Is it intended that there will be a way of discovering if other people have contributed to posts that you’ve created or have contributed to?
No!!! There is no intention.
Complain at https://www.ispotnature.org/contact-us
We have about a dozen complaints from ZA already, but the programmers dont believe us.
See also: www.ispotnature.org/dear-curator - this was a forum page on the previous site where the case was made during testing to have CHANGES inserted.
But all the old Forum pages have vanished. Google still has the links to the old site (ironically do a search on iSpot to find the links: https://www.ispotnature.org/search?query="dear%20curator"), but our pages are gone!
But iSpot does not work without CHANGES and TRACK: It is useless!!
And this morning a user discovered that any identifications added do not show up in the Observation > List view either.
1 Like
Oh shit.
For me, this reduces the value of the site enormously. Responses to identifications and comments are an important part of the learning process for me. I think (hope!) this is also the case for other users.
I don’t want to add to what I suspect is a steady flow of complaints, but I really struggle to understand the logic of this omission. Surely the programming wouldn’t have been that onerous?
I expect that I shall continue to use the site, but I feel I shall learn a lot less, and find it frustrating.
I’m beyond disappointed. I really don’t see the point in this site any more.
Yes $hit…
A couple of things come to mind -
LEAVE iSpot alone and begin a new life
Use this version as a TEST BED and report some findings here BUGS, ERRORS and FAILURES
Tony gives two routes to complain - use them, not the Forums
1 Like
Edit button function on the comments section of posts has disappeared, which means I can’t update the project index.
Also a minor quibble, but the pages have also dissapeared, which means that topics with lots of entries (e.g. the errors and corrections page) means having to scroll through the whole lot before being able to post a new topic. I’m sad…
DARK TUNNEL OF MISERY
Oh yes, Have to you noticed that you can Edit comments here? And you will get Changes notification if you set preferences via your A Logo at the top. One other good thing in this dark tunnel of misery is that Projects are easy. Two just now
Just a raw idea. Any new Observation with the Tag Marine, will arrive at the head of these galleries
And for the Marine Habtat, this -
Well, at least I am liking the smiley badge… Sadly, It drives Riaan up the wall, 
1 Like
It has taken me over 2 hours to run through a handful of observations and offer idents. I skipped a few - just got fed up. I just don’t have that amount of time available on a regular basis. We badly need the return of the next button so you can skip quickly from one plant to another without going back to the main home page again, and without being able to go back and see whether people have commented on/agreed with your ID there is no opportunity to learn or help other ispotters. That being the case…can’t really see the point of the website but very much hoping someone will take notice and fix these issues.
1 Like
This is an essential feature, without it iSpot is near to unusable.
1 Like
“And you will get Changes notification if you set preferences via your A Logo at the top.”
Yes, apparently but only for new comments to forum posts - which I also receive by e-mail. It’s the observations I wanted to keep track of.
I am annoyed with myself about how much this has irritated and, yes, rather depressed me. I used to obtain a lot of enjoyment and, for want of a less dramatic word, education from iSpot.
But I’ve just had a look at the new observations, and from the numbers, it seems that many people are happy to use the new version. Perhaps I just expected too much.
Door to Satisfaction
We just have to move forward or step aside. You are right, there are plenty of observations but the key to the door of satisfaction is missing - comments, advice and suggestions - these are note seen by anyone. You are not as annoyed as me as I was part of the Testing Team.
Agree with all of the general comments to date
For far too long i-spot has blown its own trumpet largely mentorred by academics making a handsome living out of contributors . Its ability to be self critical and engage dialogue is not its strong point contrary to its own press
Some of the catastrophic changes have overlooked basis concepts to identify something you need to see it the Gallery Thumbnail compression is poor , the ability to track changes gone
As to complaining the ommsions are obvious and dont need extensive complaint someone is paid handsomely and made major oversight . The loss of audit on comments as pointed out will substantially demean some of the reported observations
The incorporateion of quizes as data items was never properly communicated and was apparently never the intention and ppropbably not contravenevnes dat protection. There is simply too much to add here to sum the position but I ma sure otheres will folow
1 Like
It’s ironic really that the new ispot is seemingly designed to allow us to post Forum comments and get updates of responses, but we can’t do that with observations. It’s like they anticipated use of the Forum to be more important than posting observations. Almost like they don’t really understand their own site and it’s users.
1 Like
What really gets myu goat up is that 5 years or forums have been wasted. Why are they not recreated here so that we can access our old forum topics!
1 Like
Do agree Tony, although I never followed the UK topics, I can say that the SA forum topics was something that many of us (in SA ) followed and contributed to - most relating to Nature with a few relating to bugs and fixes.
currently this forum is just for complaints about the platform
Maybe the Administrators have forgotten that this program was intended as a nature program:confused:
1 Like
I suspect it is more just that there are loads of pre-existing products for online forums and the iSpot team just bought one in (with all the tracking, reporting, etc. functionality). Whereas what core iSpot does is unique (there are other online ID support and training facilities but they do it differently) so they’ve had to build that themselves - and there are lots of problems with that build at present.
Maybe a workaround for, say, posts older than a couple of days - although a bit onerous for the contributor:
Make a note of the username and copy the post address.
Open a new window and go to the forum. Post a topic “Reply to [username] re [address]”
Type a brief note “I have added [an identification/agreement/comment]”
Yes, I agree with @The_Bate_s and David. But the Old UK forums were, more or less, dying anyway. Does anyone think that there is still a case for REGIONS, ORGANISMS and HABITATS as New Threads - shall we try? It might add a theme of confidence here.
We had lots of active themes in the southern African Forums.
But what killed the forums was the 2014 rebuild that made them inaccessible.
We kept them going in s Afr by linking the important forums from the home page, making access a bit easier.
Our requests to make the forums more accessible where never heeded.
1 Like