I am posting here because it may be the resolution of a bug, and in any case the feedback is most relevant to the IT team. Please move this post wherever it belongs.
From time to time I notice improved function, from my perspective, and would like to give appreciation and a vote for retaining that change - but I am often unsure whether there has actually been a change or I just stumbled on the right combination of pages and views etc, or for some reason the feature is just working more consistently than in the past (perhaps internet speeds etc) - and in some cases I never see the improved effect again, and don’t know if it was an unintended or perhaps unrecognised effect of another change, and got reversed in subsequent changes.
Some examples:
A week or two ago I opened one of my Umbrella projects and there was no leaderboard, so the map - what I nearly always want to see - was evident immediately, and fully visible with only a little scrolling. I loved that! Unfortunately it hasn’t happened again, but if it is an option I vote for it:)
Today a feature which I think existed for some months in the latter half of 2018, returned in viewing Explore search results for a Place, in map view with the obs in little thumbnails down the right-hand side, and their pins on the map at the left, I was able to see where each obs was located in the map as its pin was pointed to when I clicked on each thumbnail. Yay! Saves heaps of time going trying various search filter combinations in another browser tab to try and find where that obs is.
My other constant dream is to be able to consistently click on a pin in the map of either an Umbrella or a collection project, and have the little pointer pop up with the basic details, and the option to view it if wanted.
This feature was pretty constant I think in late 2018, and occasionally it works now, and lately I have suspected it is not meant to work in Umbrella project maps just in Collection project maps, or perhaps it doesn’t work if there are too many flags in the map, or perhaps if Places have recently been edited…???
Today this worked in the same Search results map mentioned above - the pointer popups with details did pop up when pointing at pins on the Search results map - wonderful! - but were different than usual, and didn’t give an option to view. That would still be a great feature to retain if possible - I hope it stays.
So I scrolled down the thumbnails on the right to find the obs I had briefly seen details of - and found that as I selected a thumbnail its map pin pop-up opened.
I just want to say thank you if these are new features or fixes, and please try and keep them if they were unexpected results of tinkering.
And thanks for all features and fixes past, present and future.
Now I will try to find other pages this is working on.
CORRECTION It is in fact still possible to view the obs directly from the pop-up pointer on the map, by clicking on the picture. Even better than having the “View” text - saves space!
Yes, that’s where I was, and that seems to be the only place it’s working for me on my tablet browsing in Safari (I do a lot of work on my tablet but realise that touch screen performance hinders some functions).
As of 8 hrs ago this feature still didn’t work on Project map pages, though occasionally I can get a pop up on the map itself.
Though it was a slight nuisance to have to keep using Explore after viewing an Umbrella Project map, I achieved a tremendous amount last night by being able to see which obs were represented by each pin, and I really made some progress learning how the species are distributed and plant communities overlap in my restoration project.
maybe you navigated to the map view of the observations tab somehow? it looks similar to the map on the main project page sans the leaderboard and sans the place polygons. this view also includes a button to take you to the Explore page, and another to take you to the Identify page. for example: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/gahnia-grove-umbrella-project?tab=observations&subtab=map
i’ve found that trying to click on specific pins with fingers is difficult on a tablet. but it’s easy with an active pen / stylus (and even easier with a mouse). i don’t see any difference in difficulty of clicking on pins on the different maps in the system. it’s just that the area you have to click on is so small, it’s hard to do consistently with fingers.
Thanks, but that looks quite different because it doesn’t show the polygons, which are very many crowded together so very obvious.
Mousing is also ineffective in getting those popups to open. Sometimes I try quite a few , and get one to open. I always have the magnification to max to make them as distinct as possible.
if this is true, then it sounds like your internet connection is somehow letting you down. the images of the pins may load, but the invisible grid associated with those pins (which is what you actually interact with), may not be fully loaded. i see this on slow / bad connections sometimes.
