BUGS, ERRORS and FAILURES

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321

iSpot is MOULDERING as we speak.
I am wading through dozens of posts without Likely Banners. A few had good IDs made by reputable naturalists with three of more icons and yet the Likely Banner is missing - maybe six today already. And this is becomong more and more of a problem - Groups not behaving or Dictionaries incorrectly coded. Mouldy is a word I do not use lightly.

322

I think you will find Ispot is mouldering for some time now. At least since 2014. Some of the issues identified then has not been fixed with robust programming. Especially those around the global/SA/UK community and dictionaries

323

I wonder if the standard for a ‘Likely ID’ has been boosted - I’ve often thought it should be. On the old system I think my suggestion automatically became a ‘Likely ID’ if no one else had suggested one in every taxonomic group[1] despite the fact my level of knowledge in some of them is not high. Always felt like a fraud in botany when that happened.

[1] With the exception of ‘other organism’ where by design reputation did not exist.

324

This is one of those awkward things where as many instances if it happening as possible are needed i.e. make a list of each instance in a spreadsheet or similar. It has been reported as a bug on a number of occasions but suspect a number of the cases where is was an issue have been cleared by other people posting extra ID’s or giving agreements.

325

I think you are asking a lot (too much?) Mike. We (precious?) few are racing through unIDs to keep us busy, interested and occupied. Agreeing to IDs without a Likely B or adding a strong ID will ‘disappear’ the post immediately. It is then too late to find it again (Search is abysmal) and, in any case, the evidence will be gone. This is one of those MANY bugs that needs to be accepted as such. I do hope (surely we ALL hope) that the team is back on the case.
It is time for a proper announcement - can you make that happen?

326

I don’t think much has changed. I have a,weak two in four Groups and can still swing Likely (but often fails in Other Orgs, in which I have a 'reputation)

327

Both in and out of Global - one project in two communities
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/project/732467/tagged-uk-seaweeds .
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/global/view/project/732467/tagged-uk-seaweeds /

328

MORE MOULD
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/741318/caterpillar-found in IDs

329

I have taken a liberty here - in FULL. It is the latest response to the LAST ADMIN UPDATE 17 July
The comment trail begins here https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/news/733744/update-changes-and-tracking-functionality-from-the-ispot-team
"The Outramps and members of the Outramps CREW Group have invested a huge amount of time and effort into iSpot. Cumulatively, we have posted about 30, 000 obs, put up many projects and posted about 250 articles on the Fora.
The Open University can surely not be satisfied with the 2nd rate work that your programmers are doing. The list is endless
------------------------
No changes
Latitude doesn’t work properly
the links to the Red list don’t work
If you agree to an obs and then try to go back to gallery, you get an error message.
The Hourglass is inaccurate when loading images and if you don’t check manually that all the images are uploaded, you get an error message and the obs crashes.
I can’t post my Reportbacks on the Forum
There are a host of other things, too long to list.
Janice said that changes would be fixed soon. That was 45 days ago - what is soon?
I am the organiser of the Outramps CREW Group and keeping the members motivated to catalogue plants on iSpot has been made very difficult. We had a wonderful site when it was in South Africa. Now it is frankly, not worth the time and trouble.
We need dramatic improvements in the functionality and we need them soon if iSpot is to survive.
My e-mail is [email protected]
I would be grateful if someone could give me some feedback on my concerns"

330

Trying to agree to Jo’s ID on this post https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/743245/anyone-id
I get the following message
ERROR
Could not agree to identification:
Invalid post data

I have tried several times from two browsers.
Could somebody else try it?

331

Seems OK - yours and mine there now - I may have to remove mine!

332

MOULDY CODING
It is possible to click Confirmation when forming a post despite the fact that Illustrations are still loading.
See my text

333

WHAT TO DO?

if nothing has advanced significantly by the end of the September deadline how about organising an on-line petition and presenting the OU Chancellor with a physical copy - that’s assuming there’s anyone left to sign a petition!

I wouldn’t know how to go about such an exercise but I’m thinking you perhaps do

334

I am not certain Chr… Who, other than users might sign? Judging by the lack of interest even here in the Forum (how many subscribers?), it would be a lost cause.
I think we are impotent unless, perhaps, we simply go very quiet. I am guilty of soldiering on but I was asked to help with testing so feel a little obliged - such naivety and I feel VERY let down!.
You will have noticed that some of the ‘loudest’ people have stopped interacting here and in the main site - it may be the only way. It seems to me that no-one in Admin cares anyway. maybe they want it to die, though someone should say.
I think you know what I am suggesting.

335

I have tried opening it - but now end up with a completely empty screen (other than the location map and normal iSpot grey background). Weird.

336

this looks like the classic Clear Browser Data requirement. iSpot is obviously filing our devices with clutter.
If you are using Chrome Jo. then this Check & delete your Chrome browsing history - Computer - Google Chrome Help
Other Browsers have different routes found by Searching internet, take care not to clean saved passwords!

337

Is a listed as bug # 413 dated 03 July. And it is still not fixed!!!

338

Out of the question. Although we have over 50 000 species on iSpot for southern Africa, this is perhaps only half of the known species. What about all the others? How do users add species or taxa that we have not yet got around to adding to the dictionary?

Also: the dictionary is WAY out of date: we have produced at least 6 updated dictionaries since iSpot last loaded our dictionary. So there are lots of species and mistakes in the dictionary. Stopping users from posting correct IDs because the dictionary is out of date is ridiculous.

No: this bug must be fixed. (BUT: I have been away for 3 weeks and come back to NOTHING!!! Nothing done in three weeks. Has the OU actually canned iSpot?: or what is happening?

1 Like
339

Oh YES!!! They are definitely CORE to iSpot. The FILTERS and DICTIONARY pages only work with linked data, so any observations not linked are LOST!!! Finding them is almost impossible!!

340

Sorry: I cannot fathom what has happened here? What was done?
as far as I can work out:

Both exist (dont ask), but are the same observation. What a weird cockup! Who designed this system and do they know what they are doing?

I have seen this before: but will add it to the bug list as new. (Why am I bothering??): bug # 549