Could UK spider recorders be encouraged to select more realistic species?

UK diptera were a total mess a year or two ago, and I’ve expressed similar frustrations on the forum in the past. But after a lot of input from both UK observers and identifiers, and then in turn the latest model update, there has been a radical shift in accuracy of CV IDs and the accuracy of initial IDs by the average user. There is some light at the end of the tunnel I think, so don’t despair! :wink:

There has been a recent shift to taking geography into account in CV suggestions, but I think @tiwane said its still being ironed out in Seek and Android(?). There might also be older observations which factor into this atm - either as they need fixing so the system doesn’t think this species is nearby, or if you are going through observations from before the date of implementation.

I agree there are interventions which could be implemented to limit how frustrating this can be for identifiers. Always offering genus or family level IDs when autosuggest is unsure would make a significant difference I think - this - is the feature request @fffffffff referred to maybe.

Regular problem taxa can also be flagged up on the CV clean-up wiki - so other users can help keep tabs on them. One success in this regard is with Sarcophaga carnaria which was massively oversuggested and in constant need of fixing. But the diptera identifiers have kept it at bay and its now no longer being autosuggested outside of Seek.

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