iNaturalist Updates for October 2021

[tiwane]

Here’s a list of iNat updates for October 2021. Thank you, @forum_moderators, for compiling them!

General

• Fixed a bug where photos flagged for copyright infringement were getting permanently deleted
• Removed EOL as external name provider due to continuing import errors
• More timezone bug fixes
• Continued work on API v2
• Posted an update regarding development plans for iNaturalist mobile apps
• Many additional translations throughout the websites and apps - you can help

Website

• Significant progress toward resolving the issue that was logging people out of the website
• Fixed the bug preventing batch add to traditional projects

Android

View all release notes

• Bugfix for editing observation fields

iOS

• No updates this month.

Seek

View all release notes

• Released October challenge
• Now supported in Indonesian
• Additional Android 11 support

iNat Blog

• October 4th: Identifier Profile: @michelledelaloye
• October 5th: Tiny Tiny Choanoflagellates
• October 12th: A Jumping Spider Takes Down a Spotted Lanternfly
• October 19th: A Cross-Country Cicada Fungus Collaboration!
• October 21st: New Vision Model Training Started (and associated forum post)
• October 26th: A Bone-Chilling Stream in China Leads to a Torrent Frog Photo

For even more bug fixes and updates, check out iNaturalist on github and see previous monthly updates.

[arboretum_amy]

@tiwane

Posted an update regarding development plants for iNaturalist mobile apps

Plans ;)

[tiwane]

Whoops, thanks! Although in this forum, that could have been intentional…

[egordon88]

@tiwane

Significant progress toward resolving the issue that was logging people out of the website

I can confirm it hasn’t happened in quite a while (>=2 weeks?). Thanks staff!

[paul_luap]

Catalogue of Life was the second possibility to import taxa, now the only one:

[fffffffff]

@tiwane

Removed EOL as external name provider due to continuing import errors

What about EOL as photo source? I still never saw a single taxon it has photos for.

[charlie]

Aren’t most photos on there just from Inaturalist

[fffffffff]

I really don’t know, but I think it just a waste of time to check it and never see any photos, even for big common groups.

[charlie]

Oh oops I misread your comment. You were saying remove it not add it. I shouldn’t post before I have coffee :)

[tiwane]

@brian_d

Was EOL the only name provider or were multiple used? What will replace it, and any pros and cons of removing it?

Catalogue of Life’s 2012 was also being used, and it’s now the only remaining one. No plans to add more. We decided there were too many issues caused by using it (ungrafted taxa, authors being included in names, etc), which curators had to clean up, and that it was creating more issues than it solved.

@fffffffff

What about EOL as photo source? I still never saw a single taxon it has photos for.

It’s still an option. As far as I know it’s not causing any problems so we let it be.

[upupa-epops]

That option hasn’t shown photos for any taxon since the connection broke from the EOL facelift in spring 2018, as far as I know.
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/eol-content-error-on-guides/4857/2

[yasmir]

Hi, did you make changes in the api? i have an application connected and the images are broken

[astra_the_dragon]

more likely related to the fact that many images were migrated to a new server with Amazon and thus have new urls