The old XOAP XML site is down, and it will not be coming back.
I have communicated extensively with the folks at weather.com, and they are not happy to say the least.
I will attempt to disseminate all that I have discussed and learned over the last 36 hours.
As some of you already know; weather.com has had a restructuring of their site and usage protocols.
Originally they had shut down only 3500 locations and moved them to a premium service.
Starting immediately after the opened for business at 0930 EST, the calls started coming in, and they began to realize the extent what has been happening with their XOAP unregulated URL.
They re-aligned their URL and started monitoring, as they had been experiencing Bandwidth strain.
This bandwidth strain had been going on for some time, but as they started to shut down locations, they were still experiencing repeated and multiple hits to the address.
Approximately 740 million hits in a half hour were recorded, and weather.com went into an emergency meeting.
After this meeting, the decision was made to cut the service all together, and go for full site update and re-alignment.
This was encouraged by the fact that weather.com felt that they are losing money from a lack of affiliate hits and sales.
They are losing advertising dollars.
in an attempt to survive the current world wide economic situation they have now moved to a tracking and random advertising schema for their site.
weather.com also updated their services that are available and the contractual agreement.
Under this new set up, they expect their revenues to increase several fold, and (this is my guess only at this time) to track individual and company wide development and usage. Since weather.com's privacy policy is thin in this regard, they may be utilizing these tracking methods for nothing more than site monitoring, or as much as an ability to sell the information to the programs that are affiliated with weather.com.
A lot of this is speculation, as the folks at weather.com are a bit mum at this time.
It may appear that weather.com has done this with no prior notification. I would put that to rest right now and tell you this is untrue.
Understand that us of this XML has gone on for years. A lot of this use has been unauthorized.
A lot of developers latched on to the XML, because it was readily available, and easily found and passed on, and then passed on again.
The site has been mainly unregulated for the better part of a decade, and may have continued, except for recent excessive bandwidth usage.
There is no one person or community or developer to blame.
The bottom line is that we were all using a licensed service with out authorization.
Anybody who had authorization and was in contractual ties with weather.com were notified several weeks ago about the coming changes, what to expect and how to comply.
Weather.com also advised that if for any reason that a developer of software could not comply with the new mandates, that they would be willing to work with them to come to some kind of agreement.
So realistically, weather.cm did give notice, and us un-authorized users of weather.com services missed it.
To that extent it is our bad!
Weather.com worked in good faith, and I have already verified this to my satisfaction.
So where are we now.
I have spent a good amount of time with the folks at weather.com today, and as I mentioned before, they are really mad, they feel as though there services have been abused, and they may be correct in this assumption.
I will tell you upfront, that at this time they are not prepared , or in the mood, to alter their contractual wants and needs to developers that have knowingly or unknowingly "Pirated" their services in the past.
They are currently feeling as though certain reparations should be made, or punishment should be distributed to these folks.
Do not worry, Rainmeter is exempt due to communication and intervention.
Actually they were grateful that I had come forward and admitted to massive amounts of ignorance, which they seem very satisfied with.
I have made our apologies and explained the ignorance of the masses, and expressed a sincere apology, and a want to continue to utilize their services.
Weather.com would have me advise our members that have already signed up for a business ID, that they are now contractually bound.
Weather.com is also aware of the mass Exodus to their new standards, and understand that a lot of people are doing so as a fix for their current situation.
Weather.com has already made decisions of properly culling this list at some point in the future, and their new tracking system will allow them to monitor locations, usage, and bandwidth amounts.
This new tracking system will allow them to surgically discontinue service to a code, rather than an entire site.
weather.com encourages our community to not take this action; of just signing up for an account to "fix" your skin.
there are several reasons not to do this, but weather.com folks site a few important ones.
1.) You are immediately in violation of a business level contractual agreement
2.) You may find that your current ID Code will one day soon just stop working.
If you have signed up for an account, you must keep the information to yourself.
Weather.com has an expectation that anyone who has signed up for an account to be fully compliant within 24 hours, as per the contract.
3.) certain free services will be cut back or eliminated. The first noticeable change will be the 5 day, instead of a 10 day forecast. Other services will follow along thisl ine, as weather.com will be pushing their premium pay for services
I CAN TELL YOU; there is no weather skin that is weather.com compliant at this time!
The folks at weather.com are being understanding, but have a firm foot on the ground at this time.
I have already expressed certain concerns, and as with AccuWeather pointed out those areas, that we have no way of complying with, now or ever.
I have explained our open code policy, and that any information licensed to Rainmeter will be available to the whole world.
Needless to say that weather.com understands our position and they are aware of us and our need, but are immediately reluctant to compromise, as they feel wronged, but also wish to avoid the situation of the OLD site.
A this time, I am on hold for a decision. I have spoken extensively, and hopefuly , smoothely enough, that I have had weather.com folks in consideration of our community.
with any luck, I can reach a similar agreement to AccuWeather's agreement.
That is what I am shooting for.
My current advise on this: Don't hold your breath.
I have no idea how this will play out.
At least we have a solution
So where do we go from here:
Patients and a lot of waiting. Ultimately weather.com will accept Rainmeter as licensed or not.
it is now out of my hands.
I have done what I can.
I would like the community to understand that we are pushing for the AccuWeather solution.
There is a good reason for this, we are licensed from AccuWeather, but also the better service in more areas.
But this is not our only solution, do to Rainmeter flexibility, we are able to parse from so many resources.
Weather underground, yahoo, even weather.com RSS Feed, and so many more.
The reason we are pushing the AccuWeather solution above all others is that they, even now, are supporting Rainmeter, so it is up to us to support AccuWeather.
But I still encourage Raineers to explore.
There is almost always another solution.
Other services, which you may need to make the community aware of.
I have read your posts and concerns, and we will do what we can with the time we are given available to us.
As a last note:
I know a lot of you are frustrated, and are worried. I hear "I am no skinner", "I am confused", "I Need help". I know there are some of you who want to help but do not know how.
I want all of you to know something.
I am a member of the DEV Team, but I am no programmer.
I am and Administrator for the Forums, but I no nothing about PHP or forum management
I am a Moderator at the IRC, I have not used IRC in over a decade.
So how did I get all these things,if I can not support these areas.
It is simple, because I do what I can, and support in the ways I know how.
There is so much to do here at the forums, and so many ideas, concepts, programs that we do not know of that you may. Just being a member is a contribution. Your interest inspired other's interest, so you have done something to help the Rainmeter community already,
I ask you continue.
Support in the ways you can, do not worry about the ways you can not.
Learn as you are able, we will help.
Teach others, even if it is only the little you know.
I have.
If you have something we should all know, then post it
Regardless of your level of Rainmeter knowledge and usage, you are still a Raineer
Be proud of that, and help in those areas that you can
