Allow geographically obscured observations to be masked in map displays, so that accurate maps of explored regions can be generated,

Feature Requests
1

Platform(s), such as mobile, website, API, other: Any that display maps

URLs (aka web addresses) of any pages, if relevant:

Description of need:
Many people want to study and explore regions, and identify areas where few or no observations have been made. But when someone makes a lot of geographically obscured observations at a single locality, they are displayed randomly over a huge area, thereby obscuring the actual information from specific observations. Many maps are now completely unreadable because the observations are obscured with “obscured observations.” It would be very useful to have a button that turns off displays of obscured observations.

Feature request details:
Add a check box that allows a user to turn off the display of obscured observations on any map.

2

The url modifier geoprivacy=open eg: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?geoprivacy=open&subview=map achieves what you’re looking for
More on url modifiers for observation location values here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/search+urls#geoprivacy

A more specific feature request to add an additional quick filter parameter that automatically does that would be more accurate.

8 Likes
3

you probably need to also apply taxon_geoprivacy=open: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?geoprivacy=open&taxon_geoprivacy=open&subview=map

(geoprivacy filters for observer-defined geoprivacy, while taxon_geoprivacy filters for geoprivacy defined at a taxon level.)

4 Likes
4

I agree this should be added. It would be trivial to add this feature to the advanced filter menu since the API already exists.

3 Likes
5

Some relevant conversation from the Feature Request for the creation of the relevant API params:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/create-filter-by-location-accuracy/298

6

This has been a feature request for at least six years. See here:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/toggle-obscured-observations-on-off-on-maps/420

It’s nice that there is a url option, which I didn’t know about or forgot about, but such a basic feature that most people probably want should be easily accessible from the relevant webpages and not just by using an iNat cheat code hidden away on the URL modifier page where most people will never see it.

5 Likes
7

see existing request linked above