Create a way to unfollow one's own observations

Feature Requests
1

As far as I know, there is no way to unfollow one’s own observations. I have my Account Settings set to not receive notifications where the ID exactly matches my own. But I have many observations where I do not want to continue following as others add consistent but more refined IDs beyond the level I’m comfortable with. I often look for the “follow” tab on my own observations so I can uncheck it, but there doesn’t seem to be one.

2

I think even if you create a feature request, that you still have to separately vote on it.

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3

Thank you, bouteloua–I hadn’t realized that.

4

Thanks for this, I requested this feature before on GG. I suspect the current logic is that it is best for a user to remain aware of the IDs and discussions happening on their own observations. I would rather be given the choice to unfollow. I don’t think I’d use it often, but at times it becomes irksome if one of my obs is very actively ID’d or discussed, but on a level way beyond my knowledge or interest. Or if the discussion turns nasty, luckily that hasn’t happened on one of my own obs, but I have been pleased to be able to unfollow other obs because this happened.

3 Likes
6

I just need to correct this statement because it is possible to unfollow one’s own observations by using the subscriptions setting on one’s dashboard and selecting “observations.” However, it would be very tedious to find the ones one wants to unfollow unless they are very recent since there is no search feature.

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7

Interesting paloma, I’ve gone to my subscripitons>Observations and have found that I can unsubscribe to obs I have made, however not all my obs are there, only a few. All of which had some discussion on them. So I’m not sure what determines which of my obs show up on that list, nor how one re-subscribes once one has unsubscribed as there is no ‘follow’ button on one’s own obs. (Update: and also it doesn’t work, I unsubscribed from one of my obs, but it still appeared on my dashboard and notifications when someone commented on it)

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8

when I was unsubscribing my own observations, I made a decision on each whether I wanted to see them again, and if I did want to, I tagged them “follow” so I can just do a search for those tagged ones periodically

That’s interesting. I didn’t notice that one way or the other.

there seems to be a long lag time (maybe 24 hours or so) before the “unfollow” takes effect

9

I agree. Ideally, on those I would like the option to follow only where a newer identification actually disagrees with mine instead of just refines it, on an observation-by-observation basis.

10

You’re right. This morning I started getting notifications for observations that I had specifically unfollowed. It had been working for me for a while. So I guess I’ll find another hobby.

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11

@sgene can you provide some examples here? I generally don’t get lots of additional IDs to my observations one they’ve been posted for a few days so I’m just trying to understand the situation a bit more.

12

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4401462

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4403328

I’ve known what species these observations are since before I posted them. That’s all I want to know. I don’t care if 200 more people put subspecies IDs on, but I don’t see why I’m forced to look at them each time. So I would like a way to unfollow my observations, preferably by having the same follow/unfollow button that is available to me for the observations of others. That would have given me the ability at any time during the last 3 years to select “unfollow” (which I would have done right after john8’s confirming IDs).

3 Likes
13

I definitely understand your reason for wanting to do this. And I expect you realize that you would also not know about any new and interesting comments that might get added by others, or any disagreeing IDs that you might want to follow up.

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14

May I suggest in this case that you mute such users under your Profile settings. Works a charm ;-)

Then you will still get notifications of comments, disagreeing IDs etc., but not the subsp IDs or higher level IDs from users who are just doing this (in an attempt to go up the leaderboard, I suspect) and filling up one’s notifications, but not providing anything particularly ‘useful’.

15

Yes, but I figure that anyone who makes a comment on my observation without the “@” probably isn’t really hoping to catch my attention in particular. And I check for my mavericks every day. If there were a choice to just receive IDs that really disagree with mine (and not simply refine it), and if it could be applied on a case-by-case basis, that would solve my problem.

Thanks for the suggestion. With me, it’s not a matter of the particular users, but the observations themselves. There are many, and not just the subspecies ones, where I’ve contributed whatever I can or want to and don’t think it’s necessary to see them again unless they become mavericks or someone sends me an “@” comment.

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16

I almost never @ people on their own observations, or if they have commented on an observation, unless it’s somehow unclear who I am addressing.

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17

While it might not be the only reason for wanting to unfollow your own obs (or any obs for that matter) I think the main reason for unfollowing is because of notifications we don’t find relevant to us. Such as refined IDs (subspp) or IDs to higher levels (that aren’t explicit disagreements). Also ppl favouriting, adding annotation values, field entries, tags. In other words, it ties into the need for a better notification system, and hopefully the new system will give us more control over our notifications. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/notifications-on-inaturalist-please-share-your-ideas/374

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18

@sgene thanks for providing those examples.

I’m with @vynbos in that in many ways this seems like more of a notifications issue in that if there was a better way to control notification types and also be able to more easily separate the notifications which are important to the user from the “chaff”, these kinds of notifications wouldn’t be an issue.

I can make an issue for our developers about this, since it seems pretty simple, but I think it may be wrapped up into the notifications revamp we are working on.

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19

Okay. I will adjust. I removed my vote on this Feature Request. The only other vote is from a developer, so as far as I’m concerned whatever seems appropriate with it now is okay.

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20

Added this as an issue: https://github.com/inaturalist/inaturalist/issues/2501

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21

Thanks, @tiwane!!!

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