Is it possible that someone has just heard about iNat, they downloaded the app and wanted to give it a try but finding nothing wild to photograph (if they live where it’s currently winter) they photograph the only living thing they can easily find?
Where I am, if I wanted to photograph something not cultivated right now, I’d have to travel in a car. I haven’t even seen a spider for months. The ground is covered in snow.
I know that there are just a lot of observations that are knowingly out of bounds (I think, last winter, when I hit the dumpster, I decided I would do something else for awhile). But again, if we take the attitude of ‘no harm intended’, we could maybe encourage their participation and provide gentle guidance towards future appropriate uploads for the least egregious. A thought, anyhow. Sometimes we’re in the mood … sometimes we’re not. And that’s okay, too.
My initial post was almost a year ago, so I had to reread it to refresh my memory! When I said it was research grade with four different species, I was referring to the fact that the observation was research grade (as one species). But, the observation also included three additional completely unrelated photographs of three other species. So those additional photos were shown as examples of the wrong species in the photo viewer. The user’s intent was to have four observations of four species, but somehow got all four photos lumped into one observation and couldn’t figure out how to separate them or at least delete the extra photos. It seems to be a fairly common problem with new app users.
So did you do something with them? Almost always they have different locations and you can mark it, as well as marking it can be improved, RG is not a thing to go with those.
Probably you did not look carefully around? :-) There are plenty of lichens, mosses and quite a lot of non-lichenized fungi in this season. Even with snow and cold and even in the cities. In all temperate and boreal Northern Hemisphere it is the same. And still plenty of things to observe that are neither cultivated nor domesticated.
I don’t remember if I ended up flagging it or not since it was so long ago. I’m always very hesitant to flag things, especially with new users. That’s the reason that I started this thread. I was afraid that immediately flagging things and downgrading observations would drive off new users, like I was publicly scolding them. I was attempting to instead gently guide them to fix the observations themselves, which I wasn’t having much luck doing! I was also trying to be cognizant of the fact that most users aren’t checking the site or app daily. They may be dismayed to find when they open the app a month later that someone has flagged all their content.
That does need to be (kindly) swept aside. It is even more confusing for new people, if the taxon photos include random oops forgot to separate those out
I live in a city with lots of concrete and lawns and cultivated gardens - pretty gardens and native gardens but cultivated, all the less. Yards belong to people. I can’t invade them. And as someone who prowls my yard and block excessively all summer for new obs, I can tell you that there isn’t any lichen (maybe due to most of the boulevard trees being young since we got hit hard by Dutch Elm disease then most of the other mature trees came down in a freak straight line wind event that moved through the city like a scythe). I did find some fungi last March on a rotted log I’d let go in the garden for habitat. That log fell apart last summer and even if it was there, there are 4 inches of snow on my yard. If I want to find something ‘not planted’, I’d have to get in my car and drive. There are birds. I forgot about that. But one has to wait for them to show up and we have feeders and we only get them occasionally right now.
I asked people to imagine that someone who was a new user of the app/site who want to ‘try it out’ and look for the easiest thing to try it out on. Put our self in their place and see it from their eyes without assuming we know what their situation is.
just had to add, my friends and husband would really challenge the concept that I ‘don’t look hard enough’ when naturing! :-) If I can’t find anything in my yard/block - then those new folks are going to struggle even more.
A) By instructing me that I’m not trying hard enough, one has to make a lot of assumptions. I think I’ve explained my ‘walk to’ environment enough times that one would have to assume that I am unskilled in observing nature (have you looked at my obs?) or I’m exaggerating the point about my environment or I am whatever ‘try harder’ implies.
B) I was making a point about NEWBIES… not me. That point seems to be skipped over so I personally can be judged. I stand by my point. I can’t find any decent observations (barring the visiting birds and squirrels) to make a new observation right now without driving somewhere and if I can’t, then a newbie (in a similar environment to mine) who wants to try out the service for the first time is likely to gravitate towards a houseplant or a Christmas tree. I will extend that grace towards others.
C) The subject of the thread was “guiding new users without scaring them off”. If I’m taking some offense of the replies to my thread and I’m not a newbie and I’m old enough to have a fairly thick skin, then trust me, a newbie would be put off by replies like this too.
I’m likely straying into ‘uncivil behavior’ but it’s winter, the ground is covered with snow, I suffered an injury on Dec 31 that left walking very difficult, and I still look out at the porch light every evening whimsically wishing I could see a bug under it. I tried to offer a situation whereby we could understand the mindset of a new person to iNat so we could be more generous and less judgement and I’m frankly being lectured about my skills and enthusiasm.
You are thinking only of new users in a snowy climate?
On iNat people mostly stay with the be kind and presume good intentions guidelines.
If I can see someone is new, I will try to help.
No snow in Cape Town and I skim new obs every day.
Sometimes - mark as reviewed and next - is the best response for a jaded iNatter.
I think you’re making assumptions now, nobody called you unskilled, it’s just that you always can find observations in winter, looking for dead insects on trees and snow and on old spiderwebs in far corners of builduings or little fungi and mosses (and all that lives in them!), you say in rural block there’s no more observations in winter, but there always be, it doesn’t mean you’re not trying hard enough, we all have different organisms in mind. But I will never agree there’s a place in a world where people live and where you need to drive to find observations, every person will find different things at one spot.
Your example doesn’t make their decision making clearer for me, they can read about instructions or just check each button when uploading, no problems with christmas trees if they’re marked casual, but mostly they don’t so we come to a problem of lots of people not knowing that planted plants are any different than wild and not realising what is planted after all. I understand young people not caring, but when adults can’t responsible that is what I don’t get.