I voted for this feature for the following reasons. I have slow internet and typically only include one photo when I first upload an observation. Uploads of 2 or more photos takes a long while and the app usually times out. For observations that I want to include extra photos, I will upload them after the fact.
I have a number of observations that I will likely upload during the winter when there are less observations to make locally. Uploading observations is the most time consuming task for me. I like the idea of saving drafts and uploading saved drafts once in the proximity of high speed internet. Ultimately, this would make everything more seamless for me.
I need it because I add a lot of Fields, pinned and sometimes modified localities, tags, and copied text. To minimise the hours required I upload as much as possible in batches which will have as much as possible the same localities, copied text, fields and tags.
Often as am working in the uploader I realise I am uncertain about one of those details, and sometimes finding the answer requires opening other windows to search my other observations in iNat to find the answer.
Similarly, if I realise an observation group is needed, I have to find the earliest obs for that group, which may not have had a group assigned to it yet.
By the time I have done this research I am often confused about the stage of completion of the others already in the uploader, and since it is not always possible to see the image details in the uploader I have to find and view the images on my hard disc again.
But if I go ahead and upload before checking and maybe correcting the ob, I can get wrong IDs, confused viewers, locations or localities that need correction manually, and a lot of fields to correct.
A draft upload would allow me to upload in batches and review within iNat before publishing.
I may have accidentally done this. When I was just getting into identifying, I IDed an Unknown as “Plants”. The user (who had thousands of observations) replied with a rude “Yes, it is a plant.” At the time, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t want my help, but now I realize they probably intended to ID it themselves later. Thankfully, this experience did not keep me from IDing more Unknowns, but I have to say that is not a good way to welcome new identifiers!
And it’s a “both ways” thing too… just as the new observer is perplexed at having their plant ID’d as a plant, the experienced and knowledgable identifiers roll their eyes when they see the ridiculous CV suggestins picked by new observers.
The best way to encourage respect for one another is to make people have to practice it!
I realise this is an old thread but I was looking if anyone had already suggested this so won’t start a new one. The reasons why I feel I need a draft mode…
Placeholder photos taken on phone to log GPS to be replaced with better camera shots (or multiple shots) before uploading, rather than after.
There are times when I upload a lot of images as quick as possible to log the location while it’s fresh in my mind after a day out, but I’d like to be able hold until I’ve had a chance to have a stab at ID at leisure. At the moment I feel it can look like a load of lazy “ID this for me” dumped on the site if you’re not careful.
When I’ve uploaded a lot after a day’s recording and want to stagger them a bit to save spamming the “Identify” section.