This is a much better explanation than mine… I used the wrong word. It’s circle of accuracy not circle of obscuration.
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Users can create any place boundaries that they wish. For very small places, creating larger boundaries that give a buffer around the place border is reasonably common practice. I don’t know of any official guidelines that prohibit this. Places aren’t really exported for data so I don’t think that there’s any issue with “inaccuracy” - user created places are just that - a place created by a user for their purposes. So if iNat users are using another user’s places for something that matters to them, they should check that the place boundaries meet their purpose.
Not all places are user created though - there are also standard places (generally from GADM) that should be pretty accurate, though they aren’t always perfect (may not be incredibly detailed, may not be 100% current)
I suppose if there were a place that were intentionally deceptive for some reason, that could be flagged, but I’ve never personally seen someone create an intentionally deceptive place for trolling or similar.
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Really helpful. Thx.
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Thanks for explaining this - so for a small project like this a circular defined area centred on the middle of the church grounds may work better so that members aim their location circle into that? I appreciate that this would give slightly skewed results but it would be easier for group use and the results would work for their purposes. This would work when the location is added manually. Can I ask if the location/circle of accuracy is extracted automatically from the metadata of an image (as the date/time is) if users have location enabled devices? As this may cause problems
I think this may work - I’ll look into it
How the accuracy field is set depends on how the observation is added. If it is from a device that generates an accuracy value and adds it to metadata (like many phones), then it will be imported to iNat. If there is no accuracy in the metadata, it will be set manually by the user when they upload it either by adjusting the circle on the map or by editing the numeric value.
Ah, that makes sense. So there is no way to override the phones accuracy meta data by selecting the pinned location from the phone that was defined on a laptop?
I’m not sure how pinned locations work/don’t work across devices (not much of an app user). On the apps, I think (but am not sure) that users adjust the accuracy via zooming and setting the circle size graphically. It is always possible to edit the accuracy value directly after posting the observation though (at least on the web) by just typing a new value in (which then changes the circle size on the map).
I would note that if the location (ie, center of the circle) is moved, then any device-recorded accuracy value shouldn’t be used - it’s only applicable to the location detected by the device.
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Pinned locations override any location data iNat might have gotten from the photo, so if you use one, whatever accuracy circle is associated with that pin will be used.
Pinned locations should be user-specific, not device specific. I have one that I use regularly and I’ve never had trouble selecting it from either my laptop or my android phone.
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I haven’t been able to select any of my pins from the iphone app… but it could be user error. I just re-adjust the circle when using the phone. Most of my obs are uploaded from laptop so it doesn’t affect me too much.
Ah. It may be one of those differences between the android and iphone apps. I haven’t used the latter.
One of those things where it would be simpler to problem-solve if we had the new app that the programmers have been working on…
I was a systems analyst during the flip phone era. I can’t imagine how hard it is now… to consider human factors across multiple devices. It may sound ridiculous to say this… but hopefully they take their time.
The interfaces with iNat that I can see on the website via my Windows PC and the app on my iPad are certainly completely different - and so I’m guessing they will be for any other devices. And it looks a like one solution will not fit all. I’ll keep on recording though and try a few options.
Everyone has been very helpful thanks.
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