Let's Talk Annotations

General
986

Hello, I would like to contribute with my request regarding annotations:

Platform(s): website

Description of need:

Please re-order the list of “Evidence of Presence” options so the “Organism” option is always first on the list.

Feature request details:

As vast majority of animals’ observations are of the organism itself, it would be very convenient if the “Organism” option was always first on the list. Right now, it sometimes is even the fourth one (after Construction, Gall and Molt). I assume it’s in alphabetic order now. However, when annotating many observations hand by hand, this is quite tiresome and often leads to misclicks which then need to be corrected. Overall, it would save a lot of time it the option “Organism” was always first.

987

you may know this already, but in the identify module, under the annotation tab you can hit ‘e’ and then ‘o’ to make evidence of presence as organism, which i think is much faster if you’re mass annotating observations. you can also quickly navigate between the tabs in the identify module with shift+arrow keys

988

I did not know that. Thank you.

989

Voicing support for adding “Vomit” or “Regurgitation”.

Or:

  • Regurgitation / vomit / pellet / regurgitated material / cast / vomited remains / gastric contents / stomach contents / ejecta / spew / puke / retch / expelled contents / vomitus / emesis / regurgitation / emetology / regurgitant

See also https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-does-annotation-evidence-of-presence-scat-exists-but-vomit-does-not/79532

I have now created iNaturalist Project https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/293528 (current project name is “Emetology (regurgitation / vomit / puke / spew / …)”)

990

Idea to float to other plant people:

How would you feel about breaking down “Fruits or Seeds” into more detail via multiple categories?

Use case: I’m helping a research group build a native seed harvesting resources for their region, and we’re trying to figure out when they should be harvesting in their area. I thought I was hot snot, thinking of using iNat to figure out their harvest period via observation phenology, but came up short designating the difference between:

  • “This plant has finished flowering”,
  • “This plant is developing fruit/seed”
  • “The fruit/seed is mature”/“This plant is ready to harvest”.

I annotated the heck out of their region and got a rough phenology calendar set down, but it seems a loss to not have a means of making the harvest-ready distinction. Given this is a major concern for native plant conservation work and something that’s changing due to climate change, this would be really valuable to researchers (including us!).

How would you folks handle this? “Fruit/Seed Present” and “Mature Fruit/Seed” annotations? Any thoughts? I could just do a project/OF, but honestly that additional workflow would be rather annoying :sweat_smile:. One more annotation option would be pretty neat…