Create a flag category for duplicate observations

[teellbee]

@tristanmcknight

just came across a user who repeatedly submits pairs of some robber fly photo weeks apart. Sometimes it’s literally the exact same photo, sometimes it’s a slightly different crop or slightly brightened. They’re always singleton subjects, so you can’t use the “they’re trying to record multiple individuals of a flock” argument; I’d guess they’re doing it so they can see if they end up with a different ID the second time. We have tried to write comments over the years saying such-and-such is a duplicate and to please remove, but no response.

My guess would be it’s someone with memory issues who has forgotten they already posted that observation.

[tiwane]

@tristanmcknight

I just came across a user who repeatedly submits pairs of some robber fly photo weeks apart. Sometimes it’s literally the exact same photo, sometimes it’s a slightly different crop or slightly brightened.

Happy to reach out to them if you want to let help@inaturalist.org know about the specifics.

[tiwane]

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.