I’ve been thinking about how we react on iNaturalist to new and less experienced users’ observations, both currently active and no longer active. This is one example of what I’m talking about, but it is by no means unique because I see it over and over: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23474…

I wish there was expertise weighting. What do you mean ‘ownership of the observation with the observer’?

@natashag Sometimes an image might show more than one species, in which case the observer gets to decide which observation they are referring to when they post on iNat. Good example in @saturnring ’s OP.

[image] natashag: What do you mean ‘ownership of the observation with the observer’? With normal vouchering, for instance, I supply the material to the museum, and then they control it from there. It still has my name on it, but they effectively “own” it, and rather than community ID, they wi…

@robotpie , that’s clearly a little more work than describing in words which organism the observation is for. But it is definitely very clear – well done!

I see! Thanks for that clarification

For observers, one can quickly do a crop of the image, so as to show what the focus is. I often do a crop, then add the original as my 2nd photo. Comments are nice. For identifiers, polite comments are nice, but I’m sure someone saying a quick “no” might be more in a hurry, than trying to be impoli…

When I joined I had alot of encouragement from people which is why I am still here now and try to encourage new users. So when I see a new user I always try and help them, give a reason why I give what ID I do - usually add in a smiley face and then see what they do. If they reply or agree with my…

[image] tangatawhenua: Sometimes a new user does not realise they have to agree with an ID - I didn’t when I first started - so if they reply I but not agree, I explain the agree feature. I have a few “standard” lines I use that I can copy and paste into new obs. well… if they don’t themselve…

[image] robotpie: I add in either a red circle or an arrow. Keep in mind that when you do this it becomes part of the image file and thus our computer vision model will be trained on it. This probably isn’t an issue if only a few people do it, but if it’s done on a large scale it will likely …

[image] leafybye: If someone isn’t into that part of it, they can opt out of Community ID. So, that’s a possibility. But this can be an issue in terms of incorrect personal IDs overriding corrections and affecting the data, right? Especially if they leave the platform, it becomes indefinitely…

Thoughts on Responding to Less Experienced Observers

General

charlie May 14, 2019, 3:10am 24

well… if they don’t themselves know that the ID is right it’s actually better if they don’t agree with it and just let it be. see https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/issue-with-users-automatically-agreeing-to-an-identification/2987/61

Topic		Replies	Views
People making wrong suggestions General	126	7413	March 3, 2024
Patience is a virtue General	44	1545	February 3, 2021
Observer not correcting wrong IDs / problematic practices General	20	807	October 25, 2024
Misidentification, accountability, and bullying General question	66	6359	February 9, 2021
User downgrading my IDs unnecessarily General	69	7576	May 9, 2019

Thoughts on Responding to Less Experienced Observers

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