'Needs ID' pile, and identifications

[bobmcd]

I’m pretty good with just the warm fuzzies.

[fffffffff]

It’b better if they got in -0 system, so maybe 10-50-100-200, and so on.

[JaneBP]

Sure. I was just following what Jason said.

[JaneBP]

@lynnharper

I’d be happy to come iNat in Africa; I’ve never been there. Maybe in another two or three years, the pandemic will be less deadly?

Sounds great to me, too. Maybe we could visit some schools and promote iNat?

[JaneBP]

@dianastuder

I check my mavericks often. Whether it was my fault, or a glitch, or the Community ID has left me behind - I want to know and resolve My Wrong as best I can. All part of my learning curve in nature (and on iNat)

What do you mean by mavericks?

[bobmcd]

@JaneBP

What do you mean by mavericks?

Sorry if this has already come up in this thread but there are 777 postings
From https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#identification :

There are several types of IDs:

• Leading: Taxon descends from the community taxon. This identification could be leading toward the right answer.
• Improving: First suggestion of this taxon that the community subsequently agreed with. This identification helped refine the community taxon.
• Supporting: Taxon is the same as the community taxon. This identification supports the community ID.
• Maverick: Taxon is not a descendant or ancestor of the community taxon. The community does not agree with this identification.

You can check your own mavericks by using this URL: https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=janebp&category=maverick
You don’t have any. Your identifications can be seen here:https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=janebp

Not all mavericks are bad, some could be the first step in the right direction.
Also check this thread: How do I find and fix my old mis-identifications?

[JaneBP]

@fluffyinca

There’s also a difference in the amount of flower petals, but I don’t remember what it is right now. Pretty much anything that looks like a normal plant is a flowering plant, though, even grasses and deciduous trees.

Monocots usually have three petals but they may also have three sepals that look like petals so they are referred to as flower petals in sets of three. Grasses are usually (always?) monocots - long strappy leaves with parallel veins.

[fffffffff]

Grasses is one family.

[sunguramy]

@bobmcd

Not all mavericks are bad, some could be the first step in the right direction.

All my mavericks atm are for this reason…i’ve started to tag a friend who is helping with ID’s to un-maverick myself and move them further towards correct :) That’s kinda the nice thing about being active for a while? forming e-friendships (which sometimes turn into IRL ones!) and having people to tag back and forth for such things haha

[JaneBP]

@lynnharper

Here’s something interesting I just learned. Overall on iNaturalist, there are about 11% as many identifiers as observers (274,335 identifiers to 2,421,725 observers, currently). I live in the state of Massachusetts, USA, where there are about 33% as many identifiers as observers (18,973 identifiers to 56,355 observers).

Why the difference?

Is it just that Massachusetts has a relatively high concentration of iNat users compared to the world overall (assuming that’s true, by the way)? Have enough people been using iNat for longer in Massachusetts that they feel comfortable making IDs? In California, where iNat originated (I think), there are about 21% as many identifiers as observers (48,737 identifiers to 235,093 observers), quite a lower proportion of identifiers than in Massachusetts.

While there are certainly thousands of IDs still needed in Massachusetts, it seems to me that having about a third as many identifiers as observers is a reasonable goal to help keep up with the ever-increasing flood of new observations. We’ve talked in this forum (probably in this thread!) about how to grow the number of identifiers, but I’m curious about why Massachusetts has a relatively high proportion of identifiers. What are your thoughts?

ETA: More related factoids: In Taiwan, there are 37% as many identifiers as observers. In New York State, there are 29% as many IDers as observers. In New England, there are 25% as many IDers as observers. All pretty respectable ratios, so it’s not just Massachusetts.

Where are you finding these numbers?

[gatorhawk]

The amount of Unknowns here in Florida is driving me insane. I’ve been keeping track of the number in the state as I go through hundreds every day. In the last three days, it went from 13,160 Unkown obs to 15,500. Three days, even as I identify them!!!

[JaneBP]

@lordcaravan

I noticed that essentially one person outside of this country was providing the vast majority of IDs,

Where are you?

[gatorhawk]

I even made a graph to show the increase over time during some random dates I took numbers

[bobmcd]

Those numbers are very easy to search on the Explore page
The information is somewhat different because @lynnharper made her post on October 6th.

[JaneBP]

@bobmcd

Sorry if this has already come up in this thread but there are 777 postings

Yes! This is a very interesting thread but it has diverged several times and I think could have been separated into a few threads - which would have kept me from being prevented from posting because iNat does not allow more than three consecutive posts from the same person. I have spent a lot of time in the past few days reading through this post to glean out some helpful info.

[JaneBP]

@bobmcd

Maverick: Taxon is not a descendant or ancestor of the community taxon. The community does not agree with this identification.

Thanks very much for the definition. There are so many helpful links in this thread that I have not had the time to read the link that this definition is in.

[JaneBP]

@bobmcd

Sorry if this has already come up in this thread but there are 777 postings

I now have 14 pages of stuff I need to learn/look up/read/act on. (Outrageous!)

[jasonhernandez74]

@sunguramy

to un-maverick myself and move them further towards correct

I’m sure everyone whose ID is a maverick made it because they believed that it was correct.

[williampaulwhite17]

@jasonhernandez74

I’m sure everyone whose ID is a maverick made it because they believed that it was correct.

a lot of mine were fat fingers/sloppy selection on the drop down (example: carolina wren instead of carolina chickadee. Or yeah, some honest mistakes (apparently there’s centipedes that look a lot like scolependera that aren’t).

[lynnharper]

I go to the basic Explore page, here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations

I filter for place, if I need to, and then look at the numbers of Observers and Identifiers along the gray band towards the top of the page. Does that make sense?