Why not create a combine function in observation edit mode so that images already bulk-transferred from Flickr can be combined? This may not be important to those who post just a single snapshot per observation but for those who take and post multiple views of the same organism (often vital for photo-based identification), iNat creates a horrific mess of the order in which images are brought over so that different views of the same organism pose as separate and widely scattered observations. (Another change in software might enable images to be bulk-imported in the order they appear in the other platform.) This would still require a lot of work hunting down the scattered images to combine but without the combine button in edit mode, it appears a task too onerous to undertake. Additional views would have to be deleted, then individually added to an observation, completely obviating the convenience of having a bulk upload function.
Are you referring to this page?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/import#photo_import
If you just select one of the photos, you can attach the other photos on the next screen:
My photos appear in reverse chronological order of the upload date on Flickr. I haven’t experienced a “horrific mess” with them coming through to iNat.
No, I was referring to this page: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/mcclarinj Those are images already imported, many bulk-uploaded from Flickr, that need to be combined into a single observation so that a ventral view or frontal view, often needed for accurate ID, does not pose as a separate, unrelated, and largely useless observation that nobody can confirm.
My images of the same subject from various angles, taken on the same date, are adjacent on Flickr but rarely adjacent (usually widely scattered) when bulk-imported to iNat. Why yours should be different is a mystery to me.
I have a lot more images I would like to bulk-upload from Flickr but have been afraid to do so because of the problems described above,
This doesn’t help with past Flickr imports, for which I agree your request would be a helpful tool (and maybe for other situations too). But in case it helps with future Flickr uploads, this is what I know…
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The iNat importer will always show the photos in Flickr’s Date Uploaded sequence. If you have your Flickr display set to show Date Taken sequence, you may see a different order of photos in the two places, depending on how you upload to Flickr.
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During the Flickr Import, you can use the Search box to pull together related images, including by Date Taken using the format 2017 May 02 (or 2017 May or 2017). Search will also find common terms in your Flickr tags or description.
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Using the Search box, you can build an import incrementally from scattered photos. Search and pick a small set you want imported together, then hit the “Prev” button. In the process of trying to go back to the “previous” page of Flickr thumbnails, it will also add your selection to the import queue. Then you can repeat the Search, select, and “Prev” to append another set to the queue.
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With multiple Flickr photos that belong to a single observation, the best workflow currently is to select only the photo you want as the top photo of each observation to import. Then, after importing but before saving the final observations, use the Photos tab (shown in @bouteloua’s screen shot above) on each observation to search for and select the additional Flickr photos to put in the same observation. A bit tedious, I know, but for now better than trying to combine separate observations in iNaturalist with (non-)existing tools.
Maybe this is all old news to you, but wanted to share what I’ve learned just in case.
I should play around with Flickr search sounds like.
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