Add a ‘Identifiers’ button on observations that take users from Leaderboard Identifiers

Platform(s), such as mobile, website, API, other: web and app

Description of need:
A button on Leaderboard Top Identifiers that automatically tags them in one step, or at least takes two or four of them with the most IDs for the suggested taxon.

Feature request details:
I would like a simple button named, for example, ‘identifiers’ that tag users in one step from Leaderboard Top Identifiers and Validators that appear on observation pages. This would be very useful because the process of tagging users from Leaderboard takes a lot of time. I think this simple feature will increase the number of verified observations on the platform, especially for new users.

I strongly oppose the proposed feature. There are already too many mentions/tags of identifiers based on the leaderboards that are not well targeted, gratuitous, and/or overwhelm identifiers. If this were implemented, I would definitely consider submitting a feature request to allow users to remove/hide themselves from being on the leaderboards.

33 Likes

I am inclined to see it as a good thing that tagging people requires a bit of time and effort (check people’s profiles before tagging please!) and I would be against making this easier.

If anything, I would prefer to see the leaderboard of identifiers for the community taxon removed from observation pages, since the information currently being displayed here is often not relevant (it displays leading identifiers worldwide, regardless of whether those people are active in the region where the observation was made) and this results in people getting tagged who cannot help, which in turn wastes everyone’s time.

22 Likes

Please no. While this may help observers reach identifiers with less trouble, it is likely to swamp identifiers, ESPECIALLY if it makes it easier to tag several at once, a really regrettable practice that annoys identifiers (ask me how I know) and makes them LESS likely to respond.

21 Likes

If anything it should be more difficult to tag identifiers, not less. Before tagging please put a few minutes into finding the “right” identifier–read their profile, put on a filter to better find someone geographically local, and keep in mind they may not know the species in question (but might be on the board due to other species in that family, etc.)

Edit: Plus I find it more polite if you write out a whole sentence rather than just @arboretum_amy.

21 Likes

I think it would decrease the number of verified observations, since responding to a tag takes me longer than reviewing an individual observation during my usual identifying routine.

12 Likes

But. Not nearly as much time and effort as it takes for the identifier.
If you are considerate and thoughtful about which identifier you ask for which obs …
The response can be almost immediate!!

10 Likes

Yes. I have been tagged on Brazilian moths a few times. I don’t know what leaderboard I was on for those, but it probably has to do with my active identification of Caribbean lepidoptera (mostly, though not exclusively, butterflies).

3 Likes

No. If it’s not worth more than a moment’s time for the observer to tag me, it’s certainly not worth my time to deal with the observation.

21 Likes

Sometimes I think there should be an anti-vote button.

You should only be tagging people, especially top identifiers, for a very good reason. It’s already far too easy, lets not make it some automated process. All that will do is annoy people.

9 Likes

If you go to the taxon page and enter a more specific area, it will show you the top observer and identifier for that area

I’m aware of this. Many observers do not seem to be, and they merely use the list that is shown on the page for their observation, presumably because this is quicker/easier than going to the taxon page and filtering by region – which is exactly the reasoning I wanted to challenge.

The leaderboards on the taxon pages are also not completely reliable, because it is calculated based on people who have contributed IDs to observations with particular community taxon, not the actual IDs provided; therefore, people who do lots of broad IDs for observations that are later refined are credited with the more specific ID, even if they know nothing about how to ID that species. So the leaderboards should always be taken only as a starting place to figure out who has relevant expertise. They should not be the basis for a button that people can use to automatically tag people.

In a lot of cases, tagging does not necessarily get an observation seen by anyone who might not end up looking at it eventually anyway; people who have expertise in the relevant taxon and region and ID enough that they are at the top of the leaderboards often already have an IDing routine that includes more-or-less systematically reviewing observations that fit their search parameters.

4 Likes

Yes I can see why you would want this, but I think you’re going to get a fairly unanimously negative response from identifiers. It is a given that if someone has uploaded something they want it identified. Identifiers choose what and how they identify according to a wide variety of factors. Generally just banging through a block of IDs with a limited set of criteria is the most time-efficient way. I have no objection to people tagging me when they have something that they have found particularly interesting/difficult, or there is a dispute they want my input on or something, but there needs to be a particular reason. responding to tags is far more time consuming than ordinary self-planned identification. If there was this button to effectively ‘summon’ the top five identifiers easily, I imagine almost everyone would use it when they upload. Chances are I’d get tagged in to most hoverfly observations… In the northern hemisphere summer that could see me getting more than a thousand notifications a day!

8 Likes

I’m going to decline this request and set it to close. There should be some intentionality when @ mentioning someone (technically these are mentions, not tags, which are totally different - but I think the cat’s out of the bag and we all say “tag” now), as well as a recognition of the the mentioned person’s humanity and the fact that they are volunteers here. It should be done judiciously and with some investigation to see if the person being mentioned actually is someone who can help with the ID.

16 Likes

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