Notes From Nature Talk

Sometimes the percentage changes for completion total

  • nosenabook by nosenabook

    Does that mean records are still being added? Because the percentage nearly always goes down!

    Posted

  • asallans by asallans scientist

    Good eyes! Yes, we are presently adding new specimen/collections, and will continue to do so. The communication of these additions is something we need to work on, as it clearly causes a bit of confusion and discrepancy in the way the stats are presented. We may pursue the "mission" approach, like in Old Weather and other Zooniverse projects, or may do something different. We haven't yet decided, but we do have a huge amount more data coming online in the future.

    In the immediate, you may notice a significant influx of new data in the SERNEC section that's coming from the University of Virginia's Mountain Lake Biological Field Station Herbarium (hence today's timely blog post). Let us know what you think!

    Posted

  • nosenabook by nosenabook

    When the "percentage complete" numbers drop so precipitately, it is a little confusing out front, but sounds like it means there's a huge amount of work going on "out back."

    "16% complete" actually gives me more incentive than "96% complete." I like being cutting edge. So to speak.

    Being a VPI grad, I can't be seen to cheer for UVA, but it will make a welcome change from ALL Florida! And since I'm from Virginia, it is thrilling to see familiar place names.

    Posted

  • asallans by asallans scientist in response to nosenabook's comment.

    Hi @nosenabook - Thanks for the post, and for participating! As I mentioned in the earlier response, we do need to figure out the best way to display that change without confusion. There's a TON of work going on "out back", as you say. There's also lots going on "out front", by record of the transcriptions going up all the time. We want to make it clear to all.

    I can't say I'm a Hokie fan either, but I do have friends there and love the area. Not sure if you know, but Mountain Lake Biological Station is just up the mountain from Blacksburg, so you'll see more familiar things that you may already realize. I'm hoping that we'll get VPI herbaria specimen in there before too long...they are part of our broader group, and they have many hundreds of thousands.

    -Andrew

    Posted

  • nosenabook by nosenabook

    I grew up in Christiansburg, and heard of Mountain Lake all my life. That's the one that dries up and refills.
    Definitely an interesting area, as described here: http://www.lakelubbers.com/mountain-lake-684/

    Posted

  • Pict by Pict

    You should have a separate message board called "News" or something, where Scientists/Moderators/Admins can post updates to the site, whether it's significant changes in the code/how the site work, or new specimens added, etc etc. As it is now, you suddenly see changes (such as the option of "unknown" appearing in the dates fields in Calbug), and there's no documentation or mention of it anywhere. Some of us like to know about such stuff 😃 (Im also the kind of person who read entire changelogs when downloading updates of software 😉 )

    Posted

  • nosenabook by nosenabook in response to Pict's comment.

    I like the idea, a blog for the latest information to be briefly posted. No comments necessary.

    Posted

  • asallans by asallans scientist in response to nosenabook's comment.

    Yes, that's the lake. The field station is actually a bit up the road from the lake, but pretty close. It's a beautiful area up there.

    Posted

  • asallans by asallans scientist in response to Pict's comment.

    Good ideas, Pict! Let's see if any of the Zooniverse developers jump-in with their thoughts on noting updates about the code and user interface changes.

    Posted

  • ghewson by ghewson in response to asallans's comment.

    If anyone's really keen, they can see the source code and changes to it on GitHub.

    Posted