Exciting new feature: Collections (Events / Bio Blitzes / Albums etc)

Posted by AaronClausen

26 Feb 2023

Hi All,

We're excited to turn on a new feature called Collections.

It is a collection of sightings for an event / reason / album / group or any reason at all.

Collections can be either:

PUBLIC (Anybody can add a sighting into the collection); OR
PRIVATE (Only you can add a sighting into your own private collections)

Example reasons you might make a collection:

Bioblitz (public collection)
Photo competition (public collection)
Your favourite sightings (private collection)
A local bushwalk event with a group of people all reporting things on the walk (public collection)
The best ever peacock spiders you've ever seen that you simply want a quick way to find again (private collection)
Your favourite weirdest fungi or must re-visit sightings (private collection)
Moderators: sightings you are keeping an eye on could be added into a collection to help you organise your moderation workload (private collection)

Example collection: Bluetts Block nocturnal survey 2023 by @MatthewFrawley

See how all the sightings in that collection are from different members - all contributing to a common event or cause.

If you go to your own user profile page now, you will see a new sub navigation link at the top of the screen called "collections".

This is where you can access any collections you make as well as create new ones.

Collections also supercedes the former functionality we used to have called "My flagged sightings" - so we have migrated everybody's old "flagged sightings" into a new collection that hangs off your user profile > collections.

You can conveniently export the data from a collection that you own and you can view records on the distribution map that belong to a collection.

The collection will generate it's own field guide pages (E.g. all species recorded at a Bio Blitz for example).

Please give it a red hot go and try making some of your own collections.

To add a sighting to a collection, you currently need to Add or Edit the sighting (collections can be selected at the bottom of the Add or edit form).

We will be adding a faster way to do this in the coming days, directly from the sighting details page of any sighting (stay tuned).

As this is a new feature, please report feedback/bugs/questions here and we'll do our best to respond.

Cheers

Aaron.

36 comments

MatthewFrawley wrote:

27 Feb 2023

This is awesome @AaronClausen

Christine wrote:

27 Feb 2023

Sounds really useful, however currently my profile is empty, so no sightings, no collections, all blank. I logged out and in again, but same result. Is it just me??

AaronClausen wrote:

27 Feb 2023

Hi @Christine when you first visit your profile page, that is just your main overview page (where you can write information or text about yourself and your interests). At the top of that page are some small links which take you to the different sub pages within your profile e.g. "Sightings" or "Collections". No need to log out and back in etc. Please let me know how you go.. Cheers Aaron

Christine wrote:

27 Feb 2023

Thanks @AaronClausen , I would not have worked it out without that. So now, instead of selecting "My Flagged sightings", I click on my profile, then click on Collections, then click on Favourite sightings, then click on sightings. It certainly is more "clunky" if you do not require other collections, but I can see that it could be very useful to make new collections. Thanks again for the clarification, cheers, Christine.

AaronClausen wrote:

27 Feb 2023

This is good feedback @Christine - a few more clicks on the surface I agree. We will streamline the user interface some more and make the user profile page less confusing. We've had similar feedback from other users as well. More to come...

AaronClausen wrote:

27 Feb 2023

Hi All - soon we'll be adding a new button to sighting pages so you can quickly and easily add a sighting to a collection in a couple of clicks.

LisaH wrote:

27 Feb 2023

This is very exciting - value adding to sightings in so many ways! Thank you.

KylieWaldon wrote:

28 Feb 2023

how many collections are you allowed to have? Or is there no limit? thanks in advance. kylie

AaronClausen wrote:

28 Feb 2023

No limit @KylieWaldon - go your hardest!

AlisonMilton wrote:

28 Feb 2023

Personnally for myself, I'm not sure how this would work and I don't think I would use it. However, I can see the benefits from events such as the Bluetts Block nocturnal survey.

AaronClausen wrote:

28 Feb 2023

Also good feedback @AlisonMilton - I agree that the primary use of this feature will be in supporting events that many people are contributing into. E.g. The Bluett's Block Nocturnal Survey is a great example.

Christine wrote:

1 Mar 2023

Hi Aaron, I noticed today that the default setting in my profile is now sightings, with any text at the top of the page, I like it. Thanks.

AaronClausen wrote:

1 Mar 2023

Thanks @Christine that's really valuable feedback. Yep we took your other feedback on board and similar feedback from a few other people and tidied it up last night. Hopefully less confusing and less clicks.

AaronClausen wrote:

1 Mar 2023

Hi all, there's a new gold star icon at the top of every sighting page now which allows you to quickly add the sighting to a collection.

Keen to hear how people find it and any bugs, feedback etc.

Cheers
Aaron.

KylieWaldon wrote:

3 Mar 2023

Hi. I created a Collection and added sightings to it. However, when I then opened the Collection I couldn't see the photos in there. Am I supposed to? When I go back to the sightings they still have the star coloured in to say they are in the collection. Maybe there is like a 15 min delay.... (scratch head)

AaronClausen wrote:

3 Mar 2023

Hey @KylieWaldon, there's a little link at the top of the collection page "sightings" which is not as obvious as it could be, I'll try to tidy this up soon.

KylieWaldon wrote:

4 Mar 2023

ohhhhhh. I see it! TYVM :)

KylieWaldon wrote:

4 Mar 2023

hi aaron. there is nothing in the bit above about who can see your collection. Even if I select PRIVATE to the adding, does that also mean that no one else can see it or can everyone see it? I'm having difficultly finding anyone else who has tested it out. But maybe its too early! thanks in advance. kylie

AaronClausen wrote:

4 Mar 2023

Hi @KylieWaldon great work. Yes these are the challenges that come with being an early adopter 😁.

At the moment, Private collections mean that only you can add additions to it. But everyone can still see it and see the sightings that you place into it.

I'm looking for feedback on this. Is there a need for truly private (visible to you only) collections?

Or do just need to change the wording and explain it a bit better on the Add Collection page so people it's a bit clearer that only you can Add Sightings to it if you click Private?

Mike wrote:

4 Mar 2023

I have added a private collection to keep track of larvae etc I am raising (a collection of collections). This will be of interest to people like @Donhe and @AlisonMilton. I have now noticed they can 'subscribe' to the collection.

I think User and Collection pages should default to 'sightings' as that would be the most used.

I don't think there need to be purely private collections. They need to be open to moderators, and locations can already be suppressed. I would welcome comments in my private collections but not necessarily going onto the public page.

AlisonMilton wrote:

4 Mar 2023

Hi Aaron, I have tried to look at both @KylieWaldon s and @Mike s collections. Your notes above say that they can be viewed by anyone but I can't see either.

KylieWaldon wrote:

4 Mar 2023

hi Aaron. just a better description of the PRIVATE on the add collection page I think would suffice. :)

Mike wrote:

5 Mar 2023

How do people navigate to a Collection? If they get there they could subscribe, but I don’t see a list of Collections yet.

AaronClausen wrote:

5 Mar 2023

All awesome feedback guys thanks a lot. I will jump on tomorrow and make some improvements to the collections feature including how to find it! Cheers Aaron

KylieWaldon wrote:

5 Mar 2023

you also made me look up "Bioblitz" online as it sounded like some kind of eradication program! learn a new thing every day.

AaronClausen wrote:

6 Mar 2023

@KylieWaldon ahhh! Yeah it's a funny word. Basically lots of people looking for and recording things at the same time, for any common goal/purpose/movement/reason.

AaronClausen wrote:

6 Mar 2023

Ok bit of a big Collections tidy up being deployed shortly.

- Sightings now show up on the main/default collections page
- Improved wording. No longer "Private" wording, instead "Prevent others from adding to this collection?" is what it is
- Fix a couple of small niggling bugs

Later today we will deploy a back end update, Collections will start to have their own field guides (aka list of species reported within that collection) generated.

AaronClausen wrote:

6 Mar 2023

Ok another upgrade for collections just went live. Collections now get their own field guides. All done.

So here are my own personal flagged sightings and you'll see it has a field guide created by the system of all the species in this particular collection: My flagged sightings

Very handy for things like:
- Hold a Bio Blitz or any targeted event
- Create an event/collection for people to report their sightings into
- Everyone gets busily reporting...
- System will generate a field guide automatically of all the species reported/discovered at your event
- Print out the QR code if you like to include on any signage, emails and/or hand outs

MatthewFrawley wrote:

6 Mar 2023

👍

AaronClausen wrote:

7 Mar 2023

Here is @MatthewFrawley's event, look at all the species reported during that event. Cool!

Bluetts Block nocturnal survey 2023

AaronClausen wrote:

7 Mar 2023

Hi All,

You can now set your own COVER PHOTOS for your collections.

To do this, go to any sighting page, click the gold star, then you'll see a new "set as collection cover photo?" checkbox when you add a sighting to a collection.

Your collections will then look like this on your profile page with their own cover photo.
AaronClausen

@michaelb @MichaelMulvaney you can also use this for selecting the winner of a photo competition for example.

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

8 Mar 2023

Ok Aaron .... I've been able to set a cover photo for my Test Sightings collection. But I can't get it to work for my Flagged sightings. See:-
MichaelBedingfield
Is there some reason for this?

AaronClausen wrote:

8 Mar 2023

Hi @michaelb did you delete your collections because you are still testing?

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

8 Mar 2023

Hi Aaron
Apologies. There was a considerable time lag, but now my Flagged sightings are ok. I've put the King Parrot in place. Looks good. See:-
MichaelBedingfield

AaronClausen wrote:

8 Mar 2023

@michaelb ok cool. Just found a small issue. I couldn't see your collections. Fixing shortly and will deploy an update later this morning.

Jase wrote:

2 Sep 2023

Excellent news, much appreciated feature inclusive of its conceptual flexibility – philosophically intelligent with multiple cultures – natures!.

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