I created an ‘Insect Pollinators in (my area)’ project. Can we configure it to include only the observations that we affirmatively choose to add to the project? Right now it seems to use the selection criteria ( insects / area ) to automatically add all insects in the area.
There’s an option to include observations only from the people who’ve joined the project, but that seems unnecessary. I don’t want ALL the insects those people add to iNaturalist, just the ones that in the judgement of the observer is a pollinating insect, hopefully pictured in the act and/or with the flowering plant itself.
Thanks. I’m not sure, but I think I found the answer to my question in the observation rule of the project ‘Pollinator Interactions on Plants (PIP) of the NE US.’
Rules for Adding Observations
must have observation field ‘Interaction->Visited flower of’ filled out
Now I need to figure out how to implement that. They also require that the insects be in certain taxa. Isn’t ‘insect’ enough? To be determined.
Adding screen pic. It seems to require a decision about the (species of) plant that’s subject to the interaction. Correction. Kingdom plantae is sufficient. So maybe that’ll do.
I thought I had made it a traditional ‘project.’ But it doesn’t have the added criterion (the field) and I don’t yet see how to put that in. All of my insects are included at present, which is why I originally asked how to narrow it down.
I can tell from the layout it is set up as a collection project. You also can’t include observation fields as automatic criteria for collection projects, which is why you can’t add that. You will need to make a new traditional project because I don’t think you can change one to the other.
Yes, that’s the one. But I’m poking around and I don’t see the option described on the support page you linked to. The options have changed. At the bottom of the ‘New Projects’ page, it now has a line saying “You can learn more about managing projects here.”
And on that linked page, it says:
“You must make at least 50 verifiable observations and have a confirmed email address before you can create a new traditional project.Here’s our reasoning for this requirement.
[No link for creating a Traditional Project is provided. The reasoning, dated 2019, does not provide a link or a way to ask to do it by those who meet the criteria.]
So I have 68 observations on iNaturalist, and a confirmed email address. (Also, I’m in a project this year that will be using iNaturalist for exactly this sort of thing.) How do I proceed with this?
Then we can use that project as a filter in a search that’s already filtered by area, and pull up all the relevant observations.
Currently, in the 8-county Philadelphia area, it looks like there are already 11,682 observations that used that observation field! Wow. (I guess those 1296 people were somehow enlisted in the PIP-Northeast project? Why else would they choose to pull up that extra observational field?)
It seems rather cumbersome but I guess it’ll work, perhaps for the time being. I’d like to get a traditional project started which would work better for us.
And ‘here’ tells me it’s an option, as discussed above, but gives no link for starting a traditional project. The help page is out of date with what it’s supposed to be helping with.
That is so bizarre. On the page I get from following that link, the last paragraph (as in your screenshot above) is missing. Are we somehow getting different pages from the same link?
That is really strange! Have you tried from the dashboard and then Community etc.? Maybe you don’t meet the requirements - do you have a lot of captive/ cultivated observations?
Edit: I was too slow. So you need 4 more observations of weeds or other wild stuff.
Oh. Wow. Thanks for looking and helping me to understand. I do understand the reasoning for setting a bar for those who can still start traditional projects.
Yes, street trees are included. Also honeybees. Are we thinking (or sure) that if I add four more wild plants or whatever, that’ll get me into the privileged category of observers? I can do that…
I think so, at very least it’s probably worth trying to get 4 more non-captive/cultivated observations to see (also give it a bit of time after reaching 50 verifiable, I think it can take a bit of time for the system to register that you have met the threshold).
Thanks for helping me to understand the situation. The project I’m involved in won’t really take off for a few weeks, so I can log a bunch of new ‘wild’ observations and try again. After 4? Or 22? Or 26?
