The last update was in October 2020.
Any news ?
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/notifications-on-inaturalist-please-share-your-ideas/374/200
13 Likes
I wonder if even just a couple of changes to what is displayed in the various columns on the dashboard would be an improvement for many people and would require less substantial coding work than a complete revamp of notifications (I am thinking of this as an interim measure ā I do think more fine-grained options about what notifications one receives is needed).
Currently it is possible to see 1) all notifications, 2) just notifications for your content, and 3) just notifications for subscribed taxa/users. What is missing is a way to see only notifications for @ mentions and activity (IDs/comments) on followed observations without having to scroll past all your other subscriptions ā i.e., it isnāt possible to pull up just those notifications that do not fall under columns 2 or 3.
The other thing that seems like it would help would be a read/unread label on the dashboard list of notifications, similar to what exists in the old android app (I donāt know how this is handled in the old iOS app or the Next app).
This breakdown of notifications would surely not be completely new functionality on the back end, given that it is essentially the same as what currently exists in the android app.
6 Likes
Yes, yes, yes! Although Iād like even better a ādismissā button that I can click when I donāt want to see this observation again. Either or both would be a great improvement.
6 Likes
This would be very useful indeed! Alternatively, if @ mentions would be shown under messages (the envelope icon) and not general notification (the chat icon), that could also work ā anything that just sets them apart would be very useful for many people I think.
4 Likes
I asked @kueda for news on this back in October and he said theyāre not working on it. So to quote myself about it from another topicā¦
7 Likes
Give us a token first slice at least.
Read.
Unread.
with options to
Mark as Read.
Keep Unread.
4 Likes
For me, the top most useful things would be:
- show individual notifications as read or unread
- for IDs, separate refinements from actual disagreements, and ideally turn off notifications for refinements. For example, if I say a plant is in the aster family, and then someone else says itās in a particular genus of the aster family, I want that notification ideally turned off or at minimum separated from the one where someone says no, this is in the mint family.
- find @ mentions more easily than using https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?utf8=ā&q=YOURUSERNAME&commit=Search which loads very slowly and doesnāt capture all of them
Honestly anything beyond that would be gravy. It would be good if changes to the DQA generated notifications but I can live without that.
3 Likes
I suspect my workflow is different to the rest of you.
I open each obs - read all the updates since I was last there.
Done.
I would like my notifications collapsed to - there was activity on this obs. ONE notification per obs.
6 Likes
In a similar vein, I would appreciate a way to separate less-refined IDs that are not disagreements. For example, if I ID a snake to subspecies, say Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis), and subsequently someone else IDs the snake to species only, as a Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) without disagreeing, I will get a notification. (Conversely, if that species-level ID was second and not a disagreement, it will still elevate the obs to RG at subspecies level.)
I get a lot of notifications that are just this - a lot of newer people learning basic herp ID are confused about the difference between species and subspecies, and many experienced identifiers may not be comfortable with the subspecies of a certain species or certain area, and thus only will only go to species without disagreeing. If Iāve gone to subspecies with my ID, I donāt need to see all of these unless they are a deliberate disagreement so I can take a second look.
So in summary, it would be very helpful to have a way to turn off notifications for any non-disagreeing IDs at any coarser or finer level - not just IDs that are an exact match.
4 Likes
@tiwane any progress please?
2 Likes
That! Please!
TBH if I even could switch notifications off only for non-disagreeing IDs to subspecies, that would reduce my current notification load by at least 50%.
1 Like
:-(
(but post must be at least 5 characters)
9 Likes
I really hope this is addressed soon. Itās so difficult to keep up with my notifications when addressing any of them requires addressing 200 of them at the same time so they donāt disappear the next time I check my notifications. Often gets to around 2000-3000 notifications before I can dedicate time to break into that list. I find myself making less IDās when that number gets more overwhelming.
7 Likes
Wow! I thought I had it bad when the backlog notifications reached 500 in number!
Iāll confess that I donāt look closely at every single notification I get. I will open an observation only if thereās a comment, I get tagged, or someone IDs my own observation to something other than what I IDed it. This means I donāt catch my ID mistakes till they become mavericks, but itās the best way Iāve come up with to reduce the time I spend on notifications. Iād rather spend my ID time (which is already a lot!) on uploading my observations or making IDs for observations still at Needs ID.
2 Likes
The alternative is: to disable notifications (confirming IDs + username mentions + e-mail) to only get those (rare, hopefully) dissenting notes on your own IDs/shaky tentative IDs.
And/or, to identify as little as possible in order not to appear in dreaded āleaderboardsā that many users mistakenly read as āhere are 5 specialists at your service to whistle atā.
A drawback is that curators careful enough to mention you (albeit often mistakenly, cf. above) prior to a taxon change canāt reach you either.
So, in a nutshell we need:
- finer-grained on/off choices for notifications and better tools for managing the backlog
- an option for prolific identifiers not to appear in flawed āleaderboardsā (less undue notifs!)
- features to help interested parties intervene prior to taxon changes (cooloff delay, mandatory always-on notifs by curators, or whatever works)
1 Like
I tried disabling notifications for a few days but found I missed seeing who agreed with me on my observations. I donāt intend to give up making IDs, either, I look at it as both fun and being an easy volunteer opportunity for me. Luckily, very few curators have need of reaching me; Iām really not an expert in anything.
5 Likes
you could build a front end against the same back end that the Android app uses (as i did here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/is-there-an-easy-way-to-open-all-notifications/25913/35), however, i got the sense that the changes to notifications contemplated back in the day would make fairly significant changes, including to the existing back end that the Android app uses. so if iNat is really intending to make those sort of changes to notifications at some point, then it wouldnāt make sense to build a screen on the existing back end, since itāll just be changed later.
How many years ago was that?
Given that the last info we have received from staff is that there is currently no progress/nothing concrete being worked on, it seems like a relatively minor front-end reworking of an existing back-end would be an improvement over the status quo and more useful to users now than waiting for something that requires more substantial work and might or (more likely) might not happen in the foreseeable future.