Galaxy Zoo Talk

Suggestions on how to improve Talk ...

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    ... to make it more like the tool Carol Christian, Chris Lintott, Arfon Smith, Lucy Fortson, and Steven Bamford envisioned*. Not specific to Galaxy Zoo, but likely to be of greater benefit/value here than in any other extra-solar system astronomy Zooniverse project:

    • a text-string search capability that is up to contemporary standards (Talk's search is woefully inadequate)
    • easy-to-use identifiers for individual posts within a thread (so you can point/link to an individual post not just a whole thread)
    • a stickied section/thread - under Science -> General perhaps - with short summaries of how the data were obtained (telescope, filters, pipeline, etc), what the plate scale is, size of the PSF, etc. As most of this is already available in external sites, the summaries would likely contain lots of links
    • similar stickied section/thread on how to navigate a big Collection, how to find all objects with the hashtag X, how to get a list of hashtags, etc
    • a similar stickied thread/whatever on artifacts and how they are produced/arise
    • a 'cone search' tool: input an (RA, Dec) and a radius, and you'll get all the images, Collections, posts, etc which fall within the circle (some variant of this is standard in many external, online astronomy databases, e.g. NED).

    And one that's not directly related to Talk:

    • if/when control (simulated) features are added to images, a means to identify them as such (post-classification); and preferably to be able to select (in or out).

    *"Citizen Science: Contributions to Astronomy Research", arXiv:1202.2577:

    In addition to the main site, tools which encourage communication between the volunteers and the project scientists and developers are of vital importance in attracting and sustaining a community. Much of the serendipitous science from Galaxy Zoo came from a basic forum, and a new โ€˜Talkโ€™ tool that can be more closely integrated with the process of classification itself has been developed and released21. The ultimate goal of such tools should be to bring questions and interesting discoveries to the scientistsโ€™ attention only when expert input is necessary, reducing the time needed for appropriate mentoring while still ensuring nothing gets lost.

    21 https://github.com/zooniverse/Talk

    I've posted similar suggestions in Galaxy Zoo Quench Talk, and Talk Project Star Date. Also a related suggestion in the Galaxy Zoo forum: Suggested topic for a GZ Hackathon: Searchable Database of Image Coords ...

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    Another suggestion: Combine all "The Objects" sections into one.

    As almost all the non-stickied threads in the three "The Objects" sections - one each in Help, Science, and Chat - are of the same general type, why not combine them into a single section?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    Adapted from a post I wrote in the GZ forum, some more suggestions for GZ Talk:

    • Top level "Bug reports" (or similarly named) section: there are always bugs, having (almost) all of them in one thread surely helps resolve them
    • Top level "News" (or similar), in which new threads can be started by only mods and scientists: news is a vital activity for a community; Talk aims to "attract[] and sustain[] a community"
    • Within News, sub-sections "Blog posts", "Project Developments", (and maybe others): all important project news should be conveyed in blog posts; Talk should serve as the vehicle for discussing these (not the extremely poorly enabled comments that is the current method). If there are important project developments not covered in blog posts - e.g. major bug fixes to Talk itself - they need their own section
    • Within Science, sub-sections "Publications", "Discoveries", and "Conferences": yes, these may duplicate blog posts, but as they are focused they'll be found more easily, and discussions will also be more likely to be focused. Also, Conferences can be used to convey to ordinary zooites that they are welcome to attend professional conferences too
    • New "Ask an Astronomer" section
    • New "Object of the Week" section: similar to the Object of the Day in the GZ forum

    Posted

  • klmasters by klmasters scientist, admin

    Thanks Jean, some nice ideas on improving the science section. We tend to focus on the blog, and I agree we could cross post it a bit better. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    Yesterday, in the RGZ Talk thread on Talk, a post by 42jkb* (direct link):

    I think that a "News" section on Talk is a great idea and I'll start a new section once we have launched the new data or if something else comes up before hand.

    *ETA: 42jkb's title is SCIENTIST

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to JeanTate's comment.

    We have had that all along on SW Talk - never realised it wasn't across the board.

    It is an area exclusively for the Scientists - that does sound a bit odd, but let me explain. We found at the beginning of SW, the Scientists needed an area where they could post updates, that would not get swamped by all the other discussions. We renamed one the default boards,and we manually keep it clean of clutter (no, we do not delete just move the post to another board).

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Capella05's comment.

    The "News" section is working well in RGZ Talk, there's a separate Updates ("Current news and updates from the team") and a Newsletter ("Archive of newsletters from the team"), rather than a single News.

    Also new is Journal Club ("A place to discuss interesting papers and articles"), which I think would be a great addition to GZ Talk! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ I've replied to quite a few questions from (seemingly) newbie zooites here; there does seem to be a hunger to learn more (I've pointed them to the GZ forum).

    Posted

  • jules by jules

    Just a reminder that there is a Talk Feedback Form. I am sure the comments here will be taken on board too but this is another way to get our suggestions noticed. I've already completed mine. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Posted

  • johnfairweather by johnfairweather

    Hello

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N. in response to johnfairweather's comment.

    Hi

    Posted

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

    Thanks Jules !

    Yes, everybody, if you are really concerned about improving Talk, completing the feedback form is the best way to do this !

    Thanks for your efforts.

    Posted

  • zookeeper by zookeeper admin, scientist

    One thing I'd like to ask is how to support such wonders as the Object of the Day (or whatever new wonders there might be). The story of OOTD is worth knowing for those who weren't around at the beginning - it started as a way for Zookeepers to share their expertise with the gathering Zooites, only to find that we didn't have as much expertise as we thought. After we slipped a few times and forgot to post the whole enterprise - including organisation, research and writing - was gently removed from our hands by the Zooites who (correctly) felt they would do a better job. The OOtD remains a fabulous resource for all sorts of things, whether it's finding amusing galaxies or reading brilliant summaries of cutting edge research.

    Is there any appetite for similar content here? If so, how can we help?

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to zookeeper's comment.

    Most of the traffic we get here is transient or from educational institutions. The majority of 'comment' posters do not read the discussion boards.

    Perhaps, a object of the week / fortnight with more emphasis on the educational side of things? I think it is really important to get more interaction between the posters and the scientists. The post themselves would have to be highlighted on the landing page to promote more interest. Not too sure how we could do that.

    Edited to add: I really feel the OOTD should be done by one of the Scientists, a communication bridge? ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to ElisabethB's comment.

    ... concerned about improving Talk, completing the feedback form is ...

    One really nice feature in that form is this:

    If you would you be interested in participating in an online focus group about the Zooniverse platform in the future, please give us your email.

    As far as I know, that's the first time something like that been offered; yay! ๐Ÿ˜„

    Posted

  • jules by jules

    These suggestions are relevant to all the different project Talks. I would certainly like an OOTD or OOTW over in the Milky Way Project. That is a quiet Talk compared with some and I think it would be a good way to engage more people in the science. Moving from project to project (as I do!) it makes sense to me to have all Talks following the same Board / discussion thread format - but with some room for project specific items.

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to jules's comment.

    I agree, Jules ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    We do need some conformity - something that links us all together, but individuality - aaarrgh.

    Edited to add: I am not trying to be pirate, I am just trying to get my head around the practicalities!

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to Capella05's comment.

    I think you've hit the nail on the head there -- I think it would be great if the Zooniverse as a whole felt like a more cohesive and connected community, while still keeping the distinctiveness of the individual project communities. Not an easy task!

    aaarrrrrgh!

    (pirate)

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to Capella05's comment.

    I would like to help with OOTD/OOTW/Spotlight Object/whatever-it-gets-called, but I agree with @zookeeper that it will be hard to keep up if it's only the scientists, and it won't be nearly as diverse. I was continually impressed by the quality and breadth of the OOTDs on the forum. I'd love to see that continue here, and maybe join in myself once in a while.

    I also liked the suggestion I read earlier about a journal club, which is an idea from RGZ, I think, although I know the forum sometimes discussed papers as well. We've started talking about a recent paper in this thread, and maybe we could make that part of a new Journal Club discussion board. There are resources online like Astrobites where one might find additional information about interesting papers to discuss as well.

    Thoughts?

    Posted

  • jules by jules

    I would love there to be a paper discussion / journal thread for other projects too. Galaxy Zoo has pretty much set the standard here. Just been to have a look at RGZ Journal Club - yes, something along those lines for all projects is pretty much essential now I think.

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to vrooje's comment.

    Well, Sept 19 is coming up! (Speak like a pirate day ๐Ÿ˜ƒ ) Aaaarrrrrr ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    I personally feel that it should be a Scientist doing it - if it is only monthly, is that feasible?

    I think that many volunteers would appreciate a 'in depth' analysis of a galaxy from a professional astronomer.

    Just my opinion.

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to Capella05's comment.

    I will ask the rest of the team (those who haven't already seen this); but I'd be sad if it was only scientists. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • Budgieye by Budgieye moderator

    I just discovered that I can specify a page in a thread. Or did everyone already know this except me?

    page 1 of chat http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000v89?page=1&comment_id=53c3169470f2d41300000343

    page 6 of chat http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000v89?page=6&comment_id=53c3169470f2d41300000343

    page 12 of chat http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000v89?page=12&comment_id=53c3169470f2d41300000343

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Budgieye's comment.

    Every post does have a unique URL. And there are circumstances under which it's possible to get the URL of an individual post, e.g. when you click on the "Last post" link (this, for example, is the Last post in the Astrophysics for Galaxy Zoo Talk - redshift z PhotoZ spectra emissions AGN thread, a link I found from the Science Board / Science Powered by Citizens Board).

    What you have discovered, it seems, is a way to get a URL which will take you to a particular page within a thread.

    page 1 of chat http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000v89?page=1&comment_id=53c3169470f2d41300000343

    This URL differs from that of the first post in that thread by the addition of "page=1": http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000v89?&comment_id=53c3169470f2d41300000343

    Let's see ... I can get page 2 of the ZooCon 2014: Saturday 2nd August- Oxford (UK) or Saturday 13th September - Portsmouth (UK) thread, a multi-page thread, by using the URL of klmasters' latest post

    http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000uqy?page=3&comment_id=53c3971870f2d47862000159

    and changing it to "page=2":

    http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000002/discussions/DGZ0000uqy?page=2&comment_id=53c3971870f2d47862000159

    But how to get the (long) URL of any post in a multi-page thread? Especially if none are in the Recent Discussions ... part of the main page?

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N. in response to vrooje's comment.

    The OOTD on GZF was running out of steam- it's quite a task to get someone to do something fresh everyday (thanks Jean for your organisational abilities). An OOTWeek might be a better idea and there might be more volunteers that way.

    As for whether it should only be scientists, I disagree. There are many OOTD authors who are not pro-scientists yet have produced
    very competent and useful OOTDs. I count myself as one of these! For instance, Saturday the fifth July (2014):
    'Green Pea galaxies and the Early Universe' http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=281946.0

    OOTDs also help to keep people informed of recent developments, as above. Indeed, I see no reason why only pro-scientists should write them: we are all citizen scientists.

    I'd be quite happy to put one together for the week beginning the 28th July. Whether we need a 'Slightly secret' board is for an admin to decide. If Jean doesn't mind organising it, that would provide some continuity.

    Give it a go; it can always be closed down.

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Rick N.'s comment.

    There's a very good, dedicated, thread on OOTD/W/M/whatever, started by Rick N. himself: Object of The Day Board?

    How about we have all our discussions on this topic in that dedicated thread?

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s in response to Rick N.'s comment.

    Yes well said, ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    If Peter forgets to post it in here :

    Can I post a requerst for NOT USING pale blue to highlight links. The contrast - or lack of it against a grey background - does my eyes >in! - or use a darker background.

    PLEASE!

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to JeanTate's comment.

    I've just copied across all the posts, in this thread over the last few days, on OOTD (etc), to the Object of The Day Board? thread; click here to go to the last post in that thread.

    Posted

  • johnfairweather by johnfairweather

    I'm not sure where to ask these questions, but here goes -

    1. Is it possible to change my login name, to something else?

    2. Is it possible to receive notifications to a thread, which you are following?

    No doubt, all these answers (to quote a "long ago" TV show) will be answered, in Capella05's Talk's Help? (Hence, probably jumping the gun.)

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to johnfairweather's comment.

    At the moment it is not possible to change your username, and too be honest I think it would be unwise to have that functionality - It could be open to abuse.

    As for notifications, it is on the suggestions list.

    Posted

  • johnfairweather by johnfairweather

    I know in the "old" Galaxy Zoo Forum, I could have a forum name, separate from my login name, so I was wondering whether I could do that here?

    In my Zooniverse profile, under Account, I have a "Login Name" and a "Name" (anything you like), so I was wondering whether the "Name", could be a Forum Name?

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to johnfairweather's comment.

    As far as I know, your 'Name' on your zooniverse profile is unconnected to the logon (or user name) for talk. It is only available should you wish to use aa different name for publications etc...

    Posted

  • Budgieye by Budgieye moderator

    How to point to a post. There seems to be a writing error when a post is done.

    If I want to find my post on spectroscopic binary stars in Recent, it specifies a post on page 8 and takes me to the last page

    4.8 spectroscopic binary stars http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000001/discussions/DGZ0000wrb?page=8&comment_id=53d8b9d70d43f776b000109a

    but if I change page=8 to page=4, it will take me to the correct post.

    4.8 spectroscopic binary stars http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000001/discussions/DGZ0000wrb?page=4&comment_id=53d8b9d70d43f776b000109a

    So I think there must be an error in the page counter.

    Posted

  • Budgieye by Budgieye moderator

    I want to write

    0.01 is less than z which is less than 0.07

    using the less than notation

    but nothing appears in the post after that

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to Budgieye's comment.

    Hi Budgie - those characters are actually used in HTML/XML coding, so that would explain why it breaks the page.

    It would be nice if we could use them!

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to Capella05's comment.

    You can use them if you use the character codes instead, for less-than and greater-than:

    0.01 < z < 0.07
    

    becomes

    0.01 < z < 0.07

    and

    z &gt; 1
    

    becomes

    z > 1

    And so on! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    -Brooke

    PS: Beware that if you edit your post you might have to make sure the character codes stay in place; some editors will "helpfully" change them to the "> <" characters instead, which then breaks the post when you re-submit your edits. I don't know if this editor does that.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hey, Zooites of Galaxy Zoo! My name is Darren, DZM here on Talk. Nice to meet you all!

    I'm working with Zooniverse Central here on a number of new projects, including an overhaul of Talk that will incorporate a lot of the feedback that we've been getting on the current system.

    I'm particularly interested in a united Zooniverse community, with the separate project discussion forums being nested within it, so I'm really glad to see that mentioned here as well!

    The team and I will be looking very closely at threads like these throughout the Talks and trying to incorporate as many of your ideas as possible, so if you have any more thoughts on how to make this a better place for both science and community, please let us know!

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s in response to DZM's comment.

    ๐Ÿ˜ƒ well hello.

    "I'm particularly interested in a united Zooniverse community, with the separate project discussion forums being nested within it, so I'm really glad to see that mentioned here as well!"

    ๐Ÿ˜ƒ Yes that is the thing I wish for.....................................so if I can be of any help!

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hi, Elizabeth! Yes, that's great to hear. I hope that it will encourage our Zooites to participate in and discuss more projects! It's certainly quite clumsy at the moment to try to navigate to a different Talk board, although it is good that our Zooniverse usernames work on any board. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Right now, I'm mostly working on finding my way around these boards, so if there's anything that I should know about how things work here, or how we could make them work better, please let me know! I'm new (and not a scientist, I should mention--you all know a lot more about galaxies than me,) so any insight is deeply appreciated. Thank you for the welcome!

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to DZM's comment.

    Hello from me too, DZM. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    If I may ask, when do you plan on introducing yourself in a similar way on other Talks? And posting to similar "Suggestions on how to improve Talk" threads elsewhere?

    so if you have any more thoughts on how to make this a better place for both science and community, please let us know!

    .

    so if there's anything that I should know about how things work here, or how we could make them work better, please let me know!

    You may have heard of "Ideas for Citizen Science in Astronomy" (Marshall+ 20142015; astro-ph preprint here) - there's a thread on it, here in GZ Talk (and at least one on another Talk). One pretty amazing thing Dr Phil (the lead author) did was to open the v1 draft for feedback, via GitHub (here). And provide feedback zooites did! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ Much of it was incorporated into the v2 draft, which has now been sent for review.

    A long-winded way of introducing this suggestion: open at least some key parts of your development of v3 Talk for feedback! ๐Ÿ˜„

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist

    Welcome, Darren! Really looking forward to lots of productive chat about what direction Talk (and the Zooniverse) will be taking. Exciting! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Hi Jean! Thanks for the welcome, and the suggestion!

    I definitely want to make sure that the community here has significant input into the development of the new Talk. We're still in the very early stages, but I will be sure to keep you and everyone else here posted. I don't want to promise anything this early, but I'd imagine that we will want to at least open some of our mock-ups up for feedback, if not a completed system (not sure what's possible through the developers). Definitely something to consider down the line; thank you!

    I'm going around the Talks right now posting similar introductions (although I'll try to be a little less redundant on the phrasing; thank you for bringing my attention to that ๐Ÿ˜ƒ ) Doing it 25-odd different times definitely seems to highlight the need for that united Zooniverse community!

    EDIT: And, thanks, vrooje! Me too! The level of informed discussion here is really impressive.

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s

    "I'm going around the Talks right now posting similar introductions (although I'll try to be a little less redundant on the phrasing; thank you for bringing my attention to that ๐Ÿ˜ƒ ) Doing it 25-odd different times definitely seems to highlight the need for that united Zooniverse community!"

    ๐Ÿ˜ƒ This is a very good idea might want to post something on the other Forums also! Not everyone comes here.

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N. in response to DZM's comment.

    Please can we change the colour of the typeface used with web addresses? Light blue/gray against blue can be unreadable!

    For instance:
    http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=280156.0

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    @Rick, I noticed that, too... it's certainly not the most legible or pleasing to the eye! I will absolutely add it to the list of requested changes. Good call; thank you!

    I'd also like to put in a "quote" system if possible, so that we can quote each others' posts the way Elizabeth is doing without needing to copy and paste. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N. in response to DZM's comment.

    It's certainly not pleasing to the eye and can be annoying when trying to get a large number of links together in one post. Cosmoquest forum has a similar bluey-gray background, and its links are browny-red that highlight red when moused over. This is easily readable. Zoo Talk just looks somewhat insipid, as if it never got as far as colour!

    Quotes are good- they helped a lot back in the day and are a way to keep track of conversations.

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator

    Hey Darren ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    I know you have my feedback so no need to post it here, but what timelines are we talking about?

    6 months? 12 months? Longer?

    It would be nice if we could have a rough estimate of the delivery date - at least that way we might be able to drum up a bit of excitement about it...

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    Capella05 and I compiled a very comprehensive list, I suppose we do not have to put all that into writing again ! ๐Ÿ˜„ And a (even very vague) timeline would be super nice !

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    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.

    There are also a few other deliverables due at that time, however, that the improved Talk will make easier... so we're focusing on the Talk to start, and I certainly hope that it will be done well before that! I can't go any more specific than that right now, but the moment that I can, I will let you know for sure!

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to DZM's comment.

    Wow... looking at the worse case scenario, that is a very long lead time ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s in response to Capella05's comment.

    Gives them more time to get it right. I hope ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Like I said, I cannot possibly imagine it taking that long--I imagine it'll be more in the 6-12 month range--but I don't want to promise anything! There's no set development schedule yet. Like Elizabeth said, we definitely want to get it right. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to Capella05's comment.

    It is a fairly long time. But, as Darren said, it may change. Equally, I'll bet the developers are worried it may not be enough! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ This is definitely a big project, no matter how long it takes. I suppose the plus side is that all ideas for changes big and small are welcome!

    I think the link color change is a really good idea.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I can say that, due to the copious amounts of feedback on this one particular issue, I'm going to try to get the link colors changed ASAP, like, within the next few days!

    I think that it's generally best to put together a complete overhaul rather than trying to implement a series of small changes, but this is one change that should be quick and easy and oh man so many people have requested it! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s in response to DZM's comment.

    ๐Ÿ˜ƒ well I must say you have your work cut out for you.

    Posted

  • planetaryscience by planetaryscience

    Not sure if this has already been reported - an option to delete a message without deleting the entire discussion

    Posted

  • Rick_N. by Rick_N.

    Changed the colour! Easier to read now or what?

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Yes! I'm glad you noticed! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ This is a patch... I hope that the overall new talk will have a friendlier color scheme in general. But this should at least improve the legibility, yes?

    @planetaryscience, that is a very good point and a good idea. I'll make note of it. Thank you!

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s in response to DZM's comment.

    Hmmm changed the color? I see nothing different?

    Posted

  • planetaryscience by planetaryscience

    Also a few hashtag requests- @JeanTate probably reported these already

    • Hashtags not being case sensitive
    • Currently if you were to have something hashtagged like #AGN, if you were to click on it it wouldn't give you results because your inputted seach is case-sensitive, but the hashtag itself is written as #agn, and would only work if you searched the lowercase on and not uppercase.
    • Hashtags being delayed before showing up on hashtag search
    • This is also a fairly important one; it takes a few hours, to a few days, to not at all before a hashtagged image, such as a galaxy tagged #merger not appearing on the 'merger' search for a long period of time, and often not at all. I'm not familiar with the reason for this, however it would be helpful to be fixed.
    • Hashtag collections only having 500 images
    • I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but object collection consisting of images hashtagged by users, organized automatically by their ID. ( AGZ0000000, AGZ0000001, AGZ0000002, etc ) However the collections can only contain 500 object max. For instance, @vrooje 's collection of NGC catalog galaxies has 500 images going from AGZ000154u to AGZ0007rim which is fairly close to the last object in GZ entered so far - AGZ0007trz however, according to a base-translator, that means that there are still 2929 potential images tagged #NGC not in the collection, or about 0.8% of all galaxy zoo images, but considering that there were 500 images up to there, then that means that there are likely about 4 objects tagged NGC in that list not included in the collection. That's awfully small compared to 500, but there are quite a few more collection with significantly more candidate objects - For instance @Capella05 's asteroid collection also has 500 images, ranging even further from AGZ000063s to AGZ0007o91, which would give a number of missing images as ~21 asteroids. These numbers will only grow, so I think it best to unlimit the amount of objects in a hashtag collection- the sooner the better.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Case-sensitivity, delay, and the 500-image limit. They'll all go in the big report that's going to our designers and developers. Thank you!

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    A new one (suggestion re Talk; at least I think it's new): if HTML is going to be acceptable, allow as complete a set of tags as possible. For tags that are not, make sure accidental use does not break things (other than, perhaps, the single post in which it occurs).

    The Formatting in Posts - HTML, Tags, Smileys, Preview etc. thread highlights the problem with what we have in Talk today: some HTML tags are supported, but most are not. And if you use one that's not, the result may be extremely unwelcome, creating formatting (etc) havoc well beyond the post in which it occurs.

    Unrelated comment: I see that you are now ZOONIVERSE TEAM over in RGZ Talk, DZM, and bordered in dark cyan; here you're still ADMIN, and bordered in dark magenta. Perhaps consistency across Talks might be an early 'win', like making links dark cyan?

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Good suggestion, Jean; thank you! I'll take a look through that thread and see if I can find some additional suggestions to add to the compilation list that I'll be giving the developers.

    Yes, I've had the developers update my "look" so that it's a bit clearer what my role is. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ However, are you saying that I still appear as "admin" and in red here on Galaxy Zoo? I'm seeing myself in blue with "Zooniverse Team" here; I only still see an issue in my personal messages. Please let me know if you're still seeing red in this topic, for sure! (It's possible that you might have to refresh, or clear your browser's cached data?) But if I'm still appearing in red anywhere, I'd like to get that fixed!

    Thank you very much!

    (EDIT: Just to illustrate what I'm seeing... Is anyone else seeing anything different? Thanks!)

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to DZM's comment.

    You're very welcome! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    However, are you saying that I still appear as "admin" and in red here on Galaxy Zoo?

    You were, but are not any more, so I guess it was simply me not having refreshed/cleared (though I thought I had).

    General question though: does every ZOONIVERSE TEAM person/ID appear the same across all Talks*, automatically? Or do you have to go through and set each one individually?

    And how does it work for SCIENTISTs and MODERATORs? I guess they are Talk-specific.

    *besides, perhaps, PH; they have to get their dark cyan links (etc) first

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Right now, I believe there are only four categories for titles: admin, moderator, translator, and scientist, and I think that most of them are indeed Talk-specific. Because I'm going to be on Talk so much, and because the Admin status was causing some confusion, I had the developers back-end me a unique title across all "New Talks." In the long run, it's definitely my goal that there should be a wider swath of titles (and customizable tags) that provides more clarity on folks' roles. It's tagged as "High Priority" in the ideas document! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    For some reason, the dark-cyan links broke Planet Hunters Talk, so we're working on fixing that, too!

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    ... Shoot, somehow the color has regressed, and the Admin title is back. I don't know why. I'll try to get it fixed again!

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Fixed again, and I also removed that unnecessary blue box. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist in response to JeanTate's comment.

    The labels on Talk have to be manually set, which is why it's not always perfect. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to DZM's comment.

    Like the new title ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    Yep ! me too ! ๐Ÿ˜„

    Posted

  • elizabeth_s by elizabeth_s

    Yes I agree about the new title and so Blue! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Thank you all! I hope it will make me look a little less intimidating. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ I'm just here to help!

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to DZM's comment.

    Hey @DZM,

    Thanks for getting the dev's to fix the 'No title' PM issue, but both myself and Els have noticed we can now delete all those PM's except for one. If we go through our PM box, there is nothing flagged as unread.

    Still, It is a massive improvement - Cheers ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to DZM's comment.

    Building on the HTML (etc) idea ...

    Back in the GZ forum, which is built on Simple Machines Forum, some fellow zooites learned how to use the built-in formatting to achieve very impressive results; for example, in this post by gumbosea, and this by Pat.

    Using HTML tags you can certainly create similar results; however, you can't using just those permitted in v2 Talk. Further, if you tried to produce similar results with unsupported HTML tags, you'd almost certainly fail, and could cause no end of havoc.

    Perhaps you could use GZ forum posts like those by gumbosea and Pat as design targets for the new Talk? Sorta like, "Hey Developers, please make sure these sorts of results are possible, in the hands of zooites with the right backgrounds, skills, persistence, etc".

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    This suggestion is probably already on your list, DZM, but just in case ...

    MODERATORs (that's their title; I'm not shouting) should have the ability to change (edit) things like the description which goes with a (sub-)board/section (assuming that they continue to have the power to create and name such sections). I can't give you a direct link to the discussion on this (it's on p33 of the Just Chat... thread), but here's the gist of the problem, in the four relevant posts:

    [RickN] The description of this section Science Powered by Citizens reads:

    "A sounding board / contemplation area for our serious Citizens Scientists. All other posts will be moved / removed. For questions on the object you have classified, please post in Help/ The Objects - Thanks ๐Ÿ˜ƒ"

    Is this condescending and unnecessary? Or have we been over this ground? It does seem somewhat elitist- so what if someone posts a stray discussion? Who counts as a serious CS? Who decides? It just seems to me that it is somewhat exclusive rather than inclusive.

    So I've posted this to ask for a chat about it.

    .

    [Capella05 MODERATOR in response to Rick N.'s comment] Unfortunately it can't be changed. There is no function on the GUI to allow board descriptions to be edited.

    Like you said we have been over this before, so I do not know why you have brought this up again? When I created the board, I never realized that I would be unable to edit it, and frankly I would also like to change it. So I guess we are stuck with it until the new version of Talk is complete.

    .

    [ Rick N. in response to Capella05's comment] I didn't know it was uneditable otherwise I would not have posted about it. Thankyou for your explanation and perseverance. Chat over.

    .

    [Capella05 MODERATOR] No worries, Rick ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    I wish I could do something about it. We are on the same wavelength, and I was the one that created the Board!

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Capella05's comment.

    Thanks for getting the dev's to fix the 'No title' PM issue,

    Thanks from me too, for getting this fixed; double thanks since all previous efforts on this (and there were at least two that I know of) were unsuccessful. I can now read a PM I received almost 10 months' ago now, and may - at last - even be able to reply to it (though I suspect that zooite has long since abandoned us; clicking on their name I see no activity for a very long time).

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Good stuff in here! I can see what I can do about getting board descriptions edited. We built the darn thing; we should be able to edit those descriptions, yeah? No promises, of course, except that I'll bring it to our developers.

    Which board descriptions do you need edited, exactly?

    Also, @Capella05, I can see what I can do about that lingering PM issue. Are you saying that you have a PM you can't delete, or that your mailbox icon has a lingering "1" despite your having deleted all your PMs?

    Thank you all!

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator in response to DZM's comment.

    My PM notifications still has a lingering '1' - despite there being no unread messages. I need to keep some PM's for reference, but there are no blue marks against any of them.

    Els has the same problem.

    As for the board, I will contact you directly. It was a 'feature request' in the document we sent you ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    I'm not sure if this is within the scope of your BOTID (or more generally), but in case it is ...

    Can you do anything about 'the pumpkin hour'?

    It's currently happening at ~noon CET, and seems to affect all Zooniverse projects' Talks (though some - like GZ Talk - far more than others). There's a (now locked) lengthy thread on it, here in GZ Talk, Talk takes forever to load? Basically, for an hour or so, starting at noon CET, Talk takes forever to load. Of course, living in Chicago, unless you're a real early bird, you are likely to not ever notice GZ Talk turning into a pumpkin sitting there, as a blank screen, for minute after minute ๐Ÿ˜›

    (It doesn't affect the classification engine, as far as I know, of any project; just Talks).

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I'll have someone take a look at that. Thanks!

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist

    I just wanted to say that the new, darker blue is really working for me. Small changes with big impacts, FTW! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Yay, I'm so glad to hear! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    Posted

  • klmasters by klmasters scientist, admin

    I'm liking it too - first visit since an obvious upgrade! Very cool.

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to JeanTate's comment.

    Since Darren/DMZ has done such a wonderful job of getting some greatly appreciated changes to Talk implemented in a short time (especially the darker color scheme), I thought it might be an idea to bump one other suggested change, from earlier in this thread, which might also be fairly quickly implementable. It's also one that I think might be welcome in many Talks, not just here in GZ:

    stickied section/thread on how to navigate a big Collection, how to find all objects with the hashtag X, how to get a list of hashtags, etc

    Take the last one first: there's section called "Popular hashtags", and it's quite useful; however, there is no way to get a complete list of hashtags, in any form (much less a sortable one), at least not that I know of (if you, dear reader, know of one, please post it!). Why would such a feature be useful? One's fellow zooites have already done a fantastic job of classifying objects, through the use of hashtags; if you're doing some research - into 'dark galaxies', say - it could be very helpful to take a look at objects with hashtags that might relate to them.

    Is this something that's easy/quickly done, DMZ?

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    It's on the (extremely large) list of things to implement. I sat down with our head developer yesterday and went over about half the list before he begged mercy for a while. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ (It's a big, intimidating list, but he does want to tackle as many of the suggestions as possible in the short term!)

    That particular note was on the second half of the list, so I'll find out once I get a chance to go over that with him. But rest assured, it's under consideration!!

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist

    As far as I know, Twitter crowdsources the descriptions of their trending hashtags. I wonder if we'll need to do something like that here? It seems like quite a challenge to keep such a list up to date and with short, clear explanations (perhaps with links to other posts giving further explanation). I'd feel very guilty asking any one or two people to do that...

    Posted

  • Alpha_Aurigae by Alpha_Aurigae

    At the moment I am tagging lots of interesting stuff for several collections (See: http://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000004/discussions/DGZ0000vv1 ). I check and consult dozens of collections of GZ volunteers. Some of those collections are huge! Now I start at page 1 of the collection and move forward. Say I reach page 36, check the first galaxy on that page and return to the collection, the collection starts again at page 1, and you have to do a lot of clicks to get to page 36 again. Is this something that can be fixed? So that if you have check a galaxy you can return to page 36 and not page1?

    Cheers,
    Abe

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Alpha Aurigae's comment.

    A real pain, isn't it? ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

    "stickied section/thread on how to navigate a big Collection, how to find all objects with the hashtag X, how to get a list of hashtags, etc" is a suggestion from near (at?) the start of this thread, one which I repeated, in this very thread, just five days' ago.

    Super-hero DZM replied, immediately:

    It's on the (extremely large) list of things to implement.

    So, in summary:

    1. it is, as of today, a feature (not a bug);
    2. no, there's no way round it, today;
    3. yes, it is something that can be fixed, and it's on the list of fixes to be made (but it's a dauntingly large, and long, list).

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I'm in Oxford this week, meeting with the central Zooniverse team. It will come up here for sure. I'll put a bit of extra emphasis on it, as well. Part of it falls under the same general category as creating a better overall search function, in the "will probably take a lot of time and mostly be for the next iteration of Talk," but anything's possible! At the very least, hopefully we can fix the "return to collections" problem in the shorter term and make the system that we have easier to navigate.

    Posted

  • Alpha_Aurigae by Alpha_Aurigae

    Thank you, Darren for making the effort. Much appreciated ๐Ÿ˜ƒ !

    Posted

  • planetaryscience by planetaryscience

    also want to say something else- when making a collection of tags, if you want to include the tags polar_ring and polarring, it only includes images tagged as both polarring and not polar ring, so I think there should be an option for including_or, including_and, excluding_or, and excluding_and.

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    Well, of course there should. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

    I can say that a good portion of the hashtag/collections discussion at our recent meeting boiled down to "make them actually work." In other words, we're aware that they're completely broken. Definitely won't launch a new Talk without a vastly improved hashtag and collections system. Thank you, @planetaryscience !

    Posted

  • floortap by floortap

    I would prefer an old school forum, better stability and faster for mobile.. could you just mirror everything onto or from a separate forum software?

    Posted

  • Freethesouls by Freethesouls

    I was wondering if the Santilli telescope can be used in the zooniverse or to classify antimatter stuff and antimatter galaxies?

    Thunder Energiesโ€™ Santilli telescope has shaken the world of astronomy when it was first announced to the public this year, 2015, as it is the first optical instrument ever invented that could detect antimatter-light properties.

    โ€œ We are glad to announce the search for antimatter galaxies alongside with the search for extraterrestrial life, dark matter and dark energy because our knowledge of the universe is insignificant compared to what remains yet to be discovered,โ€ said Dr R. M. Santilli, chief scientist at Thunder Energies, in a statement .

    http://www.ibtimes.com.au/thunder-energies-revolutionary-telescope-hits-market-through-distributorship-1466828

    Free The Souls

    Posted

  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist

    Hiya, I noticed you posted this on Zooniverse Talk too, and that's an appropriate place. I think it's probably best to keep it to one discussion over there.

    Posted