We need a daily lottery for mob identification

General
24

It seems like a lot of fun, but it wouldn’t work for me. I have lots that are unidentified but I like to take pictures of insects and I am very aware that my pictures may not be good enough to ID them. I also don’t have very many observations on my page. (But more and more every year!) So, it probably wouldn’t help me and it might be only a small group that would really benefit from it. (And, really, whenever I get frustrated that some insect I posted has been unidentified for a long time, I just ask the folks on the identiFriday thread what I need to do to get better pictures and I get lots of good advice. Is that cheating? I don’t know.)

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25

I don’t know what those two are, but I’m interested in finding out.

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26

We’ve got a region for the month right this minute! ;)
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/mission-impossible-identify-plantae-in-africa/43528

I’m not good at that part for the above mission at least. If you know people who like African plants, tell your friends. ;)

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27

And La Paz still has 8,000 Unknowns from the City Nature Challenge 4 months ago if anyone feels like going mad and identifying stuff.

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28

I do like the idea of focusing identifier attention on certain regions for a week or a month, although not the idea of choosing a different user every day for all the reasons outlined above. I know virtually nothing useful about African plants, but it’s been fun this month sorting through Unknowns. If nothing else, I can send recordings of bird song to Birds and Dicots to Dicots. Every ID that moves an observation closer to resolution is a good ID in my book.

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29

Thanks. Not sure I can do much good for Africa (wish I could though). I do a lot in my home state of Idaho, USA. But willing to try more. I have used the maverick link multiple times to find my mess ups. Oh and I think the links were hidden somehow on my computer when I replied.

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30

Whether the one with the money is willing to spend it.

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31

Or maybe it could be run like a lottery where you have to buy a ticket. People have to sign up for it (opt-in) and you have to have made at least 500 IDs yourself (or whatever number is deemed reasonable for “buy-in”) before you can throw your name into the hat from which the lucky winner is drawn.

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33

You are not yet in the Pre-Maverick project.

iNat’s Mavericks tell you when CID has left you behind. Your ID makes no difference either way. If you join the PRE-Maverick project you can see where 2 others agree, and you, are the one holding back CID.

I should have put the links in my first comment. My fault, not you.

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34

I meant I had used the link, but no, I have not joined the project.

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35

I know that I would definitely benefit from having lots of eyes on my observations, since many have only been IDed by me (with the help of computer guessing) and am working on a project that needs research-grade identification.

It does seem like the idea would benefit from having regional focus since people who aren’t near a place might have a hard time accurately identifying species that are endemic to a different area, for example. But also, as species are relocated due to habitat loss, climate differences, and human intervention, it could be helpful to watch the location progressions.

I agree that an opt-in option would be preferable and with maybe a few other requirements. Or maybe a short application!

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36

Part of the value of making it a global lottery is to expose everyone to the diversity of the planet. Though in reality a lottery is likely to keep picking Bay Area people just because they are so numerous on iNaturalist. And, yes, it could be the case that I’m not able to ID anything from a person on the other slide of the planet but I would take a stab at making coarser IDs. Everyone who IDs has a niche or two, I think. E.g., I can ID Silene latifolia from very blurry pics, and that species shows up in many countries. Above all, it would be fun and very, very easy to implement.

37

That is a GREAT IDEA! It seems, at least, for me that other than Birds, it can take years for some observations to be given an ID to Research Grade! Thank you!

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38

What’s wrong with the link?

39

It’s so funny that this was posted today, because I wrote down the names of some users who, if their observations were brought to RG, could make a difference in the CV.

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40

I personally would LOVE it, if it happened to my project. [Link removed by moderator] Perhaps rather than individual it could be done on a regional based project basis?

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41

Dozens, maybe hundreds, of people have piled onto the link with identifications and/or more or less humorous comments. Therefore, that observation (the observation of Gerald himself, or herself, or . . . ) can take forever to load on your computer.

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42

I wish there was a way to flag (in a good way) such accounts. Some people take excellent photographs of rare things and they end up lost in the flood of general observations. All it would take is to be featured for a day.

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43

Here in New England, we’ve had good luck with an annual weekend focused on IDing Needs ID plants in the region. I think starting a local project aimed at IDing your group of choice and mentioning top IDers and observers of the group in a journal post would probably help make good progress on identifications. Here’s a link to our first such project.

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44

The ones Lynn has organized are fun, and I’ve learned a lot from each one because we are focused on a geographic subset of the world’s flora. If I pick Rosales and someone else narrows, I get a tiny bit smarter.

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