Changes, track, list

[dejayM]

Finding my way here has not been easy. This is my second comment but I can find NO trace of the first, made a few minutes ago.
How long might it be before we can LIST our own posts so that we can trawl through them to see if there is any input or CHANGES.
I need to TRACK my own contributions so that i do not repeat myself over and over again but, more importantly WHERE I've contributed before.
ðerek

[dejayM]

How SAD
Now that I can see my comment. I'd like to add that I am APPALLED. My Projects have been ruined, my satisfaction has gone already. I was PROUD of my contribution and I am saddened by the loss of such a useful facility.

[George_G]

I'm having the same problem. Where is the proper "My Ispot"? That was one of my favourite features of the site as it allows for feedback and reflection on past observations. I really hope they put that back!

[George_G]

And how has my picture magically changed to one I use for my writing blog? Sigh...

[dejayM]

**

Agreeing

**
OK George, we agree, along with the hundreds who have yet to find a route to release their frustration.
I received an email after you added your comments because I opted for this feature via the BLUE icon to the right. How nice it would be for that to be the temporary norm for normal changes. Most of us 'more senior' contributors lived by the Changes and Track option. My contribution will now be very subdued. I suspect your signature-picture can be modified - the key is to find HOW! ðerek
PS What happens when you click this https://forum.ispotnature.org/u/George_G/preferences - if I've got it right, you can change some features.> Worked for me, try mine https://forum.ispotnature.org/u/dejaym/preferences. Let's start a Stalking group, there'll be no other entertainment here!

[JoP]

Same here - I miss the following in particular

• The 'next' button - when you have viewed an observation it was good on the old site to have the facility to select 'next', which would take you to the next plant observation (or whatever group you were working on) so that you didn't have to go right back to the main carousel of images and then select the group you want and then scroll through to find where you'd got up to.

• Echoing the previous posts: please bring back the full 'My Ispot': apart from identifying things for people, the main purpose and benefit of Ispot is to develop knowledge and the only way we all improve is to learn from each other. Without knowing what changes have been made to our observations and identifications, how can we possibly fulfil the latter aim? I now have no idea whether the identifications I have given have been agreed with by others or whether I have got it completely wrong. I miss this feature desperately: please bring it back.

[Amadan]

Weird...
iSpot doesn't remember my locations any more, but it still seems to have added the latest posts to my "Hampton" project.
Hopefully the various issues will be sorted in due course, but it's a disappointing first impression of the Brave New iSpot.

Updated: by the bye, the code behind the number of identifications is flawed: many that have one (some with agreements) still say "Identifications: 0"

[dejayM]

There is far too much wrong with iSpot at the mo to start a list of bugs. I may start a new thread
A solution to Changes might be here, bearing in mind what Amadan above about projects being potentiall useful. Each of us will have favourite groups to follow, if not genera or species. It is worth forming a project (MUCH easier now) to gather the latest posts that specially interest us, Also a temp measure is to Add particular posts to Favourites and visit them often. Unfortunately THAT wil produce a long list
I have this plea from ZA this morning "Please check. ??was unable to load more than a few observations." and
"Please play with uploading data.
Please note after how many observations/pictures the issue arises (if it does). Please try at different times.". I wil ask the ZA Curator if WE can contribute to their Bug's List. I'll put a hot link here later.
Did you know we can EDIT comments here, did you know that in your Options (click your Logo top right and look for Preferences) you can set to receive Changes to your Forum input by email.
I think we might have to stick with being as constructive as we can be. ALL is not lost yet.
ðerek
SEE https://forum.ispotnature.org/t/bugs-errors-and-failures/92
PS - below (WildlifeRanger)_
Not your imagination and some are defocused too.These issues are small-fry compared to the burden of anger and utter disappointment that will be shown in the reduction of constructive comment in posts and the loss of patient 'experts' who are (currently) essential to the survival of this site.
I could not add a comment because of this! *You've reached the maximum number of replies a new user can create on their first day. Please wait 1 hour before trying again." I should shut UP!

[Wildlife_Ranger]

Is it also my imagination or has the Gallery Thumbnail compression made things worse and also appear relatively smaller ?

[Peachysteve]

I have logged in to ispot everyday for several years, I have two pages bookmarked, plants and changes.
I hope changes is quickly reinstated. Without it how will any new members asking for an ID find out if an ID has been added?
Unfortunately the new site uses masses of memory and crashes my browser so I'm now having to use another browser just to use ispot.

[JoC]

(I posted this comment earlier in a different firm, but think this is better forum, so a duplicate is posted here.)

ISpot is supported by the Open University, which suggests it has an educational vision.
Since I joined several years ago I have concentrated on adding comments to Observations in my main area of expertise, Marine & Coastal habitats. My comments generally offer directions for a successful id, sometimes including a reference to journal publications, all of which I hope help the poster to improve their skills. The process of helping others usually improves my own understanding too, so a win/win situation.
The CHANGES feature allowed me to see if my comments had been followed up with a successful id by the poster, and importantly, if s/he, or anyone else, had further questions. This is standard educational practice; without the CHANGES option iSpot is severely devalued as a learning resource.

[Andrewm]

Track Changes: We really need this. Probably the no. 1 priority for me.

[The_Bate_s]

Fully agree Andrewm, without the track Changes functionality, I see no reason to post identifications or comments. As such I also see no reason to add any observations.
Hope this is fixed soon, or this will be the last post I do on Ispot.

[Andrewm]

Bit of a whoops that my project index doesn't allow me to edit it any more......I will edit the page and ask for solutions there as well.

[dejayM]

My projects, designed to support the quest for excellence in Observing, are RUINED by the new coding.
I have just started two new ones designed to support anyone who posts Marines
Just a raw idea really
Any new Observation with the Descriptive Tag Marine, will arrive at the head of this list

Marine Organism Posts

And for the Marine Habtat, this -

Marine Habitat posts

[dejayM]

Unfortunately my response to Peachysteves "I have logged..." is misplaced - not below the post. I think the issue with Browser difficulties is one thing that Developers might be more interested in (they can use that experience serving their rich clients - sound critical enough?) Anyway I think you should name the Browser and perhaps the OS (Win10 say). For the record I suspect NO-ONE from the development team is coming here. Perhaps someone should PROVE that they are - PLEASE.

[Peachysteve]

Silly me, I tried to log in direct from the email I received which is the browser that doesn't like the new site. It is Firefox 54.0.1 (32-bit) running on Windows 7.
All I get is a page with no content.
I have to use chrome to view the site but even then I get a litany of problems, if anybody is interested I could post screen shots. When I open an observation the page it may load properly albeit very slowly, or the text may load but not show the images. Sometimes I can click on Full Size which opens the image in a new tab but other times Full Size remains greyed out. I may get the page load but have no content, for example I have just loaded this page https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/730796/unknown-plant and there is no image, no ID etc see below, this is the text on the page...

By
Added

Identifications
No Identifications present
Add a revised identification

Or I may get an error message advising I clear my cookies and restart my browser.
All in all it takes me a lot longer to view observations.

[miked]

Some screenshots might be useful. Quite a number of people have had difficulties with the initial password but not heard so many issues once over that initial signup. There are bugs on the site but not heard the one you are mentioning here. One issue is that all the millions of images need to have thumbnails built the first time they are looked at and this is slowing things down in the first few days of the new site. Hopefully that will be less of an issue once a batch job has completed to all the old images although not sure if there will still be a short delay on each new observation.
Incidentally I was using firefox on win7 to signup (several times during testing and at launch), on some occasions I also had problems with that initial signup but after a few goes it always worked, no idea why this should be buggy.

[dejayM]

Maybe I can 'help'
I'd say @Peachysteve that you have a display memory issue. You may not have had it before but it is likely to be the case. RAM is sometimes an issue but the Display Card in your PC is probably old or simply not up to it. You can close other applications before going to iSpot or you can Flush Memory (Google?). Both worth a try. Even Win7 allocated too much memory for its own use so it may not be easy to solve
Either way that post came in here down 6kms of copper wire within 12 seconds - not bad really but could be a lot better. I am Win10 and Chrome. The Zoom Feature is dreadfull slow and that is because it takes too much memory - @miked

[dejayM]

Don't you have to just WONDER why this Forum Format is so useful and sophisticated yet the main site so useless and UNsophisticated! Amen