For more unusual/obscure Places, Flickr photos may not be helpful/representative, and no Wiki article may exist (and maybe there isn’t a real need for one). Why can’t a Place creator have the ability to add some of their own content, e.g. explaining the rationale behind their Place boundaries, etc., and maybe some photos of their own choosing rather than the ones “selected” by Flickr? Thanks!
FYI: I’ll use a Place I created earlier this year as an example: “Wildcat Hills incl Scotts Bluff Natl Monument (EPA Level 4 Ecoregion 25f Pine Bluffs and Hills)”. That’s a mouthful, but I felt the need to include much of that in the title since I had no place to include it. My place includes a popular National Monument and state recreation area, but for whatever reason several of the Flickr photos show roads, farmland and the slightly-corny “covered wagon” display at the Monument. There are hundreds if not thousands better photos on Flickr of these Monument; why these were selected is anyone’s guess. The last photo of a marshy sandhills area is more than 100 miles from this Place and has no obvious title, tags, etc. that would associate it with this Place.
In any case, it would be nice if I could explain why I chose to create this Place/its specific boundaries, include a link to the EPA Ecoregion map/info, include some of my own photos that are more representative of what a visitor to this Place would actually see in terms of “nature” etc.
as long as edits aren’t restricted to the creator. i sometimes add places in iNat if they don’t already exist, and i wouldn’t want to be the one who has to update their descriptions on behalf of others later. (if anyone needs a place created, let me know!)
I strongly support this. Biota exist in a geographical context (Place) and repeating the information for each observation in that place is tedious and information theory wise just wrong. We should also be able to identify which projects and field belong to that Place. We should also be able to see that place in the context of broader places.
I think that makes sense; hopefully most iNat users will be respectful of the content already there, etc. Maybe some of these more advanced editing functions can be tied to certain ‘trust’ or user levels that will develop here, etc.
I agree that it would be helpful to have the ability to edit place descriptions. I created a place, and the Wikipedia description is for a different location with the same name, so not really at all helpful for anyone reading it.
I am missing a lot of reef names for reefs visited by many divers in popular places (but also not
often visited reefs) and when creating a new one it is not even possible to choose that it is a
reef. So if someone has the coordinates for reefs it would be nice to avoid to have a guess at
the position.
