No. iSpot hates index items with less than three digits. and all Binominal IDs have a gap
Try searching for gorgeous user HB (Helen) in the Explore Community (filter)
I would find it infuriating not being able to search for my own Observations (as dJ) .
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There are plenty of instances of iSpot’s refusal to recognise two-letter items. There are not many dictionary ones like Ge geta (b’fly) Ge geta de Nicéville, 1895 | COL and Aa erosa (Andean Orchid) here Aa erosa (Rchb.f.) Schltr. | COL (which are not in the iSpot Dictionaries) and yes I think it is an iSpot issue, not NHM UKSI nor the Global CoL
Could it be fixed? HB may not be the only user who is stonewalled
Yes, it’s odd (aka stupid) that you can create a user account with a two-character login name yet can’t search for any string less than three characters!
There have been reasons why you can’t search for very short strings e.g. that it would bring back so many that the system might be overloaded and so many results that you would not find what you want anyway.
Very short usernames should not be allowed and on many systems they are not allowed, it may have been a limitation on what could or could not be restricted on the earliest versions of ispot. Is it possible to put in a restriction now to e.g. say that any username has to be 4 characters or more (and ideally no spaces, no non printable characters or anything other than letters and numbers).
I’m sure we will be able to implement that, but it could mean that anyone with a name that would then be disallowed might have problems editing their account.
well perhaps before implementing anything would be good to have a list of all usernames. I can probably get this and have a look at lengths of names so wait until I comment more.
Oh. I am so glad you are on this case
There are so few Current Users with this issue.
I agree searching for two-letter (just a few more than 3) occurrences could be an issue but ONLY if the search facility worked properly. it doesn’t and CERTAINLY favours ZA
Have just had a look and there are 7 one letter usernames and 83 two letter usernames which have someway interacted on ispot, this is not good as we identified the issue with search and number of characters very early in first version of ispot.
Perhaps first thing is to give more advice on initial signup as to what is a reasonable username stating that it should have a minimum of 4 characters. Then check what would happen if this limit were actually imposed at signup i.e. check what effect that would have on existing two letter users if they edit their profile etc.
There are a couple of three-character users in this thread!
Do suggest that users with their email address as their user name might regret it.
In recent times a few users have actually changed their user name - JoP is one
I almost always do that and offer to change it for them
I think there are still a few - a new one last week perhaps?
This Butterfly FISH is linked to two Other Observations of Butterfly INVERTEBRATES.
That’s easy
the other users have simply ID’d as Butterfly - dohhh,
In the Global dictionary guess what’s first in the Drop-down?
They have now both gone from Other Obs of course
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/global/view/observation/85083/
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/global/view/observation/58284/