Eastern Oregon Bear said:
Another brain dead decision from the new and improved Twitter. At least they eventually came to their senses.
Twitter limits automated weather alerts from the National Weather ServiceTwitter has now restricted our automated tweets and as a result this account can no longer post all watches/warnings/advisories as they are issued. We will continue to provide general updates, but ensure that you have multiple means for receiving weather information & alerts.
— NWS Billings (@NWSBillings) April 13, 2023
From the CNN story:Quote:
In February, Twitter announced it would limit the number of tweets that can be sent from automated accounts, unless they pay extra, in a move it said was intended to "increase quality, reduce spam, and enable a thriving ecosystem."
The change would have a huge impact on the National Weather Service and other weather entities using automated tweets to send crucial weather alerts, like tornado warnings.
"The reason the automation exists is so that the people at the office don't have to worry about redundantly issuing a tornado warning, then going on to Twitter, and then retyping the same thing," Daryl Herzmann explained. Herzmann is a systems analyst for Iowa Environmental Mesonet and helped create the automation software used on Twitter.Quote:
Herzmann explained Twitter was going to only allow 50 automated tweets in a 24-hour period. To put it in perspective, his account issued about 16,000 automated tweets on a slow weather day and issued 28,000 on April 4, the day the Midwest was hit with nearly 30 tornado reports.
"Without this automated process, it would take minutes for forecasters to manually prepare warning information into a tweet. For every warning issued, seconds could make the difference between life and death," said NOAA in a statement to CNN.Quote:
Twitter, which laid off much of its public relations team after Musk took over last year, did not respond to a request for comment.
"Since Elon has basically gutted all the employees, it's impossible to interact with them at a technical level," explained Herzmann. "It's very frustrating."
Twitter originally said there would be no exceptions to its ruling to limit the number of automated tweets. But in a surprising move over the weekend, Twitter has reversed course, saying in a tweet "Twitter will allow the National Weather Service accounts to continue Tweeting weather alerts without limits." The move highlights the importance of weather alerts. Weather warnings save lives.
Maybe the NWS should pay up. I doubt the feds are too broke to pay for the service they are using.
