1 (edited by Syrphus 13-11-2014 15:06:47)

Topic: Yet more opacity and inconsistency

I had reason to check a record of mine of Agalma elegans. Going to the grid map via the Browse species page, I find a blank map.  I know there are records from Orkney, and one of mine from W Ross.  But no dots are on the map.

I go to the IMT, the dots are there.

I select the dots, but no records are displayed.

I refresh the maps a few times in Opera - sometimes the dots are there, sometimes they are not.  I have still not seen either the contributing datasets or the record details.

Then I move to Chrome, and have to log in, and find myself on the home page, where I discover that the system may be down at times during the day.

So now, after seeing incomplete and inconsistent displays in both browsers I don't know whether the problem is connected with the server maintenance, or if it is the latest in the long series of glitches that have devalued the Gateway since last October.

I have already made the point elsewhere that I rarely enter the Gateway via the home page.  My link is with the taxon page, and many other sites link direct to grid maps in one way or another.  If it *is* a consequence of the maintenance, there should be a notice that is evident to ANY user entering by ANY page in ANY way that things might not be working correctly.  Had I not known in advance that there were records that should have been displayed, I would probably not have investigated further, and would have gone away with totally erroneus conclusions.  Failing that, if you are doing maintenance shut the whole thing down - total shutdown is better than a half-working site that gives serious users false information.

If it is one of these random bugs that keeps cropping up to entertain us, please fix it.  Life is quite entertaining enough without them.

Having typed all this, I check the situation and nothing seems to have changed.  Snafu.

Murdo

2

Re: Yet more opacity and inconsistency

The IMT was still misbehaving at 2200h last night, and is again just now (0755h Friday).

This morning, one refresh showed a blank IMT, but the record details were displayed (we had that scenario some months ago).

Another reload showed dots, datasets and record details. It all seems completely random.

It is not just Agalma that has the problem either - the IMT is fundamentally useless at present.

As far as I can tell after a few tries the grid map problem (the first thing I noticed was wrong) is no longer showing.

M.