I have now introduced a long-overdue feature which should help reduce my workload administering the website - the ability for people* to flag incorrect sightings.

When viewing the sightings of an individual record, for example https://ontrackplant.com/otp/79235 , you will notice a big red "flag" button on the right of each sighting. Clicking this shows a little popup where you can fill in details about why you're flagging it.

Some good reasons to flag:

Vehicle was scrapped before the sighting date. **

Vehicle was exported so the UK sighting is incorrect.

Vehicle was stored elsewhere. **

Vehicle not delivered/built yet.

Location is obviously wrong.

Sighting date is in the future. **

If a number is wrong, mention the possible correct number.

**Automatic flagger - we do have a behind the scenes system which flags obviously incorrect sightings, including those submitted by budding Marty McFlys & Nostradami with future dates; and a few stored machines seen away from their storage locations (hello 79234/79235).

Things to note:

The sighting will remain on the website, along with a red message beside it.

You can not edit/delete someone else's sighting.

It is up to the initial member to deal with/delete their flagged sighting.

You can see if any of your sightings have been flagged by visiting the your sightings page.

Remember:

Please be polite when flagging other sightings. If you're rude or abusive then your flagging rights will be revoked.

No need to leave your name/email address in the note!

Hope you find this feature useful. If there are any problems or questions then post a reply here.

*note: this feature is only available to limited group of people with full roll-out expected soon.

The message beside each flag is pretty clear.

This sighting dated "November 23 2020" was added to the website on August 14 2017.

The system thinks your 2020 sighting was added to the website in 2017!

As you say, "loads" have been flagged accordingly. So this leads to the problem I'm currently having- I don't really understand how you are using the site?

Are you editing/overwriting your older sightings with a newer date each time you see a machine, instead of adding new separate sightings?

If so, please add sightings instead of overwriting old sightings! Having all old sightings helps fellow enthusiasts track particular machines' histories or helps them find out what can be found at locations.

Overwriting/editing/removing old sightings helps no-one, and may lead to your "new" sightings getting automatically flagged.

Hi Bryan - I've tried to make them as visible as possible, so they will all show at the top of the "your account" page, and also at the top of the "your sightings" page (regardless of year).

PAUL- please see literally the above discussion about why sightings like your example are flagged as such.

I've now added "Revision History" to the "update a sighting page" (where applicable) so people can see that they added a sighting in, for example, November 2015 and then subsequently updated it in October 2017.