List of Identifiers who did not identify

Bug Reports
1

With regards to this observation (and others) : Melissa Blue (Plebejus melissa) from 56 NE 40 St, Great Bend, KS 67530, USA on September 6, 2016 at 02:21 PM by David Dodd · iNaturalist

A group of people are listed as “suggested an ID”, but it has been brought to my attention that these people DID NOT suggest an ID as they are not following USA butterflies, and do not ID anyway - in particular userid shirelymorrison has told me she never ids an observation. What is even more weird is that a lot these users who are shown as “suggested an ID” have a common link - with a Canadian Project BIMBY (Butterflies in my Backyard).

Any idea what is happening?

2024-09-26_07-44-11
2024-09-26_07-44-11796×813 126 KB

2

is it more plausible that she just forgot that she made a few identifications 5 months ago?

who else?

2 Likes
3

I don’t understand what your question/issue is… Are you saying that these identifications were not made intentionally? There are some extraneous details in your description that I am unable to parse. This doesn’t seem to be something that can be replicated.

4

You can check out the identifiers profiles to see if they have identified anything, it shows up below their number of observations.

As far as I can tell, these users did add the IDs intentionally.

1 Like
5

In April 2024 the mentioned user did add 27 identifications to observations of other users. Probably during the 3rd Observation Accuracy Experiment.

6 Likes
6

yup. that makes sense: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?observation_accuracy_experiment_id=4&id=9806612.

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7

she has never made an identification - only uploads observations.

8

That URL goes no where

9

But she totally denies she ever did!! Did someone use her account? what does “Probably during the 3rd Observation Accuracy Experiment.” mean please?

10

Those in the photo I included.

11

hi zdanko, yes, the issue is these people never logged on and did any IDs. No, it can’t be replicated but these users would never ID these butterflies in the first place, nor do they use iNat to do Ids. They mostly upload butterflies (Canadian) only.

12

She has never done Ids.

13

If in fact someone else had access to their account and made those IDs, that’s not something that can be solved here, or potentially at all. iNaturalist logs only go back for about 45 days so we can’t see if someone else accessed the accounts then. If these folks think something went wrong, they can email help@inaturalist.org directly. They should also change their passwords if they’re concerned someone else logged in as them.

See https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/91400-a-larger-experiment-to-learn-about-the-accuracy-of-inaturalist-observations

1 Like
14

you should ask her again. maybe she didn’t realize (or forgot) that she was making identifications as part of participating in that accuracy experiment.

seems fairly clear that she’s made 27 identifications for others, and that all of those associated observations are included in that accuracy experiment. compare:

1 Like
15

What is the ‘accuracy experiment’ please?

16

yes, the system shows very clearly that her userid made those identifications. That is not in question. The issue is that she genuinely did not log in and do them. Maybe if I can understand the “accuracy experiment” I might be able to explain more what is going ion.

17

look at tiwane’s link above.

1 Like
18

Sure - I can get her to contact iNat directly. I have asked her to change her password, but it seems that a bunch of people are in a similar boat. Thanks

19

seems unnecessary unless she has confirmed that she didn’t participate in the accuracy experiment.

3 Likes
20

got it, thanks.