Comments that exist don't appear when opening observations

Platform: Website

Browser: Chrome

  1. I get a notification for an observation I’ve previously commented on/made an ID:
    image

  2. I can see what the comment is on my dashboard:

  3. When I actually go to that observation (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42831685), the comment isn’t there:

This has happened to me at least 4-5 times now, another one I can recall is https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41809593

2 Likes

I also had this happen to me within the past week and reindexing the observation made the comment suddenly appear. That was the first/only time I’ve seen it happen myself.

3 Likes

It’s back – perhaps because the observation was re-indexed with the latest ID added

2 Likes

Thanks Cassi + Jane, much appreciated. Interestingly the other cases I had were from a few weeks ago

1 Like

i saw this kind of problem, too, but i chalked it up to CNC overload. is anyone still seeing this problem? if not, maybe it’s time to close.

1 Like

I haven’t encountered it since the CNC ended, but the first 3-4 times I encountered it were pre-CNC

1 Like

@pisum just happened again, and this one is interesting. According to my notifications, Mark made two comments on an ob:
image

My dashboard only shows one:

going to the observation, only one appears as well, but it’s the opposite one compared to what showed on the dashboard: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/45458653#activity_comment_4572103

2 Likes

for what it’s worth, i’m looking at this 6+ hours later, i see both comments:

i wonder what acceptable wait time is for comments to appear on the observation?

1 Like

both appear for me now too

1 Like

I’m not sure if this is the same thing, but about a week ago I started noticing that a good number of my comments don’t show up on the observations unless I reindex them. I haven’t noticed a pattern yet. Any thoughts on whether they’re visible to others or if they send a notification (either before or after reindexing)? I can send a link the next time it happens before I reindex it if that’s helpful.

Very frustratingly, I’m still encountering this problem. Latest example:


image
There’s meant to be a comment after my latest reply (made at 5:15 in between the two above), but I can’t see it when I go to the observation (even after I’ve reindexed it)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60348461

EDIT: looking at this further, I think this probably isn’t an example of this bug, and that Max decided to add the @ tag to his original comment 15 mins after he first posted it, generating a new notification for me?

Having said that though, there have still been a number of cases over the last few months where I’m genuinely still getting this bug

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.

Platform (Android, iOS, Website):
Website

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About):

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

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages:
e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30741154
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30738467

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

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: Open observation in new page - I have been choosing from https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?page=17&iconic_taxa=unknown&project_id=unknowns-of-naturemap

From this identify page, the little comments icon did not show in the lower left corner of the observation box for comments that were not going to show when the individual observation page was opened.

Step 2: Enter a comment or an identification.

Step 3: When my comment is accepted and displayed, discover the kind identifier before me has already made a similar comment…

Step 4: Delete my duplicate comment.

Some screenshots for clarity:
(i) in Identify page, fourth observation in top row shows no comments

(ii) Opened in new tab - no comments visible. Based on recent experience of observations of this type in this location, I suspect there is an existing comment.

(iii) I submit my comment. As the screen refreshes, an earlier comment saying the same thing does indeed pop up.

(iv) I delete my comment and finish my process with the observation.

2 Likes

For what it’s worth the ‘invisible’ comments that I have come across were all made about 17 days ago.

I can replicate this issue of hidden comments if I:

  • Open Identify or an individual observation and add a comment to an observation,
  • then before it finishes saving the comment (green circle is still spinning), press r to review (on Identify) or click the Reviewed checkbox

Comment saves, but is hidden on the observation - in Identify and the Observation Detail page - until the observation is updated with a new ID, comment, or other reindexing.

1 Like

Sorry for the late action here, but I just filed a bug report for it: https://github.com/inaturalist/inaturalist/issues/2921

1 Like

This happened to me just now on multiple obs

i noticed this today (28 Mar 2021) on one of my observations (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/72315244). megachile added a comment at 7:18 PM Central, and i received a notification at 7:19, but the comment doesn’t appear in the observation 30 minutes later (and it’s not the in the API results nor Android app observation page either):

… also i wonder if this other bug report (https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/ids-and-comments-slow-to-appear/5324) is the same kind of thing and should be merged with this one?

UPDATE: sometime between about 8AM and 2PM the next day, the comment showed up when viewing the observation. i looked at the update date of the observation using the the API, and it reflects the date of that last comment by megachile. so it doesn’t look like anyone changed the observation in any way since then.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE: on https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41715701, someone added a comment at 5:15PM Central on 3 Apr, but two hours later, the comment is still not showing up.