Change to user profile page structure

11 Feb 2025

Hi All,

We've needed to implement a change that will affect the structure of all user profile pages.

To date, we've hosted separate region based versions of everybody's user profile.

For example:

naturemapr.org/users/8083 (Michael B's all sightings)
canberra.naturemapr.org/users/8083 (Michael B's Canberra only sightings)
sydney.naturemapr.org/users/8083 (Michael B's Sydney only sightings)

Each with a unique web address E.g. Canberra. Sydney. Pilbara.

This essentially creates a massive cross product of page combinations for the system to maintain and host and provides a very large footprint for malicious actors to target because we are essentially hosting 41 different versions of every single user profile page, which are then further multiplied by the number of pages that can be paginated through each profile page for sightings and also species. It becomes absolutely massive.

13000 users x 41 regional versions x No. sighting pages
+
13000 users x 41 regional versions x No. species pages

This footprint is simply too big to host and maintain, it's killing our expensive infrastructure and we have a very large attack footprint for bots and scrapers as we've seen over the past few days.

This is a legacy of the regional structure we started out with and is simply not sustainable to keep doing going forward.

User profile pages will now auto redirect to the main naturemapr.org version, which will be the single, consistent web address and version of everyone's user profile pages.

We understand that some users will miss having a dedicated canberra/michaelb version of their records in the short term. Longer term, we may investigate introducing a way to filter records on your user profile page by collection (some of which are regions) to get this kind of functionality back.

But in the short to medium term, we are killing ourselves with this overly generous architecture and need to drastically reduce our footprint to be able to keep operating the platform sustainably.

Thanks everybody for your support and understanding.

16 comments

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

11 Feb 2025

Hi Aaron. A very interesting change. We have always been able to give our moderators status on a regional basis or national/global. A lot of our moderators have been focusing on their local region only, or several regions. From what I can see now, if we wish to add any privileges to a moderator, we can only add them as global moderators. Is this your plan for the future, or a temporary situation?
Regards, Michael .... CC @MichaelMulvaney @EmmaCollins

AaronClausen wrote:

11 Feb 2025

Hi Michael B,

No, this is completely separate and will have no effect on our (highly successful and effective) region based moderator structure.

We are purely talking about how user profiles are displayed and accessed and reducing the number of different possible paths to get to the same information so that it can be manageable and cost effective.

Regarding your question, no not at all.

I can never, ever see us doing away from our highly successfully and effective regional based moderation structure.

Having regional based moderator responsibilities is one of the key differentiators as to why NatureMapr works so well and has been so effective.

Our moderators are able to have the flexibility to take on only the regions they have expertise in and also have the capacity to manage and/or are comfortable with.

I can't see us EVER doing away with it. Structurally (underneath and invisible to users) regions are just becoming another type of collection, so strictly speaking, regional moderators will overtime become "collection moderators", but the resulting functionality and outcome will be exactly the same as the successful structure we have in place now.

We have to drastically reduce our overall footprint, our overall complexity and the overall number of assets that we have dangling out on the internet to be attacked and abused. This is my absolute focus at the moment to ensure we can keep running and sustainably.

Choyster wrote:

11 Feb 2025

Great move Aaron, I am 100% behind this for the sake of the platform!

MatthewFrawley wrote:

11 Feb 2025

I really like this change, a lot less confusing for me than having all the different profiles when I'm only one person.

mahargiani wrote:

11 Feb 2025

Makes sense to me. Does this have the benefit that when I post a sighting, I will not have to worry about which region I'm in? When I think about it, there are potentially lots of questions on how things will operate/change. I'll work on the basis of seeing how things go, then, if there does appear to be a significant issue, raise it with you. Thanks, Aaron, and please keep up the good work, it is very much appreciated.

JasonPStewartNMsnc2016 wrote:

11 Feb 2025

Fair enough . And IMHO appropriate in current computing ways.
Keep up the excellent work .
And thank you both @AaronClausen and @MichaelBedingfield for clarifying what this applies to and what this does not apply to .

AaronClausen wrote:

11 Feb 2025

Thanks for the support all - it keeps us going and thoroughly appreciate.

KorinneM wrote:

11 Feb 2025

To be honest, in one way I'll be happy to have all of my sightings on one link.

KylieWaldon wrote:

Yesterday

Yeah I was surprised when it was set up this way initially. Sounds like a much leaner and better practise way of doing it. Will wait and see what it affects. It might stuff a bit for those of us like myself who changed their profile name 12 months in. :)

waltraud wrote:

Yesterday

good move Aaron! thanks heaps for taking care.

Milly wrote:

Yesterday

I have to admit that the technicalities involved here go way over my head and, being a very small contributor, probably won't make any difference to me. However, I would like to thank Aaron and everyone else who put in such a massive amount of work to keep the platform operating and safe - very much appreciated.

AaronClausen wrote:

Yesterday

Thanks all - yep it's a logical step and basically how every other web site on the internet works.

The only reason we ended up with unique regional instances of user profile pages was due to the original structure we started out with in 2013 which is no longer sustainable to maintain.

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

Yesterday

Hi Aaron. Re my question above. Glad to hear your response. I guess you have more changes in mind to the user/edit page so that moderator privileges can be updated on a regional basis. Regards, Michael

AaronClausen wrote:

Yesterday

Good stuff Michael B.

We have been through so much change and you personally have been absolutely instrumental since day one.

Yep that's spot on, we have an extremely long list of changes that we have to get around to building which are definitely part of the ever increasing road map (including a way to manage user privileges at the regional level, despite user profile pages only having a single (national) web address now).

KMcCue wrote:

Yesterday

Great work, a huge relief you are back on-line

YumiCallaway wrote:

Yesterday

Thanks Aaron for your thoughtful communication and patience in explaining the changes that are occurring, and their significance. I personally fully support the strategy you are taking, and hope that you and the team are taking care of yourselves amongst this influx of workload.

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