Cheer up those stuck at home because of Coronavirus. Identify their observations

As more countries have reduced travel and more people are stuck at home. Let’s do our part to reach out and identify their observations as best we can. I know that when others identify my observations it lifts my spirits. Build morale!

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Also, are you stuck at home because of coronavirus? Identify some observations! :D

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Some of us are stuck at home and still have to do smart working. But I have been putting in some ID time on the side.

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you can also try to iNat the coronavirus somehow!

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legitimate iNat selfie!

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How do you mean Mark?

oh dear, you know you miss with a joke when you have to explain it! Apologies :)

It’s an often raised forum discussion that selfies and photos of classmates etc are not what iNat is about, and shouldn’t be made as observations. Even pets and houseplants are in the somewhat spurned “captive/cultivated” category. I think the aversion to human observations even extends to a system block on any human ID’d observation ever getting to RG, although I might be mistaken on that.

The comment is in jest, that it would be a valid observation while under self isolation to take a selfie and post it as covid-19:
https://inaturalist.org/taxa/1044608
of course, in self isolation doesn’t mean you have it, and even if you did have symptoms, it would be the test result / micro work that would be evidential… you could just have the flu etc.
Or perhaps a selfie and ID’d as covid-19 with “no evidence of organism”, as an expression of hope and confidence :)

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Ah, thanks Mark, I hadn’t thought of the pathogen obs possibility. I did understand the overall idea of the jest, but not how a selfie could be legitimate; now it makes perfect sense! (Please accept a belated Ha ha:)

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I’ve been thinking for a while that the only upside of catching it would be being able to iNat myself.

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If I get it I’m inatting it. But probably just as a casual observation. I put in “rhinovirus” as a causal observation once and one person got really bothered that I couldn’t technically say my cold was rhinovirus though. So watch out for that guy.

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Oh, but he did have a good point! I can just imagine his dilema… “do I explicitly disagree, cos there ain’t enough detail here to be sure, but I can’t say for sure that it is not… AaRgH… I WISH THAT MODAL MADE SENSE! Is there a complex taxa we can put it to? No? WHY NOT???.. AaRgH… WHY DOES iNAT DO THIS TO ME!!! That’s it… I’ve had enough… I’m going back to stamp collecting where everything fits nicely into sets… oh, is this shade a magenta or red? AaRgH…”

oh heck, that guy wasn’t me, was it?

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I guess you have to include a copy of your positive test results to reach “research grade”

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I really like this. Is there a way to see the leaderboard for observations / observation IDs made in Wuhan or in Italy during the quarantine time period? Maybe I’m being naive, but being outside by yourself observing nature seems like a wonderful way to spend a quarantine, and IDing organisms seems like a good way to fight cabin fever. I’d love to give people ‘extra credit’ for their work in difficult times!

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Yes, being outside in nature would be a good way to spend quarantine time. Unfortunately (in Italy) we’re currently not allowed to leave home except for medical / work reasons, so it would be playing Russian roulette with the odds of running into a police patrol or post on the way there.

Granted, there’s still some people around observing, from what I can see while IDing.

You can probably see a leaderboard by going into Explore, filtering by date range and going to the Observers / Identifiers tab. Although, now that I think of it, it’s only going to work for observers, because for identifiers it will find people who identify in the area, regardless of where they’re located.

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That is a very difficult situation to be in. I wish you all the best. I notice some containment orders globally mention “not going outdoors”.
So we may get an increase in detailed observations of insects, houseplants, and birds, perhaps? Interesting to consider what life there is indoors.

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yeah, it all really depends on the situation. We are in a rural corner of the US and it’s not really here yet, and in our case i think getting outside (keeping a safe distance from others) is actually better. Our houses are full of germs from the long winter, and we can easily roam outside while staying far from others. But it really depends both on the situation and the legal framework. I’m not saying people should break quarantine to do iNaturalist.

Anyway, thinking of you and so sorry you are in that situation…

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Lol, you have a good sense of humor. Thank you for that! :-):-):-)

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I agree. But in a different area it could also cause harm, because if you did have the covid19 then being outside would contaminate the other people outdoors depending on how long the germs could really last.

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Yeah unfortunately if you’re in a densely populated area you have less options.

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It’s a good thing I’m not in a densely populated area. Might be moving to Oregon though, my dad got a job there. :-( Pretty place but not the best place to be under the circumstances. And I’ll miss Texas y’all.

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