'Top identifier' on taxon page stuck, only goes up, never down

Bug Reports
1

Platform: Windows

Browser, if a website issue: MS Edge v140.0

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: example taxon page Subspecies Hieracium glaucinum cinerascens · iNaturalist

Screenshots of what you are seeing:

#1, at the URL above:

Untitled1
Untitled1293×152 12.6 KB

#2, upon clicking the green ‘Leaderboard’ link:

Untitled2
Untitled2972×445 71.9 KB

Description of problem: in the past I have identified 7 observations of this species, which resulted in my being listed as the ‘Top identifier’ on the taxon page (screenshot #1). More than one month ago, I removed all identifications for this taxon. However, as of today I am still currently listed as ‘Top identifier’ on the taxon page, which is wrong and unwarranted.

This issue occurs only with the ‘Top identifier’ box on the taxon page; my username correctly disappeared from the detailed ‘leaderboard’-link for this taxon (screenshot #2).

This issue is not limited to this taxon: it affects any other taxa for which I have once been a top identifier (worldwide or regionally) at some point, then later deleted or withdrawn identifications. My count of identifications as ‘Top identifier’ only goes up, and never down, on this page.

For my username to no longer be ‘Top identifier’ for these taxons, I suppose it would take someone else to exceed my former number of identifications, so that they become the new top identifier themselves.

1 Like
What is a good percentage of supporting versus leading/improving IDs?
3

When did you remove your IDs for this taxon?

4

Early or mid-July, if I remember correctly. Yes, more than one month ago

5

Deleted or withdrawn the identifications?

6

Deleted obviously, but withdrawing gives the same result.

1 Like
7

first, it looks like you changed your user login at some point. it used to be a four-letter login. i don’t know what the sequence of events was leading up to your ID deletions, but it’s possible that if you changed your user login and then went and deleted your IDs, the system maybe didn’t have enough time to go through and do both things in the proper order, and it got confused somehow. alternatively, maybe it should do operations based on the numeric user ID, which should reduce the possibility of problems like this, but it currently does some of these operations based on user login. see https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNatAPIv1_identifications?user_id=geoltel&taxon_id=1347968.

second, it also looks like you deleted a lot of your own observations where you had IDs, and in those cases, it looks like some of those IDs got orphaned. so in those cases, the problem could be similar to: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/orphaned-identification-record-returned-from-api/30372.

2 Likes
8

Thanks, yes, it could be related to that ‘orphaning’ of some pending operations. Do you think temporarily reverting to the former username could solve it, by giving the system some time (how long?) to catch up and expunge the old ID traces?

Right now I’m experimenting with the addition of an ID to a taxon I’m (unduly) ‘Top Identifier’ for:

  • it immediately (mere seconds) added 1 to the number next to ‘Top Identifier’;
  • withdrawing that ID, it immediately substracted 1;
  • restoring the withdrawn ID, it immediately re-added 1;
  • however upon deleting the ID… the number has not decreased (yet).

Maybe some server process will kick in later. Will monitor whether the number goes down in the coming minutes/hours/days…

edit: If assuming there is no ‘bug’ here because some process may run at some point and expunge orphaned data (as is already the case for orphaned images, if memory serves)… and if not excessively resource-intensive… running it more frequently (weeks?) might avoid such large discrepancies.

edit2: 4 days gone by, number does not decrease

9

if that’s what’s happening, then probably the identification record is getting deleted, but the index entry is not being deleted. that could explain the difference between results from the API (https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNatAPIv1_identifications?user_id=geoltel&taxon_id=1347968) and results directly from the database (https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=1766331&taxon_id=1347968).

10

Three weeks gone by: still top identifier for several taxa, unduly.
It seems impossible to remove myself as “top identifier” on any taxon page.
Adding-then-deleting an ID on more observations still brings the counter up (from 7 to 10, see opening post).
Also, adding-then-deleting an ID several times on a same observation increased the count by as many. A funny way to “game” any and all leaderboards to make it to the top! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Will report again in 3 months, to see if a cleanup happens eventually.

11

Looks like my undue “top identifier” status following obs/ID deletion has been cleared at last, at some point between Oct. 4 and today Dec. 19. So there must be some form of ‘garbage collection’ (?) or ‘status refresh’ taking place, but who knows how frequently…

Probably time to close this Bug Report if things fix themselves (somehow) in time…