[image] I'm a newbie needing expert advice: how should I deal with "proactive incompetence"? I only wish I could trust the dates and ESPECIALLY the locations that folks submit to the same extent. Yes, this is the aspect that has led me to cut down on identifications. If people can’t be bothere…

[image] jhbratton: I don’t dispute that there are many flaws in the location data on herbarium and museum specimens. A possible glimmer of hope for herbarium/museum specimens?: https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/38/5/2166/6120795?login=false

[image] rcavasin: most users don’t even realize that they can edit the location descriptor That is where I think a prompt could also be useful - is this where you were? (And always with the - Don’t show me this again - option) Google’s default is Silver Mine - two words, which is wrong. Ther…

[image] DianaStuder: You can say - I’m in Chicago, while the map is in Timbuktu Funny coincidence. A Ndonga family in Namibia told me that the previous Peace Corps volunteer that they had hosted was from “Oshikango.” It took me a while to figure it out, but in their phonetic system, that was …

Another scenario I’ve thought of is a user trying to avoid giving the correct location of a sensitive species (i.e. owls) to protect it without knowing obscuring or private geo privacy is an option.

[image] rcavasin: possible glimmer of hope for herbarium/museum specimens Expensive way to georeference a specimen, but probably the only way for many historical specimens!

[image] jhbratton: Wouldn’t it be better if iNaturalist observers were encouraged to be both precise and accurate in order that their observations are as useful as possible to the scientific and conservation users? Yes, but. There’s a trade-off. The more complex the on-boarding process or t…

Here’s a question about location accuracy, pin placement, and error bubble. Suppose I’m out in a bog, like I was last night, recording audio of the first frog call of the year. I hear a frog wayyyy off in the distance and have a general sense of where it is, but not specific information since it’s p…

I think this is the crux of the issue. The nature of the uncertainty in location on old pre-GPS specimen labels just doesn’t jive well with the nature of uncertainty on modern databases. I found this when uploading a bunch of my 20+ year old specimen records to iNat. For example, if I have a specim…

Some of these old records with good county-level information, but the location data below that level is unknown or uncertain, have been assigned locations that are county centroids, which is not the best way to handle it I think. If your county is small, the error is not that great, but in the west…

Accuracy is a problem for locations known to be along a linear feature like a road, trail, or river. For a time the Oregon Flora Project had a different annotation for such locations vs. the usual ones for which circles worked well. I think we just have to read the label or add additional data som…

Location and date accuracy of iNaturalist observations

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Location and date accuracy of iNaturalist observations

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