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Activity

This endpoint gives you a live feed of recent activity on Yesterdays. For overall numbers, see statistics.

Activity feed

GET /api/v2/activity/

Returns a stream of recent activity on the site, including georeference contributions, comments, milestones, and subject tagging activity.

Example request

curl "https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/"

import requests

response = requests.get("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/")
data = response.json()

library(httr2)

resp <- request("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/") |>
  req_perform()
data <- resp_body_json(resp)

Example response

[
    {
        "type": "georeference_group",
        "timestamp": "2026-02-23T17:57:43Z",
        "data": {
            "user": "John Pole",
            "count": 4,
            "started_at": "2026-02-23T17:56:02Z",
            "ended_at": "2026-02-23T17:57:43Z",
            "images": [
                {
                    "id": 28656,
                    "title": "2705 - 2703 - 2701 E. Grace St.",
                    "thumbnail": "https://cdn.maprva.org/eea94aadbb05db2f4a54_thumb"
                },
                {
                    "id": 26221,
                    "title": "13 - 17 E. Broad St.",
                    "thumbnail": "https://cdn.maprva.org/58d41134f2b0a2057256_thumb"
                }
            ]
        }
    },
    {
        "type": "comment",
        "timestamp": "2026-02-20T16:59:14Z",
        "data": {
            "user": "John Pole",
            "text": "The sculptor calls this piece \"The Case of the Missing Executive\" on his own website",
            "image_id": 8151,
            "image_title": "Corporate Presence Sculpture"
        }
    },
    {
        "type": "user_milestone",
        "timestamp": "2026-02-20T01:58:16Z",
        "data": {
            "user": "whwilson",
            "count": 15
        }
    },
    {
        "type": "sitewide_milestone",
        "timestamp": "2026-02-23T17:57:43Z",
        "data": {
            "count": 9000
        }
    }
]

Info

The activity feed returns a flat array (not a paginated response). Use the before parameter to page through older events. When the response contains fewer events than limit (or is empty), you've reached the end of the feed.

Event types

The feed contains six types of events:

georeference_group

Consecutive georeferences by the same user, grouped together as long as each one is made within 3 hours of the last. This reduces noise in the feed when someone georeferences many images in one session.

Field Type Description
user string OpenStreetMap username of the contributor
count integer Number of georeferences in this group
started_at string When the first georeference was made
ended_at string When the last georeference was made
images array The images that were georeferenced (id, title, thumbnail)

comment

A comment left on an image.

Field Type Description
user string OpenStreetMap username of the commenter
text string Comment text
image_id integer ID of the image
image_title string Title of the image

user_milestone

A contributor reached a georeferencing milestone (5, 15, 50, 100, 250, etc.). The exact milestones are set by the site administrator and are subject to change.

Field Type Description
user string OpenStreetMap username of the contributor
count integer The milestone reached

sitewide_milestone

The site as a whole reached a total georeferencing milestone (100, 250, 500, 1000, etc.). The exact milestones are set by the site administrator and are subject to change.

Field Type Description
count integer The milestone reached

subject_introduction

A subject was attached to an image for the first time on the site. Fires exactly once per subject (the first time it appears on any image).

Field Type Description
user string OpenStreetMap username of the contributor who first added the subject (may be null for pre-tracking records)
subject_id integer ID of the introduced subject
subject_title string Title of the introduced subject
representative_image_id integer ID of the subject's current representative image (may be null if the subject has no images)
representative_image_thumbnail string Thumbnail URL of the representative image (may be null)

subject_activity_group

A group of subject changes made by one user on one subject within a short window: subjects added, subjects removed, or a single reorder operation. Consecutive adds (or removes) of the same subject by the same user are collapsed into one event so bulk operations don't flood the feed. Reorder operations are always reported with count: 1.

Field Type Description
user string OpenStreetMap username of the contributor who made the change
action string One of added, removed, or reordered
count integer Number of subject changes in this group
started_at string When the first change in the group happened
ended_at string When the most recent change in the group happened
subject_id integer ID of the affected subject (null for reordered)
subject_title string Title of the affected subject (null for reordered or if the subject has since been deleted)
images array Affected images (id, title, thumbnail). One entry per change in the group
previous_order array List of subject IDs in their previous order (only for reordered)
new_order array List of subject IDs in their new order (only for reordered)

Query parameters

Parameter Type Default Description
before string — ISO 8601 timestamp. Return only events before this time. Use this for pagination by passing the timestamp of the last event you received.
types string all Comma-separated list of event types to include: georeference_group, comment, user_milestone, sitewide_milestone, subject_activity_group, subject_introduction.
limit integer 20 Number of events to return (max 100).

Examples

Paginating through the feed

Fetch the first page:

curl "https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/"

import requests

response = requests.get("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/")
data = response.json()

library(httr2)

resp <- request("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/") |>
  req_perform()
data <- resp_body_json(resp)

Then use the timestamp of the last event to fetch the next page:

curl "https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/?before=2026-02-20T01:58:16Z"

import requests

response = requests.get("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/", params={
    "before": "2026-02-20T01:58:16Z",
})
data = response.json()

library(httr2)

resp <- request("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/") |>
  req_url_query(before = "2026-02-20T01:58:16Z") |>
  req_perform()
data <- resp_body_json(resp)

Filtering by type

Show only comments and milestones:

curl "https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/?types=comment,user_milestone"

import requests

response = requests.get("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/", params={
    "types": "comment,user_milestone",
})
data = response.json()

library(httr2)

resp <- request("https://yesterdays.maprva.org/api/v2/activity/") |>
  req_url_query(types = "comment,user_milestone") |>
  req_perform()
data <- resp_body_json(resp)