I find that using https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observations_updates.html to manage notifications extremely useful. I make sure to allow the maximum number of notifications by page (200) and to check them for observations by “me” and “others.” Then it is easy to filter for disagreements and look for comments. I particularly appreciate the fact that I can go back and look at what I have already “viewed” when I need to respond to a comment.
I only check notifications via the dropdown. Sometimes, I wake up to 90+ notifications but I only open the dropdown (which shows all notfications no matter how many) and scroll to see if there are comments or mentions and that’s it for me. Takes 30 seconds
I think there is a limit to how many it shows, but I don’t recall what it is. If you have hundreds of notifications it won’t show all of them, and if I remember correctly if you close it and re-open it it will show the next batch (you won’t be able to access the notifications from the first batch again except by scrolling through the home feed). My memory on this is hazy since it only happened to me a couple times years ago when I identified hundreds of observations and then went on vacation.
it’s around 200-250
Possible, I never passed 160 ^^
That is what I do.
I scan the dropdown for the words “comment” or “you” (mentions, my own observations..) and open those in a new tag and then work through those. I still see all other notifications like that and scan them quickly as well… if I see names of certain IDers I will open those notifications as well, as they have a history of disagreeing but not @mentioning me or of commenting while submitting an ID (which will not show up as comment, which I still find very annoying actually) or just knowing their subject a bit better then me and I am interested in seeing whether they went further with their ID.
All other notifications I ignore, so I will also not see when someone disagreed with my ID, if they do not @mention me.. I would love a notification system for disagreeing IDs with mine. I usually just find them when I become maverick at some point or when someone finally @mentions me
btw, the limit for the dropdown is 200.. which is too many for me actually. If anything happens like misclicks, connection failure ore similar, those notifications are gone and I really cannot be bothered reviewing them via dashboard…
this tool https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observations_updates.html works nice when I am on my laptop.. however, when I ID via phone (which is most of the times at the moment) it does not really work well for me either
Thanks all for the hints about workflows via searching for ‘mention’ and ‘comment’. Works fine for me and this way I only miss my ID mistakes (unless someone calls me to it). Much better than ignoring everything. Also I feel better about ignoring the remaining stuff now that I know that I’m not the only one! :-)
Using the find function for “ment” will get you both comment and “mentioned you”.
If you’ve not already done so, you might want to consider adding a line about this to the top of your profile. Something along the lines of:
“If you think I’ve made a mistake please get my attention with an @mention, as I don’t usually check ID notifications.”
People might not see it at first, but if you’ve made a really obvious mistake (like clicked the wrong thing on the drop-down) and aren’t withdrawing, someone will probably look at your profile to see what gives.
I’m not sure how well this works. I have everything off except for the top one (mentions), and I still get all notifications.
While all of the things people mention in this thread are good solutions for managing your notifs, there’s something to be said for how bad/overwhelming the default user experience is until/unless you go in and tweak your settings, which going by common dev stats for other platforms, a huge portion of users will never do. I’ve had multiple folks I’ve gotten into iNat complain about this aspect of the app(/site, though even fewer of them will ever end up using it on desktop), and basically echo OP’s opinion that they quickly decided to ignore all notifications entirely.
I don’t know if the answer just to separate the notification types out into different tabs/panels (mentions, comments, maybe a way to sort by IDs on your obvs vs. other users), but the default experience is dire and I don’t think it should be ignored just because it’s possible to customize if you bother/know how. Many people will not bother and/or do not know how.
Edit: I actually also forgot since it’s been so long since I set mine up that you can’t even change notification settings in the app — those toggles can only be accessed from desktop, and there is no indication whatsoever in the app UI that more account settings are available elsewhere.
