Update: changes and tracking functionality - from the iSpot Team

MY TURN:

What is happening?
Even my picture has gone I18N

Had to clear my cache and log on again to get this fixed. Is this yet another bug?

After 8 weeks, just another mess. what a disaster, now I can see my own comments - great - what a load of hogwash.

Hope nobody has to pay for this.

The i18n is probably because these are placeholders; they’re supposed to be mapped to something in your preferred language via a translation table, and the code to do this (or possibly the table entries for these particular tabs) hasn’t been added yet.

Someone asked for an easier to access entry to these interfaces, so adding it to the Your iSpot looks like responsiveness from the programming team.

It looks as if the functionality is in place, but the web interface hasn’t been polished and buffed. There’s also the question as to whether it’s the functionality we want; it doesn’t seem to be a notification facility as per the Changes/Unread on the original iSpot, but a historical record facility as per Track on the original iSpot.

See upthread for how to find comments on your observations.

I get this in Chrome, but it seems to work in firefox…

Why is this so slow?

Takes my changes tracker 29 seconds to load after the page has finished displaying. FAR TOO SLOW!!

Bugs posted here: please check if you find any more:

Summary:

  • #556 Why are items duplicated?: only show them once -but record all the types of changes made (not just the last)
  • #557 Why is the filter only of one item: what if I want to see (commented and identified) . At present I would have to run this twice, but then the programme will forget which ones I have already seen and which ones I have not. NOT VERY USEFUL! BADLY THOUGHT OUT!
  • #558 Why can it now show which ones I have read. At present the yellow merely shows items since my last visit. This is not the same!
  • #559 On the old iSpot one could sort the columns. Most useful was to sort the CHANGES column from highest to lowest. This was an indispensable curation tool.
  • #560 Get i18 messages on hte page for headings and tabs.
  • #561 When the filter is in effect is does not report on which filters are being used or what they are.
  • #562 I dont want to see what I have done: I know what I have done (and I can use my “Activity Tracker”). I only want to see what other people have done!!
  • #563 Unacceptably slow: takes 21-33 seconds for my list to load after the rest of the page has finished loading. TOO LONG!!
1 Like

Nick Helme repots:

Tried clearing cache and still can’t see the new tabs in Google Chrome, but works on IE…

Seems to be a serious bug here. More than half the users cannot see the track changes without having to seriously compromise their Browsing passwords and content.

added issue: #564 - see Missing Pictures

iSpot adds “created” tracks if you comment on an observation, telling you when the observation was created …

ISSUE

  • #565 - No method to remove (Cntrl-F5 does not work) the items that you have now viewed in your ‘Changes Tracker’ - they need to vanish permanently once viewed.
  • #566 - Minor issue. Each item takes up too much space (lines) on the page - item should be one line only. Requires too much scrolling down the page

Post edited.

.[quote=“Richard_Adcock, post:72, topic:240”]
this page will become VERRY VERRY LOOOOOOONG.
[/quote]

limited to 50 lines - then you have to go to page 2.

But I do agree …

I dont see these in the bug file. Have you filed them correctly?

Moved from MISSING PICTURES thread


This shows MY activity in a post at 10:31 and 10:35 - I did not go there (NO visit) until 11:21, so those records are for previous edits and not mine but Korsman Conservancy’s…
So, is iSpot picking up associated changes? If so, I do not really need to see them.
I agree with Tony, once visited, the Changes Tracker should lose the entry. It remains, chronologically, in Activity Tracker.
I am saying that the Changes Tracker should empty the old VISITED links.

The changes and activity trackers are not currently being linked from the Your iSpot page (how old is dejayM’s screengrab?) in my browser.

I accessed the activity tracker via my user profile via the list of online users. It’s not rendering consistently. First time it showed the whole table, but a chunk was obscured by other stuff (such as the aforementioned list of online users); subsequently it behaved as previously - it was truncated horizontally losing some columns. (if the long column headings were replaced by something sensible it might behave better, at least for people with plenty of screen real estate (I’m using 1920 pixel wide windows).

A bug: press Ctrl F5 to reload the page from scratch.

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 user’s 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 – just the others – 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.

Everything needs speeding up - My Changes Tracker shows about 1000 pages (you can alter the number in the URL), I have not yet been further than 500. But they are pretty useless to me - I went back to the day before the Rewrite (no need to go further, as we saw changes before then).
Once I have seen a change, it can be deleted. But Not after 30 days (you are suggesting) as some people go away for a month even two years I see…
ALL activity is stored in the Activity Tracker - UNfortunalety that also loads in - I think it should be by request and by another route and we might then need to wait for it to load. It might be a rare request if SEARCH is sorted out (Search for Observations of Lobster, say) should only yield Lobster posts - wouldn’t that be nice…

Why do you do this? Get me worked up like this? Is anger management needed? Yes: let me at the programmers with a hammer or sickle and I wont be angry after 20 minutes.

Search: what an abysmal tool.

Firstly, Google isnt allowed onto the site so there is nothing there (there are rumours that a third of the site is indexed : but I do not believe it: show me any link on Google to the new site!!! - they say that they are protecting us otherwise Google bots will bring the site to a standstill: LET THEM I SAY - let us at least have a workable search!! < oh dear: more anger management required - can I have a shotgun this time please?)

Secondly what on earth is being searched?:
take Roridula: (for the record there are 34 observations of the two species on iSpot with 39 IDs with Roridula (34 Likely), 3 mention Roridula in the Notes box (these are all insects on the plants), 27 observations mention Roridula in the comments.)

  • ALL 30 results: (all are to the old site, where are the other 7 minimum???)
  • IDENTIFICATIONS: 7 results ( I presume that this is anywhere in the ID box - and I presume that it includes “Wrong” or “unlikley” IDs - I would have expected 34 + 3 other observations that mention “Roridula” in the Notes box = 37)
  • TAXONOMY: 3 results (now what on earth is this? - I would have expected 34 IDs)
  • PROJECTS: 1 result (I presume that this is in the Project Description and excludes the comments)
  • USERS: 0 results (but then if I put in “Tony Rebelo” there are no users with this name neither.

So all in all this is a total rubbish!!! It is now 2 months and we cannot use the search on the site yet!!! (OK OK: I will go for shock therapy for my anger management: but first do you have an hydrogen bomb for the programmers though: nothing else will do anymore).