HI. I’m unsure if this is the right Forum, but here goes. A person who appears to be young, new, and with no apparent background has ID’d a slew of my observations to RG. I was unsure of many of these when I posted them. How can we de-ID them and is there a moderator who can gently explain how i…

have you either left a comment on one of said observations, or sent them a private message on iNat? You should always assume people mean well, and it is difficult to gauge another person’s thought processes, expertise, etc without engaging in a dialogue with them

Did you try to interact with this IDer and explain that he/she should only agree to your suggestion if he/she can verify them independently? Often communication is the best way to solve an issue. Other then that, you can always tick the “ID can be improved” checkbox on the very bottom of your obser…

I made some suggestions to the person on one of their observations–a very fuzzy photo ID’d well out of geographical range. My observations came to their attention because they were taken in the same tiny town in which the person lives. I’m just unsure about how to go about it, since I’m not a mode…

no need to be an expert or moderator, just be diplomatic as you noted. On an observation where you think they made a ‘dodgy’ ID, just politely ask how they made that ID and note that you were uncertain yourself originally

Another option: you could withdraw your own suggestion after it was confirmed, when you are not sure about it. So it is again in the pool of “needs ID” and others can agree or disagree with it. … and especially if you upload many observation it might be easier (or not as important) to kepp travk of …

You could scroll down to Data Quality Assessment section of your observation and check ‘Yes’ on Based on the evidence, can the Community Taxon still be confirmed or improved? to open it for other people to id.

I understand your concern here, I often encounter people who agree blindly with me based on a perception that I am an expert (with northeast US ants that perception may not be wrong, but I still want independent IDs to get to RG, and I should certainly not be assumed an expert on every insect) That…

I have encountered similar situations before with new users. I think they often see that I am IDing their observations and want to “return the favor”. This can mean they agree to my identifications (which are tentative or CV-based) or just add badly wrong guesses. Definitely frustrating! I’ve used t…

Sometimes also a little bit of - expert says it is Neoscona blondeli, then the observer / next identifier agrees. Yesterday there was a spider obs. With one ID to species. I agreed to genus, and left my copypasta - Not disagreeing with you. Observer agreed with the sp and asked why I didn’t, becaus…

Unqualified Identifiers

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Finding Observations IDed by a Particular Person General	15	831	February 11, 2026
People making wrong suggestions General	126	7287	March 3, 2024
IDing observations by superusers General question	59	2295	December 14, 2025
Can someone tell me to not identify their observations? General question	45	2624	July 24, 2025
What happens next? General	26	1173	December 11, 2024

Unqualified Identifiers

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