I have read several posts about the difficulties in iNat implementing a cropping tool into the system, and I think I understand why it’s not being considered because of the great technical difficulties and the potential for even more problems and misunderstandings by those not too familiar with digital tech standards/handling.
But I have wondered about an intermediate solution based on a visual overlay guide. I’m picturing a user-switchable highlighted outline that would appear (only under the right circumstances!) centered over a freshly uploaded image that based on the actual full image size of the original submission that was uploaded. This could give you an idea of what a 2048x2048 area of that original area would look like if you were wondering whether to go back, recrop, and resubmit. Maybe it would also pop up a message saying something like:
The square highlighted outline shows the maximum area that you could have safely cropped this image to without losing any pixel detail, and is based on the original size of your uploaded image. Please note that it represents the maximum cropping area only, not the actual crop position. If at this point, you feel that re-cropping this photo would be an aid for identification, please prepare a newly cropped version (outside of iNaturalist) and [button] RESUBMIT. Otherwise, click here to [button] IGNORE.
Of course, if the image uploaded (pre-resampling by the system) is under the 2048 pixel max, the outline and the accompanying message would just not appear.
It’s not elegant, and perhaps would also breed more techno-confusion in many, but if it was a simple option (like a “show max possible crop area” near the image, maybe it would be helpful to many too.
Just thought I’d throw that into the ring.