I am new to iNat (four week), and still trying to learn. I am not very good at seeing the difference on plants, so sometimes might submit several observations of the same plant in the same general location (Different plant, same area). I am just wondering what the best practice is for these kinds o…

If the photos are of the same individual plant on the same day, then the photos should all be in one observation. But if you are taking photos of different individuals, whether in the same area or not, or same day or not, then each individual gets its own observation. That way, it’s easy to docume…

Thanks. That answers my question perfectly.

It’s also fine to duplicate an observation that has multiple individuals present and ask for an ID on each separately. This seems like duplication, but a bird eating a snake can have observations for bird and snake from the same photo, but not the same observation. Likewise, two animals mating can …

Thank you for the reply. I have a follow-up question about this very subject. In the scenario where you are using the same photo for two different organisms that appear in the photo, how do you make it clear to potential IDers which organism you are asking the ID for? For example. I posted a pic…

I try leaving notes and comments! [image] Sometimes more than one [image] Then it was identified. I didn’t post it as a separate observation until asked, due to low quality and cropping issues.

[image] TheJungleExplorer: For example. I posted a picture of a fish with a cropped view of some sort of parasites embedded in the skin. I used the placeholder of “Parasite” to indicate to potential IDers that I was asking for an ID for the parasites, not the fish. The best way to head this o…

Exactly just make a note of it when submitting the observation. I also sometimes will crop the photo to show the subject for ID better in each. For example, I added this dead mouse this summer with this and this beetle eating on it and asked for ID of all three. I like to leave a link to the observ…

[image] taylorse: Never put anything that you want other people to see in a placeholder. It might as well be the “put stuff you want people to ignore here” slot. The first ID will override it in any case this is why we made https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/placeholder-backup . Agree on t…

To merger duplicates or not to merge? That is my question?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Duplicate observations at same time and place General	9	590	November 18, 2021
Is posting multiple observations of the same thing allowed? General question	11	753	May 2, 2021
Report/Remove Duplicative Observations General	23	669	December 29, 2025
Tiny Little Questions General question	50	2902	October 12, 2023
Merge existing duplicate observations and the identifications and comments on each Feature Requests	14	1171	June 20, 2024

To merger duplicates or not to merge? That is my question?

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