Currently for me doing horrible things. I cannot open anything by clicking on it in the tracker, but if I can find it through the homepage it will open.
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I can’t get to the forum via the website, but can open it via the app on the tablet. It virtually unusable for me at the moment.
Probably my fault. A reboot cleared the problems. Maybe a hangover from the last freeze up
I have just discovered that five observations I did about 10 years ago have moved from there locations a couple of miles south of Worksop to a single point between Nottingham and Newark.
I have no idea when this happened.
That sounds very unlikely. If it is sinister you need to be really certain you did not mislocate
Not an easy thing to check but 2013 and 2016 were special years for bugs, specially Global ones.
Let me know the precise period and I will check mine and @miked can check his.
There are three on the 24/25 of January 2012 and one on the 8 March 2012.
The remaining one is very odd.
When viewing the observation the dated appear correct.
At one time it was easy to set a location name and every time you put in this name the observations ended up there. Although ‘easy’ for the user I think this is bad practice as we should be as accurate as possible with locations. I am not saying this was the case with your observations but mentioning this kind of thing did use to happen.
The oddest thing is that the added date is well before the observation date when clicking from the view on map function while the observation is correct.
It looks like a map pinning problem.
The fact that only one of the five had changed dates might give us a clue.
The main software does display the pin where it has moved to.
I will wait before correcting the pin position so that it can be looked at.
You first mentioned Locations and now Dates
Is it possible the date is derived from your old camera’s EXIF data which is held on the photo card?
We had experience in the test site when it seemed impossible to override the EXIF data manually (Mike?)
2012 is before my time but using the Explore Community Filter I see you did 7 Observation on 26 June 2012. You did none on 12 Jan 2021, So there is a glaring iSpot error as you say.
I managed to Validate the Observation just now but I am uncertain about the ID
There are 14 other Observations with the date 12 January 2021 none as early as 1:40 am!
I have also found that another one that has moved to the same location also has the date error. It was about half a mile away from the first one.
It is now in the same field about 10 miles southeast. The date is only a month before on this one. My records support the January 24th 2012 dates.
I have zoomed the map in as far as it will go and all five pins remain on the same spot.
The upload processor has also now started going slow here in the forum.
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/91467/trametes-pubescensProcessing: Map_pin.png…Processing: Map_pin.png…
If we start talking about exif then there is a second possibility. In the very earliest days I don’t think anything was picked up from the file then the system started picking up certain aspects of exif from some cameras e.g. date then later location. This has always been problematic as camera/phone manufacturers have never implemented the standards consistently so whichever library chosen to read this info it has left out certain data from certain cameras (or possibly got it wrong). I understood about this well before iSpot started but knowing about it and having a solution are unfortunately very different as there was no solution, it is an issue even now.
Note we have used different libraries/plugins to do this over the years so the current one is not the same as the one used at these early dates. It is possible that one of the prevouis plugins read the info wrong or truncated the location figures somewhat so they all ended up in same place even though the last digits would have put them in different place.
You could try uploading one of the images again (keep the existing ones, just add the same image again to the existing observation) to see if it suggests a different location.
I have investigated further.
The added photos showing the leaves were taken in the 17th of March with the same camera. The software must have haplessly changed the date.
The date appears to be set to manual entry at the moment.
This still leaves the map pinning unresolved.
Have a look at the comment on the second observation of fungi on a log seat.
I spotted the date issue at the time.
I will try the map pin photo again as it was not loading late at night.
The screen grab did not upload it is 615K. A smaller one did upload a day or so ago. Is there a file size limit on this forum?
Exif (Exchangeable Image File) is a rogue. It disturbs, maybe invalidates, many a good observation (for accurate Scientific Data Collection)
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I am allowing Dates and Locations ro be uploaded with all my Observations.
All Exif can be removed or modified by going to Image properties but you need reliable Photo-software to do it
The date seems OK but it relies on manually setting the clock in most cameras - it is easy to have the wrong date and time set.
Location depends on numerous things but can be wildly inaccurate. It is probably best NOT allowed (a simple setting in most cameras)
I always try to add location notes and always check the accuracy of my EXIF using the Satellite location map. I often leave comments for users who have Location Errors - plenty of experienced users are a bit ‘wild’.
I commented recently suggesting that over 50% locations in recent Observations are inaccurate. This becomes very apparent in Marine Observations or if using StreetCam (I do), otherwise it’s hart to tell.
I do keep the time/date correct on my camera as I rely on it if I do not take a phone.
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/756664/
New bug - anyone else?
I spotted one like that with one pin for birds and the other for plants.
The map is also now remaining the same until a new observation is opened. It is sort of not updating until it absolutely has to.
I found one with three map points… recent but I cannot remember which one. (I think it was one of @NorthernTeacher 's but not sure.) I did mention it in a comment on the obs.
It has been a bit slow sometimes over the past day or so.
Only one timeout so far.