I wanted to search for a previous post I’d added to my Great Fen project. I can’t remember how many posts there were - but certainly more than the dozen or so that survive. Trying to estimate the disappearances, I pulled up the observations map - see screenshot:
There are literally dozens of posts missing from my local area.
I can’t see that I’ve managed to filter the posts in any way, but this seems to be a time-related issue: the survivors are all recent.
Yet, the Observations Gallery seems as well-populated as ever.
Is there a cut-off point at which posts are deleted from projects and maps?
There should not be anything missing, how are you trying to filter as the filter sometimes is less than intuitive and may have to refresh or clear.
Having gone away to clear my head and do some domestic chores, this seems to be the rather complex situation.
.
Using the search option (as you say, not intuitive), and selecting “projects” produced only a few individual observations. If I clicked on the tag therein, this produced a very truncated list of about a dozen more. This is probably because the way I set it up was that individual observations are added to the project via the specified map area, not by adding a “Great Fen” tag. It seemed simpler at the time…
.
I’ve since gone “the long way around” to the project (Explore Community - Projects). It’s on page 43 of the list of projects (https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/projects?page=43). Given the generally slow internet at the moment (at least locally: I suppose this is due to weight of traffic: people working and shopping from home), this took a little while (litotes!). If I do this, then the full gallery appears. A work-around would be to manually edit the page number in the IP address, but it relies on people knowing that it is on this particular page. New projects or deletions will also change this page number over time.
.
I then abandoned the “projects” route, and simply went via “Explore community - observations - maps”. This generates the screenshot you can see above. No filter was applied, as far as I can tell, the first time around; and I’ve just repeated it in a new tab, with the same results. it’s clearly at odds with - if nothing else - the Great Fen full projects list, and my own knowledge of posts from (say) Sawtry village, where my garden has produced far more than 2 observations.
.
Puzzling, and frustrating. I can’t imagine that acquaintances I’ve told about the number of species recorded using this resource will be prepared to persevere to find them.
No idea what’s happening but please be reassured because when I followed the link to your Great Fen Project I could see 806 observations on the map and pages of lovely obs in the gallery.
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/project/282004/
shows 806 Obs.
Do you actually KNOW that some are missing?
If so they may be JUST outside y’r boundary or, indeed, iSpot may be sulking - it runs a search of the whole site when you open the project which is WHY it takes to long to get the map.
.
Make a list of the dates when you did bulk ‘observing’. Then use your own Activity tracker to filter those days or ones near them. That might bring up posts that are missing.
I may have misread what you are trying to do though.
But I would immediately make a new test project with a wider boundary and maybe filter for your name. To see what happens.
Tip me off here, I can do all that for you in a matter of minutes - I have done!
Check https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/project/801537/test-project/observations-map
My issues are that:
- the project is now not useful, as it is hard to find more than a few posts (and probably not something a casual or inexperienced user would want, or be able, to do).
Yes, I had noted above that the posts haven’t “vanished”, but are not visible as part of the project unless the tortuous route I described is followed. - I don’t understand why, disregarding the project but just looking at the observations map for “my patch”; so few posts are displayed. Again, they clearly still exist: the point is that a casual user (who just wants to explore the area) can’t “see” them.
dejayM’s re-drawn map, expanded to include the Great Fen and surrounding areas shows over 700 posts. But my “in through the front door” map (generated by clicking Explore community - map", which I assume the casual user would try) shows only 12. What has happened to the hundreds of others is - to me - perplexing.
I am not concerned that “my” posts are not accessible, but I am disconcerted that any posts can be so hard to find for someone seeking particular information.
I may be misunderstanding but the issue Amadan might be having is that if you go the route he suggests the system is trying to plot all observations and can only do 1000 at a time so only shows the most recent 1000 and in your area this may only be 12 (because all the other 988 are in other parts of the world).
However if you do as dejay suggests and set up an area in a project then it looks for the most recent 1000 just within that area - this is what you want to do.
You can of course further filter by your name, species group, date range etc
I thought that is what the project map constriction would achieve. But my point about that is the “entry,” is very hard to find. Scrolling through 42 pages of projects is a slow business.
I did not know that the data presented via “Explore community - maps” was so limited. I apologise if that information is available somewhere on the intro pages.
Shall I refine the boundaries in my Test project?
I suspect, if it’s true that some obs are not being collected, that if you redraw the map, even roughly it WILL collect all the Obs inside the zone. It is really worth trying as the trigger for collecting (whatever that might be) is worn out.
I will try to recreate a more precise boundary to see. i will Delete the Test today.
…<<…>>
Later. with the boundaries refined, mine collects less than Amadan’s current map. This suggests that the boundaries are ultra-critical to project completion - they need to be accurate and just as important the precise location of every Observation which MUST be inside the Boundary
That’s very kind, but it doesn’t really address the issue that the project is hard to locate and access. I’d hoped that telling people they could use the explore community-maps approach would be a work-around, but that, as I discover, only shows recent posts.
I think that I need to decide if it’s worth editing the 700 or so existing posts, adding a “Great Fen” tag to them. People could then click on the tab of any of the posts to access the others. Unless, like the map, that is also limited to recent posts. It is probably not worth it: I’d intended my iSpot project to be a minor contribution to the Great Fen Project, but it might be better to pursue an addition to their own web site.
Sorry I added the above while you we typing. yes tagging might be a solution, you won’t need a map, except to illustrate WHERE it is based. Project maps are NOT limited to recent Obs.
To make the project EASY to access, Make a new one - the map is the ONLY time consumer - 4 mins? Then delete the old. I am conscious of typing while you are thinking and also typing…ends…
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/783044/
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/760569/
are very close to the Project Boundary. Fine. But IF any of your project Obs are mms OUTSIDE, they will not be collected. Also IF you ticked the box ’Hide precise location’ then it’s probable that it won’t be collected.
You have used the expression Great Fen project in many (most?) of them. an iSpot search for that reveals some, maybe all. Worth looking to see if any of them are OUTside the boundary or with hidden locations.