We decided to not make another category for flags, especially one that isn’t actionable (as in there’s nothing for a curator to do with it, which is already the case for spam and copyright violations, and it’s not ideal). What we did instead was:
- emphasize that observations should not be flagged for being “duplicates”
- prevent flags from being saved if they use the word “duplicate”:
So hopefully this will prevent or at least significantly reduce the number of unnecessary flags one has to sift through. If duplicates are a problem for identifiers (and potentially data users) I think a better solution would be via a DQA vote or, probably most effective, clear instructions for new users that multiple photos of the same encounter with an organism should be made into one observation, to prevent these from happening at all. New designs for the for the mobile app should address that on the mobile end, and I’d be for adding better explainers on the web uploader.