Batch write the same comment to multiple observations

General
1

Hi all,
I am aware this is might be a litte undoable, but do you know if there is a way to select multiple observations, according to a predefined filter, and leave the same comment to all of them at once? I, for example, often discover many observations (thousands) with a missing date and, therefore, tagged as Casual. I would like to warn each user, with a comment in their observation, that they forgot to enter a date and that they might like to do it. Any ideas?
Thank you!

P.S. Can’t this be actually done by the INat engine itself, for example sending a pop-up warning when one is uploading an observation without a date?

2

We do get a pop up warning - but you can still upload a ‘broken’ obs if you want to.
Use a text expander for the comment.

3

this is already done in the web uploader. see the screenshot in this post: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/loss-of-location-and-date-info/51639/3. it doesn’t look like there’s a similar missing date validation in the Android app, but i think you have go with a particular workflow to even get an observation without a date. i’m not sure about the iOS app.

what you’re describing here is possible by using the API, but it’s so close to the line – or even crosses the line – of machine-generated content that i would discourage you from going down that path.

if you wanted to add a comment as you review each observation, that’s possible and can be facilitated by various tools, as noted by dianastuder above and in various other comments in the forum (ex. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/bulk-identification-tool/5029/36).

…

that said,

i would add such warnings sparingly. for example, if a user uploads 5 observations with missing date, adding warnings per observation seems like overkill. instead, a single comment on one of the observations or a single direct message seems like it would be less annoying.

4

I agree, adding bulk comments via the API to 1000’s of observations that meet some criterion would probably fall afoul of iNat’s prohibition of machine-generated content. I also think leaving a few comments/user is probably good, not one for each observation. An exception to that might be observations that actually violate ToS/Guidelines (like copyright infringement), but that wouldn’t be assessable via API.

Some type of text expander is probably the best bet for an efficient workflow for these in bulk.

5

Yes, please don’t use a script to add content, that would be a violation of the Community Guidelines: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/community+guidelines. You can use a text expander and I definitely agree with @pisum to do it judiciously and make sure you’re not doing it a bunch for one account.