I’m always a bit hesitant to suggest that researchers, land managers, or other folks use iNaturalist observation fields to collect associated data because anyone can edit the observation fields on other users’ observations. In the past I’ve experienced people adding (hundreds of) unwanted and often…

Added an issue here which I think describes the desired change. https://github.com/inaturalist/inaturalist/issues/2812

I partly agree with this because users opting out of the community taxon sometimes seems counter-intuitive and can be quite frustrating with incorrect ID’s, but observation fields seem to have a more personal user-specific place than the ID of the organism itself. I don’t know much about the link be…

(There are already notifications, though they are the incorrect message. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/adding-or-editing-observation-fields-reports-wrong-user/2290 )

Voted YES. I’d lead the parade to disallow anyone to edit my obs fields!. Had no idea that this was even possible. I use those fields for my own research specifically; and that data is also incorporated into another site. Its integrity is paramount to me. It is MY choice. I’ve always opted out …

[image] krancmm: Had no idea that this was even possible. I use those fields for my own research specifically; and that data is also incorporated into another site. Its integrity is paramount to me. It is MY choice. Ditto…horrifying! Initially I searched diligently for existing fields to use,…

Perhaps field values could work the same way as IDs work at the moment. The owner of an observation could provide their value and other iNaturalist users could also suggest values for the field. It would be up to users of the data to decide how they preferred to work with the information provided b…

[image] shuetrim: . The owner of an observation could provide their value and other iNaturalist users could also suggest values for the field. It would be up to users of the data to decide how they preferred to work with the information provided by others and the Exactly. When I upload eg an …

Would this have to be separate from the current setting? (below): [image] Or should we assume that someone who doesn’t want others to add obs fields to their observations also doesn’t want anyone to edit their obs fields? And would this apply to any obs field you add, or only to obs fields you a…

Personally I’m ok with it being bundled in the same setting - all for one’s own observations.

As long as the default is “Anyone” thus making the decision to disallow adding observation fields an “opt in” choice. I worked with my students on having them add observation fields for the local language names of their plants in these islands along with ethnobotanical uses, but most of my students …

yep, definitely an opt in setting

Disallow others to edit your observation fields (opt in)

Feature Requests

Topic		Replies	Views
Custom Observation Field 'Habitat' has been replaced with 'Type of access' Bug Reports	22	496	September 11, 2026
Cannot Edit or Delete Observation Field from Observation Bug Reports web	19	2106	October 1, 2020
Standardize and Clean Up Observation Fields Feature Requests	15	3084	March 9, 2019
Reasons for not allowing observations to be added to traditional projects or observation fields General	10	452	July 9, 2025
Change the 'editability' of observation fields on individual observations Feature Requests	6	418	June 22, 2024

Disallow others to edit your observation fields (opt in)

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