Seeing the spinning wheel. I left it spinning for about half an hour while I worked in a different browser tab on a non iNat site, came back and it was still spinning.
Update: I drafted this post some months ago I think, but found my other, smaller Umbrella projects still work, so I decided to see if I could fix this one myself by reducing the number of projects in it. However it still spins the wheel at the opening page, and won’t show the observations, though I can work around that myself by opening “Read more” then selecting a sub-project.
I used this Project as an entry point for visitors to the Reserve, and put the link on printed signs all along the perimeter, so people could if they wished follow the link on their phones and see the satellite view showing which part of the site they were viewing, them maybe find a picture that could lead them to recognise a plant or feature in front of them in real life. [I don’t know if anybody ever did this, but it seemed a good idea at the time:) ]
Is the problem the number of Projects, or observations, or something to do with the Places, that makes it so slow? If the situation is permanent I will make a major change of some sort, maybe deleting this Project, and putting a link to each of the three smaller Umbrella projects on a reprint of the signs.
NB Although iNat is not loading at all for me at present, this issue is nothing to do with that. I made this post now because the site isnt working, so I have time to spare:)
It’s the number of filters from each project, we have a big struggle with Flora of Russia and even though some changes to website were made it’s still hardly loading anything and having a big project with all places in one is the only solution for now (or separate parts of umbrella but still if they’re big it will cause problems too).
So what do I do?
I read that thread, and commented tha t I am intermittently, quite recently, having some of the same problems with website dysfunction.
The problem with this Umbrella project has existed for a lot longer.
To clarify, in case it is not obvious:), I know nothing about the programming, and see no error messages.
Until I hear more about whether this is to do with errors in some ymbrella projects that can be fixed, I have removed about half the projects from the one in question, and it is now accessible. I left in it the areas closest to the cordon around the perimeter of the site, where Reserve visitors can read the signs and see the area immediately in front of them.
Now if only I could make the Projects default to Order by Date Observed, they would be able to see the tremendous change over 3 years, through mostly wild revegetation following and supported by selective weeding.
Not in the near term, unfortunately. However, one reason these larger umbrella projects can time out is due to sub-project complexity. The sub-projects of your umbrella project look pretty simple (eg https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/strawberry-bank-top) but you could make them even simpler by removing the taxon requirement of “State matter life” from each one as it’s unnecessary. Might be worth a try.
I did that, and it seemed to speed up the opening of the already-reduced Project. Thanks. I then experimented by adding a few small areas back in.
Is there any relationship between speed of access and numbers of observstions? Eg for future attempts at a publicly accessible project address to put on signage, if I split observations up by time periods, or excluded a time period, would this help or make it worse?
That has made a big difference thank you. Is there anything else I can do to reduce filtering? How about Places… do parent places make a difference? Eg Bigger or smaller Places?
I don’t think so…the main issues are number of queries and their complexity. Anything you can do to reduce the number of requirements per project and the total number of projects in the umbrella should help.
EDIT: whoops, I didn’t see this. I think anything you can do to reduce the number of projects in an umbrella project should help. It looks like you’re using a bunch of sub-projects that cover tiny areas, which I know is what is working for your purposes, but that does mean there’s a lot of inefficiency here.
Could the querying perhaps be simplified if eg all the subprojects had the same parent, and the Parent was as small… or perhaps simple?..as possible? I guess I could try that out.
Yes, that’s right, I am and it is and there is:); and I used the single Umbrella for the printed signs becuase it made the printing job simpler ie cheaper, all 80 signs being the same.
I think my next signage should be based on smaller areas, perhaps it will have to be handwritten like my original ones. The shortest possible addresses make this easier. I might refresh my memory on how to make tinyurls, and whether modern peoples :) still use these.
I am pleased to report that after removing the Taxon filter of “Life”, I have restored all the original sub projects to this Umbrella, and it is working. Takes a few seconds to open, but not bad.
Smaller Umbrella projects for smaller numbers of those same sub projects, that were previously slow since about May, are now opening quickly.
Background: in 2018 a Taxon requirement needed to be added to have any observations appear in a Collection Project. With subsequent changes to Projects, eg the Exclusion options, it seems it is no longer necessary to add a Taxon requirement.
