Thank you. No, I haven't asked there yet, but will do that now. I've seen the ad for that project on the blog, so reblogging that is also an option. Zooniverse is amazing, I just wish I had more time.

Hi @khufkens,

I definitely know how you feel about not having a pop-up tutorial. I'm a scientist for Galaxy Zoo, which has never had a tutorial, and I've sometimes been envious of projects that do because there's essential information we'd like to make sure everyone sees. The same is true of Galaxy Zoo: Bar Lengths, which we built using the new project builder.

In our case, we really only had one must-see piece of advice, and it was pretty short and direct, so we just added it to the text of each task in the workflow. It seems to be pretty effective.

I've seen other projects-in-progress that get around the lack of tutorial by adding something to the main workflow text like: "Hint: to get helpful tips and see examples, click the "Need some help?" button." I suspect that will work pretty well too. In your case I think that might be a better way to go, as I'm guessing most people coming to your project fresh won't know what a "year" means in reference to the grid you're showing, nor what you mean by a "notation", so I suspect you'll need more room than you realistically have in the main workflow text.

I completely agree with your suggestion about the "X" with the line tool. I've passed that suggestion on to the developers, though I don't know when/if this will be addressed. In the bars projects we also ask for very short lines to be drawn, and we suggest in the help that if this is tricky it might help to start with a longer line in a different position and then individually adjust each end of the line to exactly where it should be.

First question about the polygon tool: are you sure you need it? The rectangle tool is much easier to work with, so if you can get the results you need using that, I'd suggest that route. But if you need the precision of the polygon, have you made that drawing task required? If you make it required it might enforce that the polygon be closed before clicking Next is possible (I haven't tested this), and as the volunteer can't get to that task without first saying there's something there, it seems fine to make it required.

Anyway, thank you for the great suggestions and I'm looking forward to following along with your project as it develops!

Cheers,
-Brooke

From Quentin Stanley:-

Near and far, and those at NAM2015. Wherever you are, I hope you are having a wonderful time and that whatever projects you are involved in are going well.

Now is the time to remind you that the 27th Annual RAS Picnic will be celebrated on Sunday 2nd August, 2015. The venue will be Greenwich Park, London, ( Post Code SE10 8XJ) in the view of the Old Royal Observatory and overlooking the National Maritime Museum and Thames. It is a fine venue!

The initial Meeting Point will be at the base of the Wolfe Statue, Greenwich at 12:30 from where will move about 100 yards to the East for of favoured picnic spot. At 1pm, the Greenwich Time Ball can be seen to descend – which we take as the main indicator for the start of the day’s events.

If you arrive late, no worry – just look out for the RAS Pennant which will be flying over our picnic spot.

The après-picnic will include some significantly large water rockets – which are being developed even further this year! Something not to be missed.

Al Fellows, Friends, Family and guests are most welcome to join in this summertime recess from the RAS Discussion Meetings. Please feel free to forward this on to those who may be interested. If in doubt about arrangements, please contact me on q@hpsresearch.com or David Lally - davelally@outlook.com – for further details. All you need to bring are some picnic vitals and something to sit-upon to make your stay comfortable.

I will send out a reminder closer to the date to help remind you of this event.

Best wishes, and I hope to see you on the 2nd August,

Quentin Stanley

I'm not sure there's anywhere particular to quietly put my hand up and ask if something I've seen is worth attention or not. But as science is about asking questions I feel more strongly about not letting something pass just because I fear being ridiculed, than just letting it go. Maybe we could have a quiet corner of the zoo so us nervous types could whisper? lol
So... here's my thing.... I noticed something intriguing between two completely separate projects... one being with the zoo Mars project marking fan shapes, the other (not zooniverse) working with satellite images showing the earth after a recent massive earthquake... which also showed similar fan shapes. These fan shapes were not on the 'before' images of the same area of the earthquake. I wasn't sure whether this is worth mentioning, but I found it unexpected and very interesting.

Yep, a bug. I've been hammering to get it fixed and get the "most recents" displayed properly, but, as you've seen, the GitHub list is very long...

With adding several new projects and revising the whole talk area I guess that just opens the whole zooniverse up to the possibility of all types of bugs, etc. especially with all of the different operating systems and equipment available. I just looked at the project list using a Kindle tablet. The list is divided into two pages. The Whales as Individuals is not in the list at all, and the latest project having to do with seasons occurs twice-once on each page. While working on both of these projects I repeatedly got multiple images with orange flags. Several messages were included, retired, already seen are what comes to mind. I decided to stop because I believed my efforts were being wasted!

In reply to Darren "DZM" McRoy's comment:
Season Spotter should show up twice because it's actually two projects. I've worked on making the two cards a bit more distinct.

Are you sure that Whales isn't showing up anywhere?

What do you mean by orange flags?

Thanks!

I guess that @mistyfriday meant those red/orange flags/marks displaying in the top left corner telling 'already seen' when you finish the classification in some new projects. It's pretty confusing mark since I don't really understand what it means either, but it definitely doesn't mean it's duplicated since it appeared after classifying of my first image too.

In reply to yshish's comment:

In reply to Brooke Simmons's comment:
Orcas are great, except when they appear in Penguin Watch. Then I'm not as pleased to see them.

Oh, have you seen some in the PW frames? (I haven't)

Nah, but I suspect them of lurking underwater in a few cases...

In reply to yshish's comment:

In reply to Darren "DZM" McRoy's comment:
Season Spotter should show up twice because it's actually two projects. I've worked on making the two cards a bit more distinct.

Are you sure that Whales isn't showing up anywhere?

What do you mean by orange flags?

Thanks!

I guess that @mistyfriday meant those red/orange flags/marks displaying in the top left corner telling 'already seen' when you finish the classification in some new projects. It's pretty confusing mark since I don't really understand what it means either, but it definitely doesn't mean it's duplicated since it appeared after classifying of my first image too.

The 'retired' and 'already seen' marks popping up is a known bug and it is being taken care of.
See : https://www.zooniverse.org/#/projects/tedcheese/whales-as-individuals/talk/27/668

In reply to Brooke Simmons's comment:
Orcas are great, except when they appear in Penguin Watch. Then I'm not as pleased to see them.

Oh, have you seen some in the PW frames? (I haven't)