# (Possibly) intentionally wrong IDs **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [April 20, 2025, 7:46am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123 "2025-04-20T07:46:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thefungiphotographer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/thefungiphotographer/32/40927_2.png) [@thefungiphotographer](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/thefungiphotographer)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2025, 7:46am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/1 "2025-04-20T07:46:19Z")
A new user has been making observations and adding identifications to them that are often the computer vision’s 3 or 4th suggestion and are usually incorrect and not withdrawing them when other users disagree. I don’t think this is a major issue, and is most likely not malicious as many new users do this. However, for other observations of theirs, they left the observation at a higher level (e.g. family) and then when I refined it to species they responded by adding a different, conflicting, and incorrect ID to their post. For example, let’s say they initially left their initial ID at _Taraxacum_, dandelions, and I refined it to _Taraxacum officinale_, common dandelion. Upon seeing my identification, they retracted their previous ID and identified it as Common Cat’s-Ear instead. They’ve done this about 4 or 5 times now with me and more with others too, and I don’t know if it’s intentional. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially because for a few of their observations they haven’t responded in this way. Perhaps they want their observations to be “rarer” than they are? I’m not sure. Is there a particular way we are encouraged to respond in these situations? For most of them, I just left a comment explaining the features that led me to my ID. In most of these cases, the observations just get stuck at a higher taxonomic level, but I worry that many of these wrong IDs may get missed as the user has added over 100 observations in their first week on iNaturalist ---
**Author:** ![eyekosaeder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/eyekosaeder/32/66699_2.png) [@eyekosaeder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/eyekosaeder)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2025, 8:33am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/2 "2025-04-20T08:33:52Z")
Have you commented or messaged them, asking for a reason for any of their mis-IDs? Perhaps also tell them that iNat observations may be used in actual scientific studies and that the identifiers are volunteers with limited time, so intentional mis-IDs are quite annoying. If they don’t respond and don’t change their behaviour, you should flag their problematic IDs, so that curators can have a look. Adding misidentifications on purpose violates the iNat guidelines. P.S.: > [@thefungiphotographer](#): > > I refined it to _Taraxacum officinale_ Though it is still on iNat, _T. officinale_ is no longer an accepted species (according to POWO) and it’s probably best to leave observations of dandelions at genus for now, unless you’re one of the few who can ID them further (I tried, I can’t. Haha). The species has been split into dozens of micro-species that are almost always impossible to tell apart on iNat. @comradejon made a great post about this on here: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/my-dandelion-manifesto/49999](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/my-dandelion-manifesto/49999) ---
**Author:** ![swampster](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/swampster/32/37519_2.png) [@swampster](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/swampster)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/3 "2025-04-20T13:14:54Z")
I would just post a polite comment explaining the diagnostic characteristics that clued you in to your ID and ask them to elaborate on their reasoning behind their ID. Intentionally adding false IDs is a suspendable offence on iNat, but as the situation is described, there are many other potential reasons for this behavior. They could be making honest misidentifications or they are confused with how the CV works. Polite communication is almost always a good first step when there aren’t blatant violations of community guidelines (blatant violations should be delt through flags or [help tickets](https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/tickets/new)). ---
**Author:** ![bbk-htx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bbk-htx](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/bbk-htx)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/4 "2025-04-20T15:14:39Z")
> [@swampster](#): > > I would just post a polite comment explaining the diagnostic characteristics that clued you in to your ID and ask them to elaborate on their reasoning behind their ID I wouldn’t add “ask them to elaborate on their reasoning behind their ID”. If it is malicious It might only agitate them more. Just state your reasoning for your ID and let it be. Move on, there are plenty of people that would appreciate your ID’s ---
**Author:** ![thefungiphotographer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/thefungiphotographer/32/40927_2.png) [@thefungiphotographer](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/thefungiphotographer)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/5 "2025-04-20T16:18:18Z")
Gotcha, thank you. I will mention that and if it persists, I may flag some of the observations. As for the dandelion thing, I was just in a class on identification of flowering plants and specifically asked my prof about dandelions as I’d seen that post about them being a pain to ID. He said no, _T. officinale_ is the only one at our location… darn it haha. Thanks for letting me know! ---
**Author:** ![vbjanos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/vbjanos/32/28910_2.png) [@vbjanos](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/vbjanos)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/6 "2025-04-20T16:57:52Z")
I load a photo of Thisgenus neverconfirmedius as T. obviouslywrongius. Someone comes along as adds T. neverconfirmedius to fix it. I just need to agree and whoa I have a RG T. neverconfirmedius. ---
**Author:** ![thefungiphotographer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/thefungiphotographer/32/40927_2.png) [@thefungiphotographer](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/thefungiphotographer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 4:06am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/7 "2025-04-22T04:06:57Z")
I think I agree with you. I don’t want to imply that they are intentionally mis-indentifying things if it is in fact just carelessness, and it seems especially unwise to do so if that is the case. Another user messaged me separately about this issue as they were a bit frustrated as well. I shared a link to this thread with them and suggested that if necessary we may need to flag some of the posts if the user continues to do this without engaging with any of the dialogue that several users have left on their posts. ---
**Author:** ![klauswehrlin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/klauswehrlin/32/1573_2.png) [@klauswehrlin](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/klauswehrlin)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 9:38am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/8 "2025-04-22T09:38:35Z")
I sometimes do this, but I don’t ID to T.obviouslywrongus, only to Thisgenus. It works just as well and here is no danger of leaving T.obviouslywrongus standing and messing up the statistics or worse, inviting laymen like me to believe that T.obviouslywrongus exist here ;-) ---
**Author:** ![vbjanos](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/vbjanos/32/28910_2.png) [@vbjanos](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/vbjanos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/9 "2025-04-22T14:15:59Z")
I’ve done it a couple of times unintentionally when I started but I fall for it time to time as an identifier. I can’t assume bad intentions but often wonder if this is a game. I found a real head-scratcher once that looked like a green blob. I set it to lichen with a comment that is just an assumption, then liverwort and bacteria, each for a couple of months until I stumbled upon another, identified observation of it. [Eremastrella-crystallifera](https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/864036-Eremastrella-crystallifera) ---
**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/10 "2025-04-22T15:35:06Z")
> [@thefungiphotographer](#): > > I may flag some of the observations If you think an ID is intentionally false, please _flag the ID itself, not the observation_. You can flag an ID or comment by clicking on the down arrow on the ID or comment. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possibly-intentionally-wrong-ids/64123/12 "2025-06-24T14:45:02Z")
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.