I think cultivated / non-cultivated flag is a major reason for conflicts and contention because certain flags or labels are missing from Seek by iNat App or the iNat App and the impact of using/not using “cultivated” too negative / black and white from two different perspectives.
For example, how would you mark plants from a renaturation projects which are native, disappeared from a certain area and are being reintroduced in good faith? How would you mark the offsprings of those plants? And what if the reintroduction is not done in a nature reserve but rather done in private gardens by nature-conscious individuals who want to help fight invasives and restore nature locally?
What about marking the exotic escapees which end up by themselves expanding or even becoming invasive in an area, without humans helping anymore? Are they cultivated too? Some IDers flag them as such without asking or looking.
And then the fact that marking something as “cultivated” in good conscious then leaves you without any IDs? Or if you don’t mark it you start getting harassed by angry curators who forget this is a citizens science project who’s main goal is to bring knowledge and awareness to people, in addition to contributing to science “high quality data”. Is it helpful and motivating, especially for new users, say kids who want to learn using the Seek app etc, to start harassing them about use of “cultivated” flag?
There are many gray areas with these flags and I think the classifications have to be improved by the iNat/Seek apps and the main site, if these never ending debates and conflicts were to go away
My 2 cents
P.S. I also find this older thread and the last item/advice very useful to IDers. It’s great when people do curation or IDing, but it’s your choice how you use your time and if you contribute to citizen science projects. If you choose to do this and then get fatigued to the point of disrespecting the observers/posters, discouraging new users to contribute, or you are missing the point that this site is also about social competence and friendly interaction and collaboration, then there is no point in being a curator or IDer.