Frequently Asked Questions
As more questions appear on Talkback 16 Online, more answers will be added to this FAQ.

Talkback 16 Online
Weather
Miscellaneous

Talkback 16 Online

Why was my message deleted or edited?

Here are the main reasons I would delete something...

• if you used foul or offensive language.
• if you insulted someone directly or insulted a specific group of people.
• if you accused someone or some specific group of doing something illegal or inappropriate.
• if you stated something that was blatantly untrue.
• if you stated the same thing over and over again.
• if all you said was "I agree".
• if you posted more than two messages in one day.
• if you discuss a business other than WNEP-TV.
• if you stated that your team was better than another team (whether it's true or not).
• if your comment to a news story was REALLY long.
• if you did not write your message yourself (you copied it from somewhere).

Those are the main reasons that I can think of right now. There may be others as I take each message of a case-by-case basis. I also have to approve over 100 messages each day, so I don't necessarily spend a lot of time analyzing each message. I just read it quickly, get an impression, approve it (or not), and move on to the next one.

If you have a question about a specific message, feel free to e-mail it to me and I'll tell you exactly why I might not approve it.

Why is there a 2-message-per-day limit?

I limit people to two messages per day because I don't want the message board to turn into a chat room. When I started this board a few years ago I didn't have the limit. People would use it to have conversations back and forth for hours. That wasn't my intention for this board. I wanted it to be like Talkback 16 on TV, where people leave a message for all to read, not to hold a conversation.

I have found that usually when people post more than two messages each day, they end up repeating themselves over and over again. That makes for boring reading.

I can't find my message. What happened to it?

A few things may have happened...

• It may not have been approved yet. It often takes several hours (but never more than 18) for a message to be approved.
• It may have been pushed to a deeper page. As newer messages come in, older messages get pushed off the front page onto deeper pages. It is not unusual for a message to stay on the front page for only a few hours before being pushed back.
• It may have been deleted during the approval process. (see above)
• It may have been deleted because it was old. All messages older than 7 days are deleted.

Weather

I'm not seeing your Doppler Radar update every 3 minutes as advertised. What gives?

   The Doppler Radar Image IS updated every 3 minutes. The problem may be with your Internet Service Provider. Sometimes ISPs will cache or store popular web pages on their computers so they can send them to you faster. But when they do this you end up getting old pages.
   Pressing the "Doppler Refresh" button should bring up the newest image. The "Refresh" button uses JavaScript and may not work on older browsers or browsers with JavaScript deactivated.

Your Doppler Radar logo is covering my county. Please move it.

Actually the Doppler logo does not block your view of the information. That's because it is specially designed to plot the radar information ON TOP OF the logo. So even if there is rain where the logo is, you can still see it. The logo will NEVER cover radar information. Sometimes we will use a close-up map that shows the storms better, but usually we use maps that show as much of the viewing area as possible.

How can I contact a Meteorologist?

   If you need weather information you should watch WNEP-TV. If there is severe weather in the area we will crawl that information across the top of your screen, and we will periodically cut-in to programming to bring you updates.
   You can also use this website to check Live Doppler Radar and any current weather alerts.
   You should NOT call the station to get your own personal forecast. Especially during severe weather the meteorologist is very busy.
   If you have weather information that you think should be broadcast immediately, then please call the News Tipline at 1-800-533-NEWS or *1616 on your Verizon Cellular Phone.
   You can e-mail all the meteorologists at weather@wnep.com but your mail may not be read for a few days.

How do you pick your cities for your regional forecast maps?

We select about 9 or 10 towns spread across each region. We change the towns every 2 to 3 weeks. That way every town in the viewing area will eventually be listed.

What is Dewpoint?

Check the Weather Almanac section of our weather page. A direct link to my article about Dewpoint is here.

I would like to know the formula to figure out the wind chill factor.

Check the Weather Almanac section of our weather page.

What was the weather like on May 23, 1970 (or any other day in the past 100 years)?

Check the Weather Almanac section of our weather page.

Miscellaneous