Filter option on the allsky map page.

[esenbaytekin]

Hello,

It would be great to have a simple filter on the map page. For example, if I could filter users by ZWO ASI224, I could see only their data—that would be amazing.

It might be worth considering whether other users have requested something similar.

[EricClaeys]

@Alex-developer,
Your new Map interface has some filtering capability, doesn't it? Does it allow filtering by camera?

@esenbaytekin,
FYI, 35 people who have an Allsky Map entry have an ASI224. I have no idea what percent of Allsky users have a Map entry so I can't accurately predict anything about the total Allsky population.

Alex and I have direct access to the Map database. I look at it a couple times a week to understand what hardware users have so we know what to target, when it's OK to drop a feature, etc.
I was very surprised that over half of all Map users have an RPi HQ camera. This tells me we may want to spend more time adding features for those users.

During installation, Allsky creates default camera and computer names, but many people change them. When I, as a human, look at the ~450 Map entries, I count 25 different cameras, but a dumb computer counts 75. Whereas the computer sees 4 different entries with slightly different spellings (like "ASI 224" and "ZWO 224)", I know they are all " ZWO ASI224" cameras, which is what that camera reports it model to be.

Why did I mention this? If the Allsky Map had a filter, it would have 75 choices for cameras (and 165 for computers). I'm not sure how useful that would be.

In the next Allsky release I plan to eliminate allowing users to change their Camera and Computer names, and just use the names the hardware provides. As more people install that release, the database we become more consistent and filtering more useful.

[esenbaytekin]

You’re right. Of course, I didn’t think about it in such detail.
I’m using the ZWO ASI678MC. I thought that if there was such a filter, I could check how other users have configured their settings and get more ideas. Of course, the camera is not the only factor—external conditions also play a role. Still, it would be a useful option.

[EricClaeys]

I agree. One of our "to-do list items is to create an Allsky Privacy Notice that explains what data we collect (like you see on every website nowdays). This would help up comply with European laws and to simply be transparent. It will also allow us to ask users if we can collect and share their data in a way that doesn't invade their privacy. THAT would allow us to provide the info you want and would be a great feature, in my opinion. And as Allsky supporters, it would help if Alex and I had people's email so we could contact them when we see potential problems in their data.

We need to be careful with data some people (or laws) might consider private. I don't want to lose anyone's trust.