AND
Surely they were hoping we might tell them if things are not working well?
We need a full scale strike starting from the First of August (no observation, no comment on forum, no agreement). Not just a banner. Perhaps that will bring the message laud and clear.
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Surely they were hoping we might tell them if things are not working well?
[/quote]
We are telling; are they listening?
Of course. And we are!!!
Not just here, but in the bugs report as well. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XihfQSBIHnU9E55bPzkiewxphOMZYDVBeemes4XhRgk/edit#gid=0
But:
- why are they not doing anything: bugs logged over a month ago have not been fixed. Why is it so slow and so painful?
- why is there no reportback, other than the news item on the home page which reports that bugs are fixed that have not been fixed - and definitely not checked to see if the “fixes” worked.
- why is there no feedback?
So, we have told them of almost 500 bugs. They have fixed 27.
Status of Bug report:
Broken after being fixed 3 1%
Dismissed by programmers 1 0%
Fixed 27 5%
Half fixed 14 3%
Not an issue 3 1%
NOT FIXED 3 1%
Pending 472 87%
Retain 17 3%
Grand Total (540)
We have told them here that we want progress and feedback. Nada …
We have expressed our frustration and disappointment … Nada …
Perhaps it is time for some anger?
To whom?
They dont seem to care. If they read this they dont respond.
What message will a ban give? That no one uses the site so they were right not to waste money on debugging and they might as well close down the site?
We need to do something that will hurt them, but wont hurt us! And since we depend on them 1000%, that is difficult, if not impossible.
All we can do is plead and gripe and point out bugs and stuff that might give the OU a bad reputation unless they fix it. With a little hope, perhaps the OU does care about its own standing in the community.
Tony, if your own stats (elsewhere in forum) be used as a projection, Ispot will be dead in less than 3 years time. The number of observations (especially in the UK), is noticeably lower and momentum lost after the 2014 changes. I think there have been five obs in Hong Kong and Chile in 2017. Some serious issues with Communities and dictionaries are still issues. At this rate it is not sustainable. Clearly griping is not working either.
Touche
So what do we do?
Any suggestions (other than pull all of our data out of iSpot and set up our own site - but then what about the UK and other communities?).
Stay quiet for a week.
Chile and Hong Kong are out anyway. There have been a handful (literally) of observations so far in 2017.
- How do we coordinate that?
- What proportion of users will just never come back?
How many users are not back after June?
See my PM.
too early to say. the upgrade overlaps with school holidays, so lots of people still away. Need more time to determine this …
and
It looks above as though you might have thought I was being serious, suggesting that no-one was telling them.
And[quote=“Tony_Rebelo, post:185, topic:92”]
They don’t seem to care.
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really? I hadn’t noticed…
Chuckles, slightly nervously, and get’s on with something serious…
Hang on a minute, THIS is serious
A thought. Me being a bit anal again. Perhaps if we put the gripes in alphabetical order they would respond. At this point it is all jumbled up.
So if we started a new thread, BUGS ALPHABETICAL and had each one neatly labeled, then they would be able to look at them coherently and reply to each one as it is dealt with.
( I am not sure if it is possible, but I will give it a try and see how it works).
Oh heavens. What a stupid idea. And now dejayM has tried to implement it. Heaven help us!!!
What on earth is alphabetical???
By type of bug?
By the modules in which it resides?
By the name that some user has decided to call it - often totally inappropriately? (let alone any synonyms, different names, different ontologies)
By the time it will take to fix?
By the page on which it occurs?
And what about ordering it alphabeticaly within the alphabet heading. So under “M” the Ms will not be alphabetical, but haphazzard.
And the linear structure of these forums means that any queries, replies, comments will mess up with the layout.
Not the brightest of solutions!!
Especially seen that there is already a solution in place. A spreadsheet. That the programmers can organize (if they wished - they would need to add a few fields perhaps) into any sequence or grouping that they like.
SEARCHES DYSFUNCTIONAL:
Trying to sort out the parameters of this:
What is happening? it was suggested that with time Google will map the pages on the new iSpot.
But the opposite seems to be happening. Fewer and fewer iSpot pages are showing up, and almost all of them are old ones, some of which are linking to the current site.
The site has been up now for 4 weeks and the 800 000 original pages are still not on Google.
Try it.
Google search something easy to track; Try Roridula (a Cape endemic). The top 4 entries on Google used to be iSpot. Now I cannot find iSpot on the first three pages.
So let us try the iSpot search (knowing full well that it uses Google):
In the All tab there are 6 results: - all to the old site.
In the Identifications tab there are 2 results – both to the old site
(note the old elegant urls: the new url is : https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/southern-africa/view/observation/420177/roridula-dentata - 3 times longer!!)
Now let us try the taxonomy tab:
(the search said there were 3 pages, but when I pressed on the 3rd it bombed out, and I had to redo the search and it then said only 1 page)
Now what would I expect in the taxonomy tab? I should think dictionary links.
Well the first is to the old ZA dictionary page and the second to the non-existent old CoL dictionary page, but then there are irrelevant links – nothing to do with the dictionary, but all old site and defunct.
So: NOT A SINGLE PAGE OF THE NEW ISPOT IS SHOWING ON THE ISPOT SEARCH!!
It is now 30 days of over three-quarters of a million observations and not a single one is recorded by Google!!
And some genius has decided that iSpot can use Google to do its searches!
For the record:
There are 13 observations of Roridula dentata and 16 of Roridula gorgonias on iSpot.
So I would have expected A MINIMUM of:
All tab: 29 observations + plus all those that mention it
ID tab: 29 observations (only!!! – this is for IDs)
Dictionary tab: 3 (one for the genus, and one each for the species)
I don’t know what is wrong, but it looks to me like Google is not being allowed to map the site, even though it is being used as the engine for the searches.
So: No TRACK, No CHANGES and No SEARCH. If someone suggested that the OU is deliberately trying to kill iSpot by making it unusable it would be hard to find evidence to the contrary.
This won’;t help of course
Nothing above will HELP. We are frustrated, that’s all
I find Tony’s error reporting quite difficult to follow, though IMPORTANTLY if the Programme Writers do, or eventually will, then that’s good enough.
I was afeard of this back-lash, hence my attempts to the get the Alphabets into a separate category but that will not happen.
To be honest I think the whole Forum is a shambles and it reflects our total dissatisfaction.
I can’t help more except perhaps respond to others, But I am not giving up…I still like posting, agreeing, reading and being inspired. I need to get out more.
1 Like
I love you! Go for it!
Am with you all the way!
BUGS, ERRORS and FAILURES
199 postings: estimated read time 29 minutes
The debuggers wont do any debugging if they have to read this!