could you explain that? you leave that in comment? I haven’t heard this to be honest and I did not know there was such an issue with subspecies
Yeah I know mushrooms can be tricky like that, though I’ve had this happen on things like insect observations too. Thank you by the way, looks like you have some really pretty photos yourself!
insects are really hard on photos mostly, harder than mushrooms tbh overall.
Gah so many of the ones I deal with, literally need dissection to get to species, sometimes even genus!
So don’t be despaired by things sitting at a higher level. It just happens for lot of things but it means you’re doing good science rather than sloppy :) People agreeing at higher levels are just going 'yup, that’s right"! Some time in the distance future maybe a specialist will come along who can get it from the photos. Sometimes even years later there are plenty of stories where that occured! It can be a patience game for sure.
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Yeah I’ve been on iNat for about a year and a half or so now and I’ve gotten used to observations sitting at higher levels. I’ve made plenty of observations like that which are impossible to get to species-level and I don’t mind it too much. I just prefer when people at least tell me when that’s the case so I can mark it as being “as good as it can be” and get it to research grade, and maybe find out what I should include in observations going forward to get an ID if possible.
For example, I found a moth last summer that could only be identified to species via dissection or a photo of its underside, but I had only photographed it from the top down. A few months ago when I saw a similar one I was able to get a photo of the other side and get it to species. It was so satisfying to finally get an ID that time instead of being left wondering!
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Because this user can’t id it further, can be it’s not idable at all, or only they can’t id it, but that’s it.
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I cant speak for all, but
-if I think it cant move further I say so.
-If I am certain it cannot move further I check as good as it gets and leave of course explanation and say I did such.
-If i just match a higher level ID and leave no note; its because I think the right person could move it on and I have zero notion of anything to recommend.
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Oh and sorry about the moth. Grape leafroller/folder complex? Yeah i noticed going through backlog there are a ton of downvotes wo explanation. I think I was bad about some those putting an explanation too. Sorry! Theres one IDer of them who was a little rude - they dqa’d mine even with notes that I visually saw the underside but it moved before I could get a photo, and then proceeded to argue with me that as it wasnt photographed and my word isnt good enough because it doesn’t count as evidence without proof - even when i re-stated such thusly in reply comment and pasted in iNat policy. 
i noticed other month that all their IDs on my observations are gone so either they covered their trail and deleted their rudeness or they left the site or…?? 
i work thru Alabama a lot so feel free to tag me. If i dont have the answer i may know someone who does!
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Yes it was that complex actually! That sucks that you had to deal with that, I’m sorry :( Thankfully the guy who helped me with my observation was kind enough to explain it to me.
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If you remember their name maybe you can look it up, if you left comments and tagged them, there must be their name.
Hmm…good idea, and nope no user exists by their name anymore!
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If an observation is identified above species level (genus, for instance), and then someone identifies it to subspecies, it will remain at the higher level identification (that is, the genus or whatever) until someone supports the subspecies, either by agreeing with it or by providing a species level ID.
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The way iNat deals with ssp or var is maddening. @sunguramy
First ID Plantae = Plantae
Second ID species = Species and needs ID still
Third ID species = tick tick tick Research Grade.
But if that second ID dares to use ssp or var = iNat sneers Plantae!
Third ID insists on ssp / var = iNat leaps straight to Research Grade at ssp/var.
There. Is. NO. Needs ID for ssp/var. That is a logic fail.
Not even for species - why not??
So - even if I can’t take the ID past species to ssp / var
… I do, with a comment supporting ssp/var
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ah ok, yeah that logic seems flawed.
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As written somewhere else, I am much more concerned for those cases in which an observation receives many wrong IDs so that it becomes very difficult to be overthrown.
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It is really seldom that it will become so difficult. I am active in the spider realm which does not have too many IDers and still I am able to find (and tag) enough IDers that can help me push a wrong ID back in most cases (so far in all cases actually).
I feel these worries are rather hypothetical. I know, sometimes it will take more effort… but it will work out in the end, if the disagreement is justified enough.
And even if it does not in the one occasional case (I yet have to encounter this one)… so what? It´s an outlier
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Not in marine life. Marine life, you can have an even split between bryozoans, sponges, and coralline algae.
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For birds that is normal. All the new iders are ready to jump into iding birds. Correct or not there’ll be many ids.
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I tend to only agree with genus if it’s a hard-to-ID to species-level observation so that observer gets some indication they are right, rather than left wondering if it’s even remotely right.
A good example are prickly-pear cacti: Opuntia. There are some that can be IDed easily to species, but most just stay stuck at genus. Some discussion in: Good Field Guides for Opuntia
Otherwise, I think some folks agree to just genus for practice/fun? One downside with this, at least on the android app, is that if something is IDed to species and an identifier suggests the genus, it doesn’t show whether it’s disagreement with species or certainty about genus.
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Observers like me really appreciate that.
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Ditto.
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