What makes a sighting casual and other related questions?

[tiwane]

@birdwhisperer

If I take a pic of a little maple growing in the median of Wal-Mart’s parking lot, is it not going to be research graded?

I suppose my question would be, does it matter if the observation obtains Research Grade? Research Grade is not an award (although it does look like one, so I understand, and the term itself is problematic - which has been discussed elsewhere), it’s simply a label that is applied to an observation when it meets certain criteria.

If an observation reaches RG status, that’s great, but in my opinion it shouldn’t be the main goal of posting an observation to iNat. Post observations that interest you, that excite you, that you want to share and talk about with others. Mark them appropriately to the best of your abilities, and understand that iNat’s focus (and thus the community’s likely focus) is on wild organisms.

@kiwifergus

If you aren’t happy with what someone has put on your observation, particularly with regards to DQAs and IDs, then the best course of action is to start a dialog with them! They will either explain their reasons, or will realise yours and change their DQA/ID. I call these situations “learning opportunities”… it’s just a question of who will be doing the learning :)

I can’t stress this enough. iNat is a community first, so talk to other people about their reasoning rather than assume (although assume good intentions, of course). People often have a good reason or have made a mistake and are happy to correct it. Remember, iNat is a community first and foremost. I like to think about every observation as the start of a discussion, and the IDs and comments further that discussion.

@cazort

It’s not expanded in the documentation with extensive examples about how to handle border cases (what if people plant seeds but the seeds germinate on their own? what if a plant comes up on its own but you transplant it a short distance? what if you casually throw down seeds but don’t actually plant them, and they then germinate and get established?)

I’m not convinced adding a bunch of edge cases to the FAQ (which, I agree, is a bit hard to find) will help things. In the end, those cases will be always judgement calls and I think having a discussion about the particular case on the observation would be best. And in the end, anyone who wants to use the data can make their own judgement or reach out to the observer. It’s never going to be perfect, especially on a platform that, as Charlie says, covers the gamut of amateur to expert around the world.