Frankly I have a particular user in mind whose observations slow my identification flow. They have systematically opted out of community ID, which wouldn’t bother me too much if the majority of their observations weren’t of wide landscape shots whose identification requires much zooming and scanning. Additionally they often elect to identify an organism only barely visible in the background or a corner of said landscape shots, and they are unequivocal about their initial IDs even if an organism in the foreground is much easier to identify at the genus or species level. Lastly they have tens of thousands of observations of this kind.
Can you help me understand why iNaturalist doesn’t allow its users to simply hide other users’ observations from the Identify page? Why is it not at least possible to hide observations from users that have opted out of community ID? Is there any roundabout method of doing so, such as adding a certain string to the Identify page URL?
That only prevents them from identifying and commenting on my observations if I recall correctly. I could ask them politely to block me, with an explanation of course, but I’m not sure it would hide their observations on the Identify page, instead maybe just preventing me from interacting with them
Indeed I have found a decent solution. I wish there existed an integrated feature for hiding observations from users that have opted out of community ID, but oh well…
Unsure how to interpret “It also removes their observations from your search results and removes your observations from their search results. However, it does not make you invisible to them. They can still find your observations and view your profile, they just can’t interact with you.” Does “search results” include the Identify page?
Yes, I unironically used this method to hide somebodies observations for the first time a few days ago as a last resort for some similar reasons in your above post. But it does go both ways.
Alright then, I will block them. Should I message them about it first? I have no qualms with their behaviour on iNaturalist. Their observations are just too much too handle
This is up to you. Personally I’m not really a fan of this method since it seems… (like a little mean?) and restricts communication. But I feel at least in my case it is the easiest method. I often ID using the phone app when not at a computer and there are no URL filters on there to use.
Why message them?
I would like OPTED OUT to be clear and obvious up top.
So many obs trapped with a slew of IDs from taxon specialists who don’t notice / understand why the d$mned ID does not change.
Also - would like an acceptable solution for landscape shots. Similar to the DQA for ‘one subject’.
Yeah I definitely feel mean about it However I believe they are free to do whatever they want with their observations, and I am free to exclude them from my identification sessions. I have to sort the observations of theirs I have already identified before blocking them. Will I still be able to view those?
A not mean workaround - which I use - is to pull up their obs from a recent batch - skim and Mark as Reviewed.
Presuming that Not ALL of their obs are unwanted?
PS I will not zoom and scan across a landscape shot. If the observer ‘wants’ an ID, they need to bring info in the picture which is reasonably identifiable.
Oh I just wanted to message them to warn about and explain why I will block them. Again I do not resent this user so I feel like they are owed an explanation, even if they likely wouldn’t notice that I have blocked them otherwise.
Also I agree that there should exist a DQA option that pertains specifically to landscape shots, but it might be difficult to differentiate “acceptable” from “unacceptable” ones. Often I just ID such photos at a high level like Tracheophyta or Pinaceae and vote them “As good as can be”
Funnily enough I marked hundreds of their observations of a single species as reviewed, which I guess wasn’t too tedious. Not great for retroactively annotating observations I have personally identified though
Actually perhaps this could work using the page result expand tag. The main reason I felt I was pushed to block in my case was the number of uploads. It would likely take a decent chunk of time to mark review for them all. But if the identify page is increased to have 200 obs a page. That could be done much quicker. So i’m going to unblock and do that instead.
Are people missing this post? Isn’t this a better solution than using one of your blocks on them? And no i don’t think messaging them telling you why they are blocking them is a good idea. And even more so not asking them to block you since everyone only gets 3 blocks. Which is super toxic but that’s a whole other story.
However I believe they are free to do whatever they want with their observations, and I am free to exclude them from my identification sessions. I have to sort the observations of theirs I have already identified before blocking them. Will I still be able to view those?