Eliminating Monthly and 2020 Individual Observation Leaderboards During Coronavirus Pandemic

The only tangible negatives I’m aware of are excessive alerts burying more “important” alerts, and the occasional weighting on an incorrect id that then needs more effort to head to the “right” CID. The first will hopefully be less of a problem after the alerts revamp, and the latter is a minor inconvenience at best, and could argued to be actually encouraging and fostering interaction amongst the community!

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I had to look around to figure out which leaderboards he was talking about. I only use the Community pull-down to launch to here.

I did, after reading this thread, use explore to find my observation rankings in count, species, and my IDs for the last year in various locales.

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@kiwifergus that’s how it has actually worked in a few instances for me—fostering a constructive interaction amongst the community. People came to me with questions. Sometimes it was as simple as adding “@baldeagle” to the comments field on a new observation. Sometimes it was to engage me in a conversation where we both learned something—and as often as not I was the one who learned more.

In another conversation I learned that the Discord Server can be used to fix CIDs that are incorrect and can’t be fixed easily because too many people have agreed with the incorrect ID. I still have to learn more about the Discord Server, but it seems that even misinformed mass agreements don’t create an intractable situation. So it seems that removing the leaderboards is a solution in search of a problem. ;-)

We’ve strayed from the original question, which was a sincere request to pause or remove the leaderboards for monthly or annual observations during this pandemic. I appreciate the concern, but I don’t think anyone will be tempted to risk the death of themselves or their loved ones just to maintain a rank in iNaturalist. We understand the gravity of this crisis. We know better than most what to do to keep ourselves safe. We will get out and make observations if we can do so safely. Otherwise, we’ll help ID what others have been able to observe or make use of this time to harvest data from sets of observations or to associate data available in photos but not yet identified—for example, the life stage of an animal, or whether a plant is in bloom. There’s plenty we can do without putting ourselves or others at risk.

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Granted we’re all stressed. I vote status quo for reasons well expressed.

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If you read my response to the initial question, up near the top, it’s clear that I’m not advocating removing leaderboards and that I’m not at all in support of the original proposal.

Regarding the leaderboards specifically I’m not sure that posting the exact numbers is all that helpful, other than for personal interest or competitive aspects. It might make more sense to have the public side list the people who have contributed enough on a certain taxa, region, family, etc as “site experts” or something like that so that the value of knowing who to contact for specific questions is retained.

Regardless, as I stated in the first comment, I don’t really think any of this is an issue worth much concern in the iNat community. It’s worth discussing though.

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hello @violetii, welcome to the forum!

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I don’t have any examples. All the leaderboards might normally be useful.
Regarding the pandemic, it’s only the monthly and 2020 overall observation
leaderboards that I think could be problematic. Be well.

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No prob. I’m writing this on April 4th :) . Had to look at
my phone to find the date. Since I posted on the forum,
I’ve become active on the site and am enjoying it. Be well.

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Lockdown is actually a fantastic opportunity for all to work through observation backlogs. Here in SA we’re in full lockdown, with stringent government controls on movement. I’ve noticed a massive increase in observations from the local community, but all from their older photo logs, nothing current. So I don’t think the leaderboards are necessarily a problem during this time.

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Inat is not considered responsible for the actions of it’s users. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t care, but if one person does something to risk their health, they can face the repercussions. You can still observe things on your property, and in some cases a local trail or nature preserve. The monthly leaderboards aren’t the issue.

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Depending on where you go, there are beaches that are empty all year round.

The deciding factor in whether it’s social distancing is not whether the place is a beach, it’s whether it is normally busy.

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Welcome to the forum! Thank you for participating in the discussion!

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Thanks!

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