mode allows you to leave the page open (on the last page) and see all the updates shortly after they are posted. No refreshing of the page is required.)

If you want to avoid ads all together, consider upgrading your account to a sustaining member for $5 a month. This group of members is the backbone of support for running this site. Thanks to their generosity, we are even getting to the point where we can offer new programs for those needing help obtaining a weather radio. (More on that soon) https://talkweather.com/account/upgrades

Either way, we are glad to have you here. If you have any questions or comments about this change, feel free to post below or use the contact us form in each page's footer.

Thanks,
Wes