Add a 'compare' function that compares a user's own Observations

General
#1

Hi

Just as the title suggests, I think it would be highly beneficial to have a function which enables users to compare individual observations within their own lists

A situation that would call for such a functionality is the following:

I have multiple observations of specimens of a single plant species, but each from widely different localities. Inevitably, there will at the very least be very fine morphological differences in specimens from different localities as they have grown in different substrata and climate conditions. It would be great to be able to note these differences and as such, perhaps this function can be linked with a user’s journal. This will enable those of us who are interested to record data which can perhaps be used by taxonomic bodies to differentiate organisms at the subspecies and var. level

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#2

Did you mean to put this in Feature Requests, or did you put it here for discussion first?

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#3

What would the comparison of two observations look like? How would it differ from opening the two observations in different windows and tiling them?

#4

While identifying it often happens to me that I recognize something because I remember observing it. So I end up going on a search of my own observations by whatever coarse taxon is my best guess – multiple windows, a lot of clicking.

It would be convenient if this set of filter criteria:
image
could be expanded to allow restricting by whether a taxon occurs within my own observations. It would be even more convenient if each resulting suggestion then had a link that opens a new window/tab with the regular explore view of all my observations of the taxon being suggested.

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#5

Come to think of it, such a link would be useful even with the current set of filters. A list of all observations of a suggestion that has previously been observed in a specific area can also help identifying something.

4 Likes
#6

Whoops sorry I meant to post this in the Feature Requests section, not sure how it ended up here

@tiwane please could you relocate this to the correct section?
Many thanks

@zabdiel
I believe schoenitz put it quite well. Of course there are existing ways to compare one’s own observations such as your tiling example, however they are very tedious and totally user-unfriendly

1 Like
#7

If you wouldn’t mind, please write a new post in Feature Requests according to the directions here and we will review the submission.

#8

Oh yes! This would be so helpful for me. Often I find a moth that I know I’ve seen before, but it may have been a year or two ago, and the AI is not being helpful, and I have to go trawling through my observations looking for it. Such a feature would help tremendously with these situations. I imagine there are many organisms that are only seen for brief windows each year, and remembering them for the next year can be tricky, especially for those of us who are not professionals in the field.

1 Like