I wonder if that might speed up the entire process? Right now it is taking 20-30 seconds to download my "Changes Tracker" - the old iSpot delivered the Unread instantly. If instead of having to sift through all known changes, if iSpot only had the "unread over the last 30 days" to have to sort through, it might be a far faster system.
Remember that users will use Track occasionally to track a particular user. But for Changes every regular user will visit this page several times a day, or as one of their first pages on landing on iSpot.
So if they had a table that merely had unread observations stored for 30 days, it would be a far, far smaller and quicker table to go through, especially if visited observations were then cleared, or if there was (like the ZA iSpot). a clear button to clear all the userās unread content.
Remember that this is only an observation contributed towards. So it is not as if any new observation had to have an entry for all 40 000 users in the "Changes Table". it is only if someone edits/ IDs / Comments / Replies / Agrees or Favourites an observation that all users who contributed to it need to be informed. So for most observations only 1-10 entries are needed per action in the "Changes Table" - and these will vanish after 30 days (or be a devil and ask for 50 days!!!) if not read.
[ Analysis: The average observation for ZA has:
- 0.67 Comments and Replies
- 1.2 Identifications
- 1.6 Agreements
- Edits are not going to change anything (no need to tell the user that he is editing it ā just the others ā who will be IDers/Agreers or Commenters)
- I dont know how many Favourites (no data in the data dump)
So the average observation will need 3.5 entries (4.5-1: no need to add the poster to the list: they already know); (maximum - assuming no one contributes twice, so it will be less) in the "Changes Table" so even with 10 000 observations per month this will be a maximum of 35 000 entries, assuming no one reads or clears their changes, which will make it much less. In fact, it will probably be less than 5 000 entries given that the most prolific contributors will use Changes regularly. ]
Come on - this is a trivial exercise. What is wrong with the programmers?
I cannot help feeling that this tool is a 10 ton mallet where a pin hammer was required.
