"As good as it can be" triggers RG with one species ID

I don’t remember encountering this scenario before. My observation of a beetle attained research grade status following an identifier adding a species-level identification and checking the “No, it’s as good as it can be” box in the DQA. Previously there was an ID at the order and genus levels. RG observations have, among other things, a community consensus on a precise identification. But in this case, there was no community agreement or consensus, it was the same user who identified it and marked it as “cannot be improved.” I don’t have any reason to doubt the ID, but shouldn’t RG be dependent on community agreement? If yes, should the “as good as it can be” DQA box be greyed out for observations with a species-level taxon?

Previously discussed in this locked thread and elsewhere, but those discussions seem more focused on what conditions the “good as it can be” box should/should not be used for genus- or tribe-level observations (vs my questions about species-level observations). But if a mod wants to merge with a previous thread, please do.

see https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/research-grade-with-only-one-id-at-that-rank/3270

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Thanks, that’s helpful. Like others, I also didn’t realize the RG banner next to the top taxon is not associated with that taxon, but the community taxon on the side. In this case, the community taxon was still at the genus-level. Thanks for adding a comment and DQA vote on my observation that kicked it back to “needs ID.”

Seems like a bug/contradiction: user can identify it to species-level, but can also suggest that a genus-level community taxon cannot be improved.

The user can. But you can push back (as bouteloua did for you) - your obs and if you want another identifier to look at it.

I would personally argue that the observation is RG at the observation taxon, not the community taxon because the obs taxon is what is used for iNat’s search index, and it’s what’s sent to GBIF.

More discussion at https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-by-observation-taxon-or-community-taxon/3620

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