Refreshing number of observations and number of species per observer

[Wouter]

How often does this overview gets refreshed?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&view=observers

I see the number of species changeing but not the number of observations per observer or the number of species per observer.

[thebeachcomber]

@Wouter

How often does this overview gets refreshed?

“constantly” (but generally delayed by an hour or two whilst observations are indexed)

[pisum]

@thebeachcomber

delayed by an hour or two whilst observations are indexed

i don’t think indexing takes that long under normal circumstances. as far as i’ve noticed, sometimes the pages on the website will return cached data (for maybe up to 15 minutes), but sometimes in these situations you can force a refresh of the data by doing a hard refresh (ctrl+F5).

@Wouter

I see the number of species changeing but not the number of observations per observer or the number of species per observer.

can you provide an example of bad numbers (screenshot), along with expected numbers?

[Wouter]

Then I don’t think it works! E.g. when I look at my own observations numbers don’t match up. They do not match up today and didn’t match up yesterday. Refreshing doesn’t help…

[Wouter]

Examples:
when I look at this link (observers with most bird sightings)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&view=observers&iconic_taxa=Aves

number five is user hdemann
checking his bird observations page it says he has :
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=hdemann&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Aves
4527 bird species seen.

The number on the overview page says however he/she saw:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&view=observers&iconic_taxa=Aves
3728

and I checked a few more. Most of the time the numbers don’t match.

[m_whitson]

One thing to keep in mind if you are comparing counts from different pages is that they don’t all count the same way. One page may be including casual observations but another may only be using research grade.

[pisum]

@m_whitson

comparing counts from different pages is that they don’t all count the same way

yes, that’s exactly right. here’s a page that explains some of the differences: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/how_inaturalist_counts_taxa.

so i don’t think there’s a problem here exactly. it’s just that the different pages count taxa differently.

[Wouter]

Thanks! This helps explaining where numbers come from.

However, I think there’s something else also going on.
I think iNaturalist first checks which 500 observers have contributed the most observations and then when you switch to “species” number, you get a ranking of those same 500 people. So you don’t get to see which users have seen the most species, you get to see which of the users that have contributed the most observations, also have seen the most species.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&view=observers&iconic_taxa=Aves

I think that’s a pitty, since these can be completely different kind of users. Some like to add bulk observations (of maybe only a set of species), while others only like to add special things they’ve seen.

It would be nice if iNaturalist could separate these counts

[Wouter]

what I mean is, these can be different.
There are people (like myself) who have contributed more species to iNaturalist than those 500 that are now listed.

[thebeachcomber]

@Wouter

However, I think there’s something else also going on.
I think iNaturalist first checks which 500 observers have contributed the most observations and then when you switch to “species” number, you get a ranking of those same 500 people. So you don’t get to see which users have seen the most species, you get to see which of the users that have contributed the most observations, also have seen the most species.

yes this exactly correct

[Wouter]

okay, that’s a pity and explains my confusion.

thanks!

[pisum]

@Wouter

I think iNaturalist first checks which 500 observers have contributed the most observations and then when you switch to “species” number, you get a ranking of those same 500 people.

see https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/cutoff-for-2023-top-500-exceeds-6-000-observations/47901/27