Seems like Columbus is getting hit pretty good tonight as well. lol
Rewinding time on the dopplar radar, the city of Franklin just got hit by four different thunderstorms. The last one did contain a very small
amount of small hail, as I heard hitting the ceiling of my loft.

It depends what is the motivation to use the protection in the first place.
1. Prevent annoying erratic operation (lights permanently flashing, cycling, abnormal color shift,...): These leave the system alone attempting to run the lamp for some time and if the erratic behavior continues, shut it down so the failing lamp stop become annoying.
2. Protect the gear from excessive wear and/or damage caused by failing lamp: Generating starting high voltage usually means quite high stress on many insulation, dielectrics and component involved in generating that voltage. Normally the design assumes it remains in this stressing mode for only very short time (then the lamp starts), so have very limited time they can withstand it.
3. Protecting from failing lamp becoming a hazard (explosion, fire,...). An example could be fire from overheating fluorescent electrode assemblies, HID explosions,...

@Patrick — All good, thank you for addressing this. I think this was, in fact, the source of his frustration, because there were something like 5-6 "Awaiting approval" comment boxes under the post.

Correct, for most members their first five comments require moderator approval.  We occasionally require comment approval beyond that, but except in those rare instances it automatically shuts off after that point.  Photo approval is required for new members until we manually switch it off, which reminds me that we ought to do another review of all members to see who has been on approval for an extended period unnecessarily.  I apologize if either feature has resulted in frustration.  The tradeoff for additional screening to help us filter out poor quality content is a longer delay for new member content to go live.

 Why do I get the feeling I'm not gonna get much sleep tonight ?

We actually got a taste of the original form of severe weather tonight... strong/severe thunderstorms. It's not over and we're still under a tornado
watch, but part of my city was in a tornado warning for the storm that had already passed us, so I got to hear the classic tornado siren melody, even
though the storm was already done for us. All of the tornado sirens here were activated.
As of now it's not over yet and there are more waves of storms to the west of my city. Interesting night so far.
First storms of 2026!

 AFAIK it only affects new members .

Does anyone remember watching the “Annie” movie from 1982 and remember the scene where one of the orphaned girls swings from a schoolhouse pendant light fixture when the girls sing “It’s the Hard Knock Life”?

See here:

https://youtu.be/LH6MstVxehQ?si=vF9Bqma_CGh1OYWa

You can find the girl swinging from the pendant light fixture at the 0:40 timestamp.

You’re welcome!

Unless that city is a gated community with a mandatory crash course about traffic lights before you can drive, there will be drivers who have no clue what this device is

So you get drivers trying to figure out an unfamiliar and unintuitive (flashing Red = proceed ) signalling device hanging from above, while the car is moving, traffic situation is unfolding, and pedestrians are walking into the road

Safety at its best