Can or should two people post about the same sighting?

[cemonehedges]

I often go out bird watching with other people, is it ok if two people post about the same bird? Helpful or prefer us not to do this?

[luluchouette]

You can both post it. Whether or not you should is up to you. I guess if you know both of you are posting the same bird, best practice would be to say so and put the link to the other one?

[lynnharper]

It’s absolutely OK for both people to post about the same organism on the same day. iNaturalist’s stated goal is to connect people with the natural world, so the more observers are posting, the better.

[je9h]

Yes, it’s allowed, of course. From the viewpoint of an identifier though, it’s sort of tedious when it’s obvious that a large group has gone out and everyone has followed in the previous one’s footsteps and taken a photo of the same organism from the same viewpoint, or even all shared exactly the same photo. ;)
While it is allowed for each member of the group to post and people are eager to participate, I think users don’t realize that they could hold off, let one person post and get IDs, and then be able to post their observations in a little “smarter” way with the IDs that they’ve learned?
The same goes for users in general, including some more experienced ones… Instead of posting (literally) dozens of photos for ID of the same taxon from the same areas (posting these one after the other suggests the user does realize it’s the same taxon), why not post a couple of photos and after they are ID’d satisfactorily, then just add all the others under that ID? Anyway, it’s all good… just some observations!
¯\(ツ)/¯

[fffffffff]

@je9h

why not post a couple of photos and after they are ID’d satisfactorily, then just add all the others under that ID?

You can’t just use someone else’s id you get, if you learn how to id the group, there’s no problem in reiding already added observations. And if you observe a lot just remembering what you added and what you didn’t add is hard enough to not divide observations from the same day the way you describe.

[je9h]

Yes, you can “use someone else’s ID you get”. That’s pretty much the entire premise of identifications on iNaturalist.
Perhaps I didn’t state it clearly. In the first case, the exact same or minimally different photos of the same subject are often posted by members of groups who observe together. When one of these photos gets ID’d to a “Research Grade” level, then the same ID applies to the same observation taken by a different person in the group and they could then post their observation of the same organism WITH an ID, rather than unidentified or ID’d only to a high level. Realistically, less experienced users are unlikely to take advantage of this… but they could if they realized how iNat and identifications work.
In the second case, which is more experienced users who have compiled many, many photos of the same unidentified taxon, it’s the same - post one or two of them without identification, then post the rest using the verified ID from the initial smaller sample. Then, the additional observations only need another identifier to agree in order to get to RG (and the user has the satisfaction of having ID’d their own observation, demonstrating that they have learned an ID, without asking identifiers to plow through dozens of the same taxon posted at the same time by the same observer).
It’s about observing how iNat works and using the info provided by identifiers.
Do I really expect people to do this? No. But they could!

[fffffffff]

@je9h

In the second case, which is more experienced users who have compiled many, many photos of the same unidentified taxon, it’s the same - post one or two of them without identification, then post the rest using the verified ID from the initial smaller sample.

No, you can’t add ids you can’t verify yourself, no, if you don’t know the group you can’t be even sure those other specimens are from same species. And again your way doesn’t require waiting to upload, you can add new ids later.

[je9h]

I give up.

[dianastuder]

@je9h

From the viewpoint of an identifier though, it’s sort of tedious when it’s obvious that a large group has gone out and everyone has followed in the previous one’s footsteps and taken a photo of the same organism from the same viewpoint, or even all shared exactly the same photo. ;)

Yes - but we identifiers can choose to Mark as Reviewed and move on to a fresh, more interesting batch.

[je9h]

Yes, no one is being forced to identify anything at iNat.
Never mind. It was an observation about how people could use iNat but generally don’t.

[dianastuder]

I feel your pain. Scout troops post various blurry images of what is obviously the same plant. I pick out the one which is possible to ID - and remind myself that kids learning to engage with nature is the point, and the future, of iNat.