After some random amount of use the Identity screen decides to mix up the autofill choices

Bug Reports
1

Please fill out the following sections to the best of your ability, it will help us investigate bugs if we have this information at the outset. Screenshots are especially helpful, so please provide those if you can.

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : Chrome

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: the Identify screen https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?taxon_id=352308&&place_id=19,37,18,36,12,44,13,7590,6883,13336,7587,6853,9116,17,41,2,47,49,8,48,51,42,4,97454,39,33,7,31,29,20,32,35,24,38,28,25,36,19,26,45,30,43,23,21,27&per_page=200

Screenshots of what you are seeing (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/): N/A

Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):

Step 1: I’m identifying from a species that doesn’t exist in a location back to russula. I select id, type r-u-, choose third option down Russula, add text, click enter

Step 2: Randomly, when I’m doing this it throws in Rutaceae all of a sudden or Rudbeckia sometimes, when I click Russula, always the third option down when I type in R-U-

Step 3: I x-it out and type r-u- again and select the third option down, this time it selects Russula. If I go really slowly too, it will do the right thing, it just happens when I go fast. I shut the tab and re-open a tab that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. It will always start doing this after some period of use though, it is quite an annoyance and makes me look dumber than I already am.

2

what you’re describing reminds me a bit of https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/searching-for-taxon-on-identify-stalls-out/4286 .

3

since i had more time, i went back and looked into the thing i noted earlier, and i don’t think that’s operating here. then i went back and re-read your original post…

just to clarify, are you saying that you always type only “R+U”, and that you’re expecting the results to always include the same items in the same order? if that’s what you’re saying, then i’m just guessing here, but i don’t think you can expect the list to always return the same items in the same order. (in other words, if that’s your concern, then i doubt that that’s a bug.)

4

No, they appear in the same order. When I pick Russula, the other taxa either switches into that position without showing itself or the mapping is wrong.

5

so i think i hear you saying that Russula always shows up as the third item on the “ru” taxon autocomplete list, but when you click on the third item, you sometimes get Rutaceae or Rudbeckia. if that’s correct, is it possible that you’re occasionally clicking on the wrong item on the list (ex. the second or fourth item)?

6

No, I wouldn’t have created this if I thought that.

7

You see, I have to close down the window and open it again to get it to reset itself.

8

it’s a good practice in general to refresh the Identify screen occasionally.

once you start to see the problem but before you close the window, does clicking on the third item always give you Rudbeckia or always Rutaceae across observations? (is it consistent across observations?) what about if you repeat on the same observation? (is it consistent within the same observation?)

you mentioned that going fast or slow may have an impact somehow. can you clarify? does slowing down prevent the onset of the problem, or does it prevent the continuation of the problem?

finally, next time you start to see the problem, it might be useful to look for error messages in your browser’s developer tools console. it may also be helpful to capture a video of the problem to see it in action.

1 Like
9

I looked into using the xbox game bar to record it when it happens, not sure I fully understand how to do that yet. It is consistently one or the other, Rudbeckia or Rutaceae, I think mostly Rutaceae lately. When I catch it and repeat the action it is correct. That’s what I meant by going slower, it seems to catch up that way and prevents the issue, but I have to go quite a bit slower if I don’t want to see it happen at all, maybe even slower than correcting it.

10

I have seen similar odd behavior when using a touchscreen- a few common examples:
-type u and Life is the top hit, touch the word Life in the dropdown and Tunicata (2nd hit) often gets filled in instead
-type d and Magnoliopsida (dicots) is the top hit, touch the word and Anatidae (ducks, 3rd in rank) often gets filled in instead
-type a for Animalia, get Angiospermae (2nd) instead, I think sometimes vice versa too

I will watch to see if it’s a length of time before refresh thing.

Update: Observed within the first few id’s on a very fresh Identify page with touchscreen: type d, touch top Magnoliopsida, get Anisoptera (4th) filled in.

11

Is this Safari on an iPad?

12

It’s on HP Envy series laptop using Win 10 latest Chrome.

1 Like
13

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been using too when this has happened too, except on a Lenovo machine. Should have mentioned that.

14

That could be some how related to the “citrus x latifolia vs. butterfly” issue I detected last year:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/citrus-x-latifolia-instead-of-butterfly/14942