Condor Watch Talk

Hello, Condor Watch!

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hello, Condor Watch Zooites! I wanted to stop by and introduce myself…

    My name is Darren--DZM here on Talk--and I've just joined the Zooniverse team. I'm working on a few projects, first and foremost an overhaul of the Talk system. In particular, I’m interested in working to build a unified Zooniverse Talk within which individual project forums are nested.

    I don’t have any sort of ornithological or other zoological or scientific background, but I’m hoping to learn from everyone here! I’ll be around these boards as often as possible, looking for any other ways in which I can help out, so I’m always interested in hearing from you--questions, concerns, ideas, anything.

    In particular, if you have any additional ideas for how Talk can be improved, I'd love to know!

    See you all around!

    DZM

    Posted

  • myraf by myraf scientist

    Hello Darren! Great to have you on talk! I alerted our moderators but one thing that a few of the scientists and I would love is an easier way to search through talk - both the discussion boards as well as the photos - some of which have comments because of something interesting but some have questions that we would like to answer but they get buried and then are hard to locate. I am sure that others will have questions/suggestions as well but any ideas on a more efficient way to search through talk would be appreciated. Or perhaps a way to 'mark' a question for a scientist so we can easily find it? thanks again - and welcome to Condor Watch!

    Posted

  • vjbakker by vjbakker scientist

    Yes, I second what Myra said. I'm excited to hear of your project! Welcome!! I am sure that the Condorwatchers will have a lot of suggestions and requests. My quick thoughts:

    1. My biggest issue mirrors Myra's: it can be strangely difficult to find issues and questions that need attention. We try to monitor Talk carefully but we still seem to miss issues and questions regularly.

    2. The search function doesn't always seem to work properly, and it would be fabulous if it were possible for the search to have a short-term memory so that if you search for something and get a bunch of hits, you don't need to redo the search after looking at the first hit. Perhaps I am not using it properly but I haven't found a way around this.

    3. It would be great if there were an easier way to make an announcement to the whole group, perhaps some kind of running banner, that could direct people to particular discussion boards. Sometimes I hijack recent photos/objects to make such announcements since people do seem to watch the photo stream, but that is not ideal.

    4. It seems like a "like" button on the object comments would be fun. We have very funny volunteers that say very funny things about the photos at times, which is a wonderful way to build community -- especially when you're a community of people looking at birds eat dead things 😃. I am often wanting to indicate that I like a humorous comment.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    These are fantastic suggestions; thank you both! I will be certain that all of these get added to the Big Ol' Talk Ideas Document (the BOTID!) that I'm putting together.

    The post-search trouble in particular is something that has bugged me on many Internet forums; we should definitely try to have a good one. And I hate how the search seems to forget itself after looking at one result, yes! I will push hard for a fix on that.

    Thank you both again; nice to meet you!

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    HI Darren!

    Yes, to all myraf and vjbakker have said, who are blessed with the gift of succinctness

    Are you working on 'the Talk system' being one way across all of Zoo, or would each separate area have its own tailored Talk system? I'll assume the first since the coding would be Zoo's.

    I dream big, so I'm wondering this: It would be nice to have the "do you want to talk about this image" thing to possibly have the option of being put into folders or page header categories. It's nice being able to see them all on the 'recent' page and I know some areas don't really ask "questions" on what they see as just post what they've classified, to show everyone what they found. They can have hundreds of posts a day. They don't even read them. 😛 (The Galaxy Zoo area)

    Other areas ask a lot of questions of each other and help on what they're seeing, which might be inter-mixed with comments or talk. So it's hard to see them (NotesFromNature and the most awesomest.. CondorWatch!)

    An idea - separate the "do you want to talk about this image" into categories, maybe by a page divider on the "recent" page itself, into "Questions" and then just "comments". Then the questions needing attention would stand out. Since you can always "load more" (like now) all those questions can always be accessed and so the answers always found for future use, too.

    quick fix - an icon people can choose to add to the typed comment which is a solid red circle with a star in it, if the comment needs to be addressed.

    The colors on the message and boards system have got to go. It is so hard to see the light blue hyperlinks against the grey background. You are a true wizard if you can get them to change this 😃

    Don't know if this also includes the Message system? People seem to not even realize they do/can get personal messages, and since it's one long, run-on sentence over on the left side, they just go "yikes". Mine didn't work for 5 months. It's hard to read. New messages are often down at the bottom, often aren't marked with that blue dot, often aren't even shown as that you have one. It doesn't seem to work correctly.

    Thanks! and nice to meet you

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N.

    Agreed the colours need to change. Don't hold your breath though, as (from GZ Talk) "All that I can give you for now is that we're working under a grant that mandates a new Talk system as a deliverable within 18 months."

    Doesn't take much to change a few typeface colours though does it? If they give me the coding, I'll do it this lunchtime for free!

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I can talk to the developers to see if we can change the typeface colors under the current system right away; you're right, that's should be a simpler fix! I'm not a developer, though, so for all I know it's tantamount to bringing the Ring to Mordor.

    I think that we want to focus on an overall rebuild incorporating as much feedback as possible, not a series of incremental "patches," but let me see if I can get the link colors changed sooner, because I've heard complaints about that across the board and I can't imagine that it's too much of a nightmare. Hard-to-read links must make it difficult to do effective citizen science!

    In the future, what would you think about the ability to adopt different color schematics for your personal tastes? A lot of fora offer that functionality.

    Thank you for the welcome and the comments!

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Update: I talked to a developer about the link colors. He says it should be an easy fix and will take a crack at it later today. I'll stay on him until it gets done! 😃

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish

    @DZM ,thanks, it is much better now!😃

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N.

    Much better now for sure.

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Thank you, thank you it is magnificent now. Love the LOTR reference and if there were some tall, long blonde haired elf guys to write to withTalk issues then Zoo would be so incredible I'd have zero complaints.

    @ Rick, LOL. I propose you storm the UK Zoo office and I'll storm the Chicago office and we'll just recode the boards. I'll pay them 😃

    One more thought (well ok, I might have more) - Posts within the boards retain the date which they were created by moderators. Since that's the first post on the board and so the first people see when they open the folder, it'd be helpful if the date in the corner would update to reflect when that post has been updated. As it is, it keeps the date it was created and so looks as if the content is old news. Not sure about other areas but here, this was the place where everything is quickly being updated since it wasn't realistic for everyone to read through the 19 pages of posts that make up the board itself.

    An example: our board 'Unknown' Numbers/Bios -=- list 'em here - check if already listed This post was Grand Central Station for us the first 5 1/2 months of this site, with almost daily additions, updates and information that was very important for everyone to see. The date in the corner stays at "Posted 6 months ago" even if you're in there 5 times a day, updating the text. This is also important for posts like our "Post any inaccurate tags here" board. There are other examples, but tons of hours are spent condensing, collating and correcting data put up by citizen scientists to make "a" handy post

    thank you thank you

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Well, I'm tall... though not blonde, long-haired (anymore) or an elf. 😃 But I do want to try to get things done, so you are all very welcome! Hopefully this is the first of many improvements to come. I couldn't make it happen without your feedback, so thank you, too!

    That's an excellent idea, too. I'll add it to the list. Thank you very much!

    Posted

  • vjbakker by vjbakker scientist

    Another issue that just struck me as I was searching for an old comment: it would be SO helpful if it were possible to order the search by date

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    The search function needs a complete overhaul, yes. I'm not a developer, so I don't know how that will work, but we definitely plan on putting all of our developers on it!

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    If anyone would like to know a bit more about me and my role, there's a new Zooniverse blog post up from Chris Lintott introducing me.

    Feel free to check it out, and I'm happy to answer any additional questions that you might have! 😃

    Posted

  • vjbakker by vjbakker scientist

    Thanks Darren. Good to have a face to the name. Our group is very interested in faces in fact -- can yours change colors from shades of pink, purple, and blue to reflect your mood? I didn't think. But if it will get us even a little blush of pink and a boost on the priority list, let us know where we can send chocolate and other bribes 😃 (yes, we're scavengers, I admit it).

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish

    😄

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hm... I don't know if multicolored emoticons is the highest thing on that priority list... but it can't be that hard, can it? I've added it to the Big Ol' Talk Ideas Document (BOTID), anyway! 😃 So we'll see what the developers can do!

    Posted

  • vjbakker by vjbakker scientist in response to DZM's comment.

    Sorry Darren -- I just was referring to the fact that condors can actually change their face coloration from pink to red to blue depending on their mood, which is pretty cool. I definitely agree that multicolored emoticons is not a priority.... or even a standing request. 😃

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator in response to vjbakker's comment.

    Condor jokes really are an acquired taste ! ;D

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    ... I did not know that about condors. Now I do! 😃 (imagine it's red)

    (I appreciate the light-hearted tone here in Condor Watch, by the way. Never change!)

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator in response to DZM's comment.

    I just read the article. It is not fair that men get all the terrific, thick hair. It's just not. Is all I have to say.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    You say terrific, but every time I've tried to grow it long (and I've tried three times, getting to shoulder-length each time) it turns into a tangled, poofy, frizzy mess! 😃

    Posted

  • CatchATiger by CatchATiger

    I don't know if this is anything important or related to the Talk area in any way, but most always when I am here with people we have noticed that our names are not showing on the "Currently Online" section together. I will se mine and they will see theirs but we don't see ours at the same time unless we're on a very long time and have come back to that page with the "Currently Online" section a dozen or more times.

    I will be here and see that someone has posted a comment on a photo and maybe even have been here an hour at the same time I was but I never saw them as being here. I assumed people had Ninja abilities. 😃

    There are 4 of us online right now and I only see my name (we're on the phone with each other making crude carcass jokes so know we're here) One person can see only one other name. Nitsiniiyi'taki! (That's Blackfoot for "thanks!") Rene

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Yeah, the "currently online" can be a bit finicky. It seems to more be "was online a half hour ago," but I suppose sometimes not even that. Definitely want to improve that system going forwards. Thanks!!

    Posted

  • yshish by yshish

    Agree. Sometimes I can't see my name there either however I'm logged in and able to comment images. Sometimes I can see my name there even after logging out.

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Ditto that! Really impossible if you're trying to catch people here so you can let them know things they need to know, instead of playing "Message tag" 😃

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Hey DZM! We would really love one of those magnifiers here that magnify the photos on TALK when you mouse-over them, like they have in the other areas. I will not go on a rant about how many little Zoo features weren't added to CW (like a photo ID menu right on the photo page like there is on Galazy Zoo, Penguin Watch, etc) but would have been exactly helpful for the project. I don't know if the magnifier can be slapped up or if it's a money/time issue at this point but being as we're squinting at teeny tags and that is the project, this would be helpful. The code already exists - would it be possible to add it to CW? Or put it on our Wish List. Thanks for all you do! . (Sneak me out on a Sunday and we can upload all the coding into the system together. And I wanna fix the Bios. Shhh. I'll buy lunch 😄)

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I can add it to the wish list, but I would have to a.) check with the science team to make sure that it's something that they want (sometimes there are reasons that they don't want to have zoom capability, for instance) and b.) see what sort of time the devs have... it is definitely a huge issue as far as adding new features to existing projects, often it can only be done as part of a rebuild.

    Could you extrapolate on what you mean by "a photo ID menu right on the photo page?" You mean a field guide of examples in the classification interface?

    Thanks!

    Posted

  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Hi D!

    Well, I figured it wasn't going to get added because it was tough just having things corrected when the site got going. I was just thinking out loud since it seems to be a feature on most new areas now, if you had a magic wand or that Wish List ever came up 😃

    Extrapolation: "yes". 😃 A shortcut to The Field Guide is on the photo classification page (that little book icon) but there's nothing saying that that's what it is so many aren't finding it. If you click it, you leave the page and go to the actual Field Guide page. Then many don't know you have to hit the Back arrow to get back to the photo you were classifying. It would be easier if it pulled up in a separate window or was on the page itself.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin in response to wreness's comment.

    I see what you're talking about now. 😃

    Yes, that probably also falls under the umbrella of, "if we ever get a chance to rebuild it..."

    But if you want a silver lining, it's this: every time we have a suggestion like this, I make doubly sure that the next project we roll out has such features! I've been working very hard on the field guide for our next project, in fact, and I promise that it is integrated into the interface. 😃

    Posted