A small feature I would like to see:
a one-click option to mention the observer in a comment, or to reply to another commentator of an observation. This would fill out the comment field with the @username so one doesn’t have to type the username and wait for the suggestions, or, as also sometimes encountered, typos would be prevented
I definitely like how Flickr does this, would be great if iNat could too!
2 Likes
I was going to ask for pretty much the same thing. The way I have seen this handled on other sites is to initially bias the drop-down list of suggestions to users who are active in the current context. So entering @ would immediately show a short list containing only the most relevant users (i.e. the observer, and anyone who has suggested an ID, or left a comment on the observation). Typing more letters would then bring up the full list (if the letters didn’t match anyone in the short list).
What I find at the moment is that I often have to type in almost the entire username before it appears in the list of suggestions - which pretty much defeats the purpose of showing it in the first place.
10 Likes
It seems to work that way here on the Forum (Discourse), but not in iNat.
2 Likes
Often it seems that after typing the entire user name I still get a list that doesn’t even include that name, until my second or third try.
4 Likes
And now I can’t get to it at all. Just a few minutes ago I wanted to comment on an observeration: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21585713#activity_comment_3945001 I tried typing normally the first time, more slowly the second time, and faster the third time. The person’s name never came up and I can’t scroll down any of the lists. Before I was always able to get the right username to eventually come up.
1 Like
I didn’t realize it was Questagame until now–maybe that makes a difference.
Yeah, possibly related to that user being suspended.
1 Like
Oh, another thing that wasn’t known to me using Identify. That clears that up. Thank you.
maybe suspended accounts’ name should be in grey or something so that is immediately evident
7 Likes
This user hasn’t been suspended and I couldn’t get the name to show up in the drop-down list at all with numerous tries: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43862820. After typing the preceding sentence, I went back and tried again and it worked. Still seems like it shouldn’t be so hard . . .
I agree.
That’s strange, it shows up in the dropdown for me as I type it out.
I tried it again just now, and it worked. What often happens is that while I am typing a different drop-down list keeps appearing, without the name that I’m looking for on any of them. At a certain point, one of the later drop-down lists does have the name I want on it. But earlier today, it never got to the drop-down list with the name I wanted on it–it just got stuck on maybe the 3rd or 4th list (I’m guessing) and there didn’t seem to be any way to get it to keep going to a drop-down list with the name I wanted.
1 Like
@tiwane et al: Back to the initial question - do you think it is possible to implement this feature? I continuously see my username written wrong
3 Likes
I hope so. When I’m using Identify, trying to find the name I want on the constantly changing lists and then have it disappear before I can click it is maddening. It would be so much easier to just be able to click on a username on the observation.
2 Likes
Yes, it’s possible, and I like the Flickr-like idea. Will take some design work, though.
3 Likes
I just discovered that my main frustration was from my own failure to realize that the fact “@[name]” didn’t turn blue when I spelled it out all the way didn’t mean it wouldn’t turn blue when I hit “done,” which made me think I had to click something on the list, so I was going through those lists over and over and over when I didn’t have to. I still like this Feature Request, though.
2 Likes
good point - a potential improvement if/when the comments design on iNat is revised, for example here on the forum when I type @sgene the preview text (before saving the reply) shows me it successfully matched to an actual user by rendering it differently than the surrounding text and linking it to your profile:
4 Likes