Glossary (iNatForum)

Having encountered terms or acronyms that I am not familiar with, it oocurs to me that others might also. Here is a start at listing them, feel free to add those that are missing, or that you have just encountered, or even to correct those that are wrong! Insert them in alphabetical order.

[edit] I’ll point out here that we should TRY wherever possible to NOT use abbreviations.

AI = artificial intelligence, =CV in the iNat context.
Birding = looking for birds
Botanizing = looking for plants
CID = Community Identification (the >2/3rd majority taxa in common with all IDs made)
CV = Computer Vision, the image recognition system used for automated ID suggestions on iNat
DQA = Data Quality Assessment (found at bottom of an Obs page)
Herping = looking for amphibians and reptiles. ie ‘herpetology’
ID = Identify (verb), Identification (noun)
Ident-o-tron = checklist-based ID aid accessed through the Compare button on an ID (example)
iNat = iNaturalist in all it’s glorious forms!
iNatter = a participant in iNaturalist
ML = machine learning, =CV in the iNat context.
Obs = Observation
OP = Original Poster, the person that started the topic/thread
RG = Research Grade
Sally Searching = looking for salamanders
TL;DR = Too long, didn’t read (as a response) or Too long, don’t read (highlighting a summary)
Unknownithologist = Someone who actively identifies “Unknown” observations (those with 0 IDs)
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary (meaning ‘it could be different for you’)
cf. = compared with
det. = ID was determined by

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In another thread, @kueda wrote this:

So while this effort here isn’t wrong per se, it may not be such a good idea either.

Some of the terms on your list are specific to iNaturalist, others are general internet slang. The former may change over time (I hope “RG” does), and there is a redundancy of lists for the latter a google search away.

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https://www.inaturalist.org/stats

CID: Community ID
TTID: Time To ID
TTCID Time To Community ID

I think as long as it is documenting terms already widely in use here, and not used as a place to invent new terms, it is serving a helpful purpose.

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yeah, I’m against them too, but when someone throws one at you, it’s good to have a place to find what they mean! I consciously try to not assume people know even basic acronymns etc, except here I think RG, ID, Obs and DQA are core terms that will likely crop up regardless of how much we try to decry it, so I use those.

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the first one definitely! Can’t believe I missed it myself. The last two are defined on that page, and I don’t see them being used outside of that page. I’ll put the CID in, but you should be able to edit this and add your own whenever you encounter them. As a rule of thumb, if you have to look up what something means, then it should go in here!

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Possibly related: I just today heard the term “sally searching”, which specifically means “looking for salamanders”.

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I’ve seen the term “OP” used quite often here in the forum - I’m guessing that means “Original Poster”?

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added now :)

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Also terms that are used in identification comments would be really useful to have on hand for users I think.

e.g.
cf. - compare with
is used quite regularly

…this also leads on to general anatomical terminology though as well which is a bit of a Pandoras box! But I find it really impenetrable as an amateur. Sources are so scattered and varied …as well as the different naming conventions.

Trying to figure out where syntergosternite 7 and 8 are in comparison with sternite 5 and tergite 3 to key out a fly from photos… :crazy_face: it can be really exhausting. Could be great to have a comprehensive, resource for this kind of thing.