Has anyone had an experience like this: During identification, you see a string of very specific id’s from a user who has a lot of observations. Things that make it look like they know what they are talking about, like “Western Spotted Beige Winged Meadowsnipe” or something…followed by an “Unknown”…

I think that’s a reasonable concern and you’re free to use your judgment. One strategy is to wait a few days before IDing any new observations – just in case they’re waiting to get around to it. But I think there’s never anything wrong with doing your best to fill in missing info.

I do it as long as the observation is at least a few weeks old.

I have to admit that I mark those as reviewed and move on to another observation. As far as I’m concerned, they should know better, and if they don’t care to make even a minimal ID, then I’m not going to waste my time with their obs. There are more than enough newbies who could use the help.

[image] teawren: As far as I’m concerned, they should know better, and if they don’t care to make even a minimal ID, I try to make as best an ID I can on all my observations during the upload phase, but very occasionally I’ll accidentally miss one (I generally upload 100-200 observations simu…

[image] thebeachcomber: I’ll typically pick up the mistake very quickly myself, but sometimes if I’m not paying enough attention it slips under my radar Also important to check to see if there is a placeholder ID, quite often it is a simple spelling mistake and the submitter has legitimately …

[image] thebeachcomber: I try to make as best an ID I can on all my observations during the upload phase, but very occasionally I’ll accidentally miss one What I usually come across is whole slew of unidentified observations. Just one or two would be understandable because, as you say, it’s e…

If I am IDing on here, it probably means I am whiling away some time, so choosing “Perching Birds” or “Flowering Plants” isn’t an arduous task for me. It is more that I don’t want to be stepping on the toes of someone’s observations if they have a clear idea what it is, and I am just making the most…

I would just note that the failure for one of these observers to provide an identification is likely for some completely innocent reason, and not necessarily an indication of laziness. For example, I’ve had several cases where my observations were duplicated through a bug in the iNat app, with one c…

When you find what looks like a mis-spelt scientific name, it can be useful to search in Google - it can autocorrect some common spelling mistakes, then you get pictures that look similar to the observation in question. I generally put observations like these as precise as I can (which isn’t usually…

Identifying "Unknown" from experienced users

General

arboretum_amy October 31, 2020, 11:13pm 3

See https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-some-serious-power-users-add-so-many-unknown-observations/282

Topic		Replies	Views
Why do some serious "power users" add so many unknown observations? General	122	13836	September 12, 2020
A request to not identify General	8	848	October 16, 2023
Thoughts on unknown ID level? General	59	1358	October 9, 2025
Classification recommendations General	11	820	January 28, 2024
Is it worthy to (vaguely) categorize “Unknowns”? General question	26	915	March 18, 2025

Identifying "Unknown" from experienced users

Related topics