Where do we share how to ID species?

[escol]

I think wikipedia uses open access software that we could copy? Do we have enough tech-savvy iNat volunteers that we could find a group qualified to set it up?

Wikipedia uses MediaWiki (free software), basically the backbone behind it.

Have people tried doing this in the past?

Apparently yes, with the “Species-ID”. They seem to use the same technology, which is a variation of MediaWiki, you may see it here at the bottom (“Powered by MediaWiki”, etc.). However, the project seems to have simply died, not clear why.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160527031232/http://species-id.net/wiki/

How hard would this be to make and what are the obstacles?

I’m pretty sure there is a tutorial on how to set it up, so given enough time it may be straightforward.
In terms of obstacles:

• Need to consider the possible cost of hosting the site
• May need to learn how to use such software and set it up further
• Need to consider how extensible the wiki should be (are there specific tools within MediaWiki?) - although if we simply need to host separate articles, it should do…

It would be great or much better to have this integrated into iNat itself, otherwise there will be less people contributing an even knowing about such resource. Also iNat having custom software can make it fit better within the system and for the specific need of “Identification guide / wiki”

@edanko

If so, does anyone else want to try something new on our own? I don’t understand why we’d wait for iNaturalist to do it themselves, or why it’s important for it to be part of iNaturalist. (If it works well it could eventually be added to about pages as the main article, just like wikipedia already is, for example)

I have a lasting impression that iNat is extremely slow on implementing what users ask for, some requests even get dismissed for years.
Even something extremely important like this:

(reveal, slightly off-topic)

@thebeachcomber

I strongly believe that the current account deletion functionality needs to be improved ASAP, because the only option right now is scorched earth: if a user wants to delete their account, it deletes literally everything without a trace, with no other options. This is a terrible [non]choice.

I would say instead “removed ASAP”, until they get to implement it the correct way…

Staff said: “Anonymization option(s) is something we want to do, but as to when it would potentially be available I don’t know.”

But:

@thebeachcomber

it’s frightening to me how many more account deletions will happen before new features are implemented to address it

Some features like this must have critical priority over the whatever else non-essential feature that “may” help users, if it works out at all… (e.g. the genAI idea, it’s just a test demo)

I think what would help greatly at least is having a public feature roadmap, it will be much clearer if they are busy with some priority feature but still plan to implement X, let’s say 1 year from now on.
There have been features that were looked at by staff, but then no clear response followed.

Of course wiki itself doesn’t have to be a part of iNat, but then this will probably have much less support from community, will be harder to maintain and integrate within iNat (if they would even consider adding this community site to “About” pages)