I thing describing this proposal as very challenging is an understatement. It is fundamental. Data structure
The observation would need to be split into observation and observation owner. Impact
All the queries referencing observations would need to be modified so that observations with multiple users would not double up.
All pages that display the observer would need to be updated.
All observer action logic would need to be revised. Scheduling
The back end and all the apps would need a coordinated release - meaning nothing else happens until the proposed change is released. Legal
There are implications of shared ownership or whatever the structure of the shared observation is. Sharing works fine until it doesn’t, when someone needs to pick up the pieces.
Unless someone comes up with a way of sharing, that is consistent with the current data structure, I don’t think this will be implemented in the near future.
I must say that this is one of the most useful features of iNat if it became a reality. I really wanted this, but never noticed that there was a feature request for this. Unfortunately 6 yrs of this post have been completed and yet there are only 137 votes, including the one I just added.
Similar features on other platforms include sharing checklists on eBird or tagging other users in posts on facebook or instagram. On eBird when you share a checklist, for the most part it simply duplicates it for the other user. Credit for the species and comments is duplicated to the other person as well. Only photographs and audio stay credited to the original poster. Both checklists show up as duplicates when you search for observations of a species but presumably there are ways of filtering out shared checklists if you’re working with data behind the scenes. I think following this model would work.
That would work.
You could offer me an observation (action and notification)
I can accept the offer and the acceptance would duplicate the observation as mine, with the media still credited to you.
This would be two new actions and a new notification with a link, just automating sharing of photos without duplicating media.
I started using the Similar observation set observation field some time ago to link observations of multiple users that depict the same organism at the same time. It works by choosing one observation of the bunch and inputting its id (e.g. 356586999) as Similar observation set under all the observations that should be linked (one could also choose some other identifier, but it must be unique, which is guaranteed that way).
One can see all linked observations, by clicking on the observation field and then clicking → Observations with this field and value. To make it more user friendly, I coded an extension that displays linked observations under each individual observation as a grid.
This also works with other fields like Identical observation field, which work the same way, but should only be used to link observations of the same individual.
The Similar observation set field on the other hand is also used sometimes to link observations of different organisms found in the same spot or similar use cases.
(To group observations of the same species found together, the Group observation set field would be most suitable.)
