I have been reading this topic with interest. I’m a freelance editor, and I can say that the most difficult thing about using the online freelancing sites is just how many jobs are exactly this. When I see a job description that looks like it was copied verbatim from an assignment sheet – I kid you not, I have actually seen “jobs” that include a rubric! – I have to wonder: who do they think they’re fooling?
Are they just that lazy, that they can’t be bothered to reword the assignment at all?
Are they that naive, that they think editors can’t recognize a school assignment when we see one?
Or are they just so unscrupulous that they assume editors will be equally unscrupulous?
Has this been finalized? Will it be added to the community guidelines? Resources for educators?
My school participates in the iScience program and all of my middle school kids submit under a class umbrella using the same username and password. When they upload without attempting an identification, I immediately delete their observation and they have to replace it. Same for poor photo quality or poor/no location info. Eventually they get the idea and start posting some really nice stuff
Some of the homework related questions look, at least to me, like multiple students are using the iNat forum as a 'discussion board"-- something commonly done in online classes for grade schoolers and college students.
I’m just now getting to this thread, but I totally agree with you. I’m a highschool student myself and I agree! It is important that we do our own research and put our own efforts into doing our school work rather than going the easy route by asking someone on here for the answer. It’s good to know you are concerned about this.
“No unknowns” sounds fine, but then we’d need clades like Amorphea (to group things that might be fungi or slime molds) and maybe more. How hard is it for the maintainers to insert intermediate layers into the tree without moving stuff around? The other one I’d love to see is Endopterygota.
No, it is possible to upload observations with an ID of “life” for those cases where one really has no idea what it is. This is not identical to “unknown” (= no ID at all), even though they are treated much the same way in certain searches.
I’m an adult for whom iNaturalist has sparked interest and curiosity in the how and why of nature, and I’ve posted questions to the forum several times. I always start but with an internet search first but if my question isn’t googleable, I post and cross my fingers.
I’ve had users question my motives for posting my questions. I have no problem elaborating, but I’m wondering if anyone suspects me of being a student looking for easy answers. It would be really sad if as a matter of policy I would no longer be able to post my questions. I’ve been tremendously grateful for the input and clarification I’ve received from some of the more experienced folks here.
I don’t think the average new user realizes that “life” is an option. Or even some more experienced users. It’s far more intuitive to think “I have no idea what this is, so I won’t put anything.”
It was only when I began Identifying that I realized this was an option. I think I’ve only used “life” a few times myself, for weird galls or mysterious oozy things…
No, because your participation in the forum involves lots of back-and-forth with other users, you explain why you want to know, and you sometimes include links to your own observations. Anyone can see by your iNat profile that you’ve been a user for several years, and have lots of observations (although there is another less active user with a similar user name.)
Also your questions don’t sound like they’re cut-and-pasted from a homework assignment…