I was wondering where to start…
EDIT : I looked at the project an hour ago, it had 22,000 obs. NOW IT HAS 23,500
EDIT 2: 24,800 OBS!
Maybe we identifiers should make an “Identification Nature Challenge” or something like that, to combat the City Nature Challenge.
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Seriously. This is exhausting, its like an impossible task to even feel like you’re making a dent.
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I just remember:
I make IDs because I enjoy it
I don’t owe IDs to anyone
Not every observation must be identified
The mission of iNaturalist is to connect people to nature, data is a bonus
That being said, if an identathon would cheer people up, absolutely let’s make one happen! It doesn’t have to be too complicated, main thing you need is a participant list, and a specific goal helps. Silly intangible prizes optional.
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I mean, at this point I’m just entertaining myself by seeing which taxa I can search with just my left hand typing.
Asteraceae and Agave are left hand kings so far. And Fabaceae
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Yep. When I get a moment - but don’t hold your breath.
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I had Alabama down to about 100 pages for myself to look through the other day, and it’s at almost 200 today. It never increases that fast. And that seems to be nothing to these CNC’s you are dealing with (I don’t know if alabama has any CNCs?).
We definitely need to encourage identifiers. I personally know some of the users on here who share a lot but I don’t think they ID much. Some I know don’t have time (and they do good IDs on their own stuff) but some I feel like could do a littttttle something xD
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On the other side of the coin, we have overzealous identifiers/identifiers that love to press the agree button. We have to encourage identifiers and educate them!
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In lieu of a formal event…
If anyone wants me to run API ID stats for them (it can answer questions like, “How many IDs have I made today?” or “How many CNC amphibians have I identified?”) or to send encouragement memes/write humorously bad haiku, let me know.
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Haven’t found any of those where I’m IDing xD
I don’t doubt it is an issue, but I think it’s minor compared to lack of IDers… I meant like…at least folk who can click captive/cultivated and do broad sorting would be so helpful. I just did a whole page of garden plants most without any IDs.
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Can you?
uh…
The URL component for the CNC umbrella project is &project_id=city-nature-challenge-2023 OR &project_id=146322, both of which should do the same thing.
Sure, shoot me a message detailing what you want to know and I’ll send you a link which will display the answer (or tell you that your question cannot be answered, sadly that’s the case sometimes)
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The data point I’d like to see at the end of the CNC IDing window is: What fraction of initial id’s were contributed by users other than the original observer? It would give a feel for how many records start in the Unknown pile in a bioblitz.
At the end of a typical bioblitz (if I remember right), the residual Unknowns fraction is a pretty small pie slice out of the total observations. But is that because the number is always pretty small compared to the usual observer-id’ed records? Or is it because other identifiers keep on keeping the count low?
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I’ll have to think about that one. I might not know how to retrieve an answer to a question with that level of complexity.
I lean towards - the challenge motivates identifiers to ‘clear the pile’
Whereas we normally plod along, mopping up a spilt ocean with a kitchen sponge …
Perhaps the challenge also pulls in taxon specialists who are NOT here, unless specially invited.
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The misidentifications you reported are not uncommon among new users. Worst misidentification I found was a Texas Rattler in Penang School project - actually a millipede.
Seeing far too many potted plants - and often photographed at lowest quality - is annoying for me as an identifier. In a different region, one guy delivered 1,500 such observations during a month; a couple of more users in sum again such an amount, reaching perhaps 90% of all plant observations there. Fortunately, I learned how to remove the observations of those users by adjusting the URL.
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I wrote down the number of true Unknowns (no Bacteria, Viruses, etc.) worldwide at 7 PM Eastern Time on April 26th (so, a few hours before New Zealand started their CNC): 265,245.
I’ll do the same at & PM on May 2nd and again at 9 AM May 8th (9 AM is the time in each time zone when the CNC organizers note the official numbers for each city/region). It will be interesting to see the difference.
Maybe next year, I’ll remember to note the numbers for all Needs ID in addition.
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Left hand ID mode (I repurposed my usual U to a D:
We should have a thread about most efficient (easiest on keyboard, fewest keystrokes) typing for most prevalent ids in some cities.
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I know and understand. But some is just so crazy. In La Paz, a teacher brought 2 potted plants into a classroom. I don’t know what the teacher expected, but every student photographed those plants, uploaded them to iNaturalist, and then came up with their own ID pulled out of their imagination. Neither the teacher or the students have ever corrected the IDs, so then it takes multiple identifiers to get them to something approaching reality. What did the students learn? Only to create an observation, which is not really the difficult part. Those students and many others are now wandering around La Paz taking random photos, and giving them random IDs. I’ve just woken up to 150 notifications (after clearing them many times during the day yesterday) of identifiers dealing with incorrect La Paz IDs.
I wish the CNC did not accept cultivated plants/animals. Then it would be so easy to just mark these all as not wild and move on.
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