Extended lag and Internal Server Error when clicking "Agree" on Identify page

[dlevitis]

Platform: Web Identify page

Browser, if a website issue: Firefox 143.0.3 for Mac

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?place_id=1250&verifiable=true&taxon_id=1624661

Screenshots of what you are seeing:

Description of problem:

I’m trying to fix thousands of pocket gopher IDs in California (for backstory: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/dlevitis/117781-identifying-pocket-gophers-in-the-north-bay and the flag linked to therein). Part of this is searching for those that are already correctly IDed as the only species of Geomyidae to occur in that particular county and confirm those IDs by clicking Agree on the main Identify page. This was working fine until about Friday Oct. 3rd, when I started seeing the spinny arrows (technical term) spinning indefinitely, and the agreements inconsistently saving as identifications. Sometimes, but not most of the time, a little error box appears saying, “Internal Server Error.” It is similar to this very old bug report, long ago solved.

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/click-on-agree-button-but-does-not-register/3882

Step 1: Search for “Botta’s Pocket Gopher” in Santa Clara County (or another location). Weirdly doing the same thing searching for “Pacific Poison Oak” or “Mule Deer” does not trigger the same problem.

Step 2: Click Agree on all those that I can tell are actually pocket gophers from the thumbnails.

Step 3: Wait for the arrows to stop spinning.

Step 4: Check the observations and find that the agreements did not save.

I’ve run into this half a dozen times this weekend, searching on different locations, but only when searching for Botta’s Pocket Gopher.

EDIT: Trying again this afternoon, got this error:

[DianaStuder]

@dlevitis

Internal Server Error

I blamed that on my erratic internet, since it only happens sometimes. But perhaps it is iNat - heavy traffic (go away and come back later? is also a polite message I have seen) ?

[apgarm]

I often see a similar issue, and have for years. If I am going through and confirming all observations of a particular species that I can do quickly (ex: garlic mustard), I will see the spinner and the observations will not save my agreement. This means I will agree a couple times for the same observation, or I have to slow down.

To be clear, this happens from the opened observation on the identify page and hitting the “A” key. Not from just clicking the agree on the thumbnails

This isn’t new behavior for me, but it is annoying. It is also somewhat inconsistent, so I just assumed it was traffic related.

[apgarm]

Just an example: I reviewed all 30, but only 24 stuck. This was at 11:30 am EDT on a Monday, fwiw.

[DianaStuder]

But when I see that message - usually the missing 6 ARE marked reviewed - it just, took, a while, for that to, show up.

[apgarm]

Interesting! I will have to play around with that.

[ericakeklak]

Are we sure this is a server error (500-level) instead of a client-side (400-level) error? Sometimes “Internal Server Error” is used for 400-level errors when the server cannot determine whether it or the client is “at fault.”