Suspended Users - Enhance users "Identifications" page to manage deleted content

[kiwifergus]

@odole

learning from others is less important than individual perceptions…

I don’t understand how you draw that conclusion from what I have said…

@odole

Do you mean that if people want to disappear, then nobody needs to learn from them ?

No. Again, I struggle to see how you conclude that…

This is my opinion:

If a user puts an ID, and mistakenly clicks the wrong taxa in the list, or mistypes the name and erroneously picks up the wrong taxon in their ID, then they should delete it outright… It does not represent what they think the observation is of …

If they change their mind, likely through the discussion on the observation or by gaining further input from outside the observation (such as looking up books or suddenly remembering a relevant character), then they should leave the original ID as withdrawn, as it still represents what they thought it was at that time, but the new ID represents what they think it is now.

If several users put different IDs, then that just represents the fact that there is dissention or difference of opinion about the ID. That dissention is either resolved via discussion, or remains to attest to the difficulty of identifying that particular type of observation.

[odole]

The examples you describe look perfectly reasonable.

But some people delete their IDs, when they should have clicked “withdraw”. This happens, it can introduce complications, and it is not good if we think it helpful to have a historical account of any complex identification.

And I can understand that sometimes one can be so ashamed of having been so neglectful or ignorant, that “delete” may be better than “withdraw”. I just wanted to save both the ID history and this kind of personal feelings whatever they are exactly…

And please ignore the likely misunderstandings above.

[kiwifergus]

I have had a couple “big ones”, where I went truly down the rabbit hole and only quite some time after realised how woefully astray my concept of the taxon had become… and I deleted IDs and comments and arguments and opinions, not out of any embarrassment from others seeing, but more out of personal frustration when ever I saw them myself… To a certain extent it did not contribute to the history of the ID, because everyone else was “on the right page”, and they were likely just waiting patiently for me to realise where I went wrong. Now, a long time after, I wish I had left them in place, withdrawn for the IDs and perhaps with addenda to the comments to the effect that they were off on the wrong track… anyway… it’s such a beautiful day here in Gisborne NZ, I’m tempted to go and observe something!

[odole]

Then it would have been good if you were allowed to delete your name but not your IDs !

And shame or irritation or related failure feelings are not necessarily because of “others seeing”, I agree. It is just that these feelings do affect others, because then one can delete something useful to others for just personal reasons.

In any case, I will think over a possible Feature Request, considering both aesthetics requirements and the need to avoid proliferation of “spammer” IDs likely favored by anonymity. I suppose that this is not the right thread to keep discussing about this.

(As for the comments, to me it is slightly more complex to handle and “less indispensable” than IDs).

Thank you and I hope you have made good new observations down there in NZ !