In the CNC 2023 the most observations by far where made by La Paz in Bolivia. More than 120000 have been uploadid by more than 3009 participants. That means an average amount of 42 Observations per observer. But Research quality gained only about 10 Percent of the Observations. Has anybody an exp…

It does appear that if you “play fair” with the CNC you won’t score very high. I definitely agree that anything that ends up as Casual shouldn’t count.

In my normal iNaturalizing, I don’t post Casual observations very often at all, mostly just for quite unusual sightings, like when there were two Fishers in the ferns next to my porch in the middle of a small town. But during the CNC, I use Casual observations to record species I can’t get a photo …

Oh! Because Cape Town deliberately makes it clear - no dogs, cats or people - I presumed that applied across CNC. The rules should be consistent. We can at least compare our own results across the years. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2023-city-of-cape-town @vireya if w…

[image] lynnharper: So I think Casual observations have a place in the CNC, but I want those Casual observations to be of wild species, not pets and cultivated plants. Might be hard to separate those out since there is no obvious difference in iNat classification between a wild bird you saw b…

Imo it’d be hard to check who’s posting true recording, I have no doubt you will, but when there’re users who already only post blank observations, I’m sure those who want to win no matter what will fabricate sightings, it’s not hard really, make thousands of observation of each plant specimen you s…

Since CNC is hosted at iNat, but organised from outside, this thread needs to reach @kestrel for a response.

Maybe next year I’ll include my local zoo, botanical park, aquarium, and pet shops in my CNC iNatting. But probably not. As already stated, what would be the point?

I think most CNCs allow Casual observations, although I could be wrong. Certainly the global CNC organizers emphasize to the local organizers over and over again that the observers should work on wild organisms.

I’m pretty sure kestrel and the other global CNC organizers know this issue very well.

And the winner is: La Paz in Bolivia!

Nature Talk

lynnharper May 14, 2023, 1:10pm 20

Yep, that’s what makes Casual observations difficult.

Topic		Replies	Views
City Nature Challenge 2022 General	61	3511	May 13, 2022
Here we go again! General mostly-humor	103	3294	May 8, 2023
City Nature Challenge - issues & suggestions for improvement General	65	2291	May 31, 2025
Are your iNat practices different during CNC? General	44	1168	May 4, 2025
Large numbers of falsified observations for this year's City Nature Challenge General	40	2451	May 8, 2025

And the winner is: La Paz in Bolivia!

Related topics