consider changing default map display for user not logged in

Feature Requests
1

Platform(s), I can only speak for website. No experience elsewhere

URLs any observation

Description of need:
In the case I choose to address there are three, perhaps four classes of iNat users who can receive an iNat URL via email

  1. a normal iNat user who is logged in on iNat at the time of invoking a URL. That person’s default view of the Map display is their conscious choice, perhaps, or they’re naively using the default.

1a) a normal iNat user who is not logged into iNat at the time of invoking the URL, but his/her process authomatically log them in, same result as above. I don’t know if this exists as an option, but it doesn’t for me.

  1. a normal iNat user who is not logged in to iNat, and invoking the URL does not automatically get them logged into iNat, so their view of the Map display defaults to Map mode, not Satellite Mode

  2. someone who has no iNat login, so invoking the URL defaults to Map mode

Map mode only provides any useful information when the URL points to a location near to a street. How many of iNat’s observations are not near a street, ie. wilderness? Or perhaps more usefully, what percentage of iNat’s observations are not within say, 1km of a road? Then the Map display shows absolutely nothing of any use. A white, blank map.

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The same URL shows considerably more information if it defaults to Satellite mode.

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In a lot of my use cases, I’m making reference to the area, not just the observation, eg. in the example above perhaps the amount of wilding pine that dominates the landscape.

Feature request details:
I send out a lot of iNat URLs every month. Maybe that makes me unusual, or maybe it makes me a good promoter of the platform. Most of my recipients will be at most light users of iNat, if they have even got around to creating a login already. They will have effectively zero familiarity with the platform, but any point I am trying to make with my data, about the landscape context, is completely missed by the blank presentation of the Map display.

Switching the default setting of any observation referenced by a user not logged in, to Satellite mode, creates the extra load on the server of providing a small graphic with a high level of detail. You will know far better than me what the load penalty is, based on how often a URL is referenced by a user who is not logged in. The effort to switch the default is very low, but the cost of that switch in server load increases may be the criterion that makes this a poor decision technically, but in terms of demonstrating the platform to unfamiliar users, the presentation quality suffers significantly, in my opinion. You tell me. Do we seek to improve the marketing/presentation/usefulness to the unconverted, or must we save that (small?) degree of server capacity?

Arnim

2

I would also add that the potential cost for the extra data is not just on iNat’s end. It is slower to load observations with satellite imagery as opposed to map tiles and costs more data (if people are paying for that). I’ve seen multiple threads on the forum that reference how iNat can be difficult for users to use when they are in countries with lower internet access/speeds or in areas with poor connections. So changing the default display could have impacts for them as well.

3

The default map, if focused on iNat’s intention of Wild, is pointless. If saving bandwith is the point, then collapse the map – and only open it if the user clicks Show Map, or Show Satellite View.
You would have – pictures, IDs and comments, date and location text. That is adequate for logged out. And frankly, on a slow internet day, I don’t always need the map, never mind the ag on is ing ly slow wait.