I’ve been IDing a lot of non-RG observations in a specific taxon lately, and that often entails going through rather grainly images. As a result, the safest ID in many of these is RG at subfamily or genus because there is simply no way to ID them beyond that, the diagnostics just can’t be made out t…

I’ve seen people say ‘Sturnus vulgaris / Common Starling’ are ‘Turdus merula / Eurasian Blackbird’, and the amount of people who think ‘Prunella modularis / Dunnock’ are ‘Passer domesticus / House Sparrow’, really makes me think that unless they have additional evidence to indicates it’s a specific …

I would feel that giving a species-level identification to a picture that is unidentifiable would harm my credibility, so I would just mark it as reviewed and move on.

Some people are really good at getting accurate IDs from seemingly blurry or distant photos, so don’t automatically discount those getting research grade. Some species are very distinctive in shape from afar. That being said i’ve also observed people agreeing to IDs they shouldn’t, and using it more…

I think there’s some kind of checklist at the bottom of every Inat observation with this particular line:Based on the evidence, can the Community Taxon still be confirmed or improved? If the photo’s to blurry, you could click the ‘no’ button. Also, feel free to rock the boat! I mean, if people le…

[image] austin_ajit: I think there’s some kind of checklist at the bottom of every Inat observation with this particular line:Based on the evidence, can the Community Taxon still be confirmed or improved? If the photo’s to blurry, you could click the ‘no’ button. Yes, this is true. But please…

Agreed, though one of my favorite ID pastimes is to go through things marked “as good as it can be” prematurely and ID them further, as a lot of identifiable things get relegated out of Needs ID when someone clicks that button because they themselves can’t ID it, even though other people might be ab…

True. I should have mentioned that, sorry.

Fully agree with this. There are certain plant species that I can ID from colour alone, regardless of how blurry a photo is; there’s nothing else with that colour scheme that you’re going to find in that area. Some trees have pretty distinctive shapes as well, although the one that immediately jump…

[image] paul_dennehy: anyone using these observations in their research will go through them themselves and decide whether they agree with the IDs I’ve seen enough examples of experienced observers (and even experts) misidentifying perfectly adequate photos that I don’t put much faith in what…

The Watering-Down of Research Grade (maybe?)

General

charlie November 22, 2024, 6:14pm 38

Yes, this is true. But please only check it if you are confident the target organism can’t be identified further. Don’t check it if the photo seems blurry but you don’t know that taxa well.

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The Watering-Down of Research Grade (maybe?)

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