# Why do we have observations of "Human"? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [June 27, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807 "2020-06-27T17:02:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![simono](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/simono/32/5896_2.png) [@simono](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/simono)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/42 "2020-06-30T05:00:45Z")
There might be reason to ID an observation as ‘Human’ if it was a trace observation that was mistakenly thought to be caused by a different organism by the uploader; I can recall one observation where dollops of paint on a fence post was mistaken for a slime mold. I’ve also found and ID’ed an ‘Unknown’ record as Human as the observation was of a stone tool in an archaeological site. It would make sense to delete it, but at the same time, I see also the benefit of logging the presence of humans at that site when studying the past. ---
**Author:** ![botanicaltreasures](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/botanicaltreasures/32/6537_2.png) [@botanicaltreasures](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/botanicaltreasures)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/43 "2020-06-30T13:01:12Z")
This discussion demonstrates that iNaturalist is in a category by itself. Is it a social media site where one can share an interest in nature and have fun? Yes. Is it a database for serious science? Yes. iNat is as strange as a mammal that lays eggs. My experience here varies. Sometimes I’m reminded of the “otherness” of others. It can feel like rejection, but it is not all about me. There’s a whole world out there waiting to be identified :) ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/44 "2020-06-30T20:39:46Z")
I appreciate the forum, when the heated discussions remain friendly. If we can listen to each other, we find different ways of using iNat. What works for me, doesn’t work for you, because … and vice versa. But I may discover a quicker, better way to achieve something which is clunky for me now. At very least I understand why _what I don’t use and NEVER look at_ does in fact have particular value for someone else. Social media (and iNat is ‘sciency’ SM) is different for each person here. ---
**Author:** ![vilnoori](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/vilnoori/32/9823_2.png) [@vilnoori](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/vilnoori)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/45 "2020-07-01T16:45:27Z")
I am also concerned about the posting of young kids with exact times and locations, which makes them vulnerable to pedophiles. We should require that location on those posts is very general, or hidden. ---
**Author:** ![bouteloua](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/bouteloua/32/1180_2.png) [@bouteloua](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/bouteloua)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/46 "2020-07-01T18:09:32Z")
There’s an open feature request for that here: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/automatically-obscure-observations-marked-as-human/501](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/automatically-obscure-observations-marked-as-human/501) with, surprisingly, 0 votes. ---
**Author:** ![jasonhernandez74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jasonhernandez74/32/33615_2.png) [@jasonhernandez74](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jasonhernandez74)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/47 "2020-07-02T19:54:39Z")
> Nature-related crafts like your garden bench or my dragonfly mosaic can encourage others to pause, observe, and value nearby plants and animals more. Perhaps, but they do not count as evidence of an organism. I saw this recently as I was providing identifications: a quite good drawing of Oregongrape (Genus _Berberis_ or _Mahonia_ depending on how you delineate genera); but it was tagged “human” because we have no way to know whether there was actually Oregongrape present at the time and place the drawing was made. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/48 "2020-07-02T20:22:12Z")
They do that IRL, uploading them as observations makes nothing of listed things, we already have real, living things on the website to encourage people, how would they “stop and observe” while checking human observations on iNat? ---
**Author:** ![DianaStuder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/dianastuder/32/43358_2.png) [@DianaStuder](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DianaStuder)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/49 "2020-07-02T21:20:02Z")
but, some species, have botanical drawings for their taxon photo. That also is merely a drawing and not evidence of life. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/50 "2020-07-02T21:45:35Z")
Illustrations and sketches can be an evidence of the specimen and shouldn’t be ided as human, that’s the site policy. ---
**Author:** ![botanicaltreasures](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/botanicaltreasures/32/6537_2.png) [@botanicaltreasures](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/botanicaltreasures)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/51 "2020-07-03T01:39:11Z")
Evidence of a human—not an animal track, but a human track. I set up a flood plain project on iNat to record a tiny local park my local garden club cares for. It made sense to include photos of the signage I made for the pollinator garden there in that project. As for the dragonfly mosaic in my front yard, it is my way to say bugs are beautiful to my neighbors who are mostly bug phobic. Also I thought my iNat friends would like to see it (perhaps not!) 3 human observations out of 3000 or so nature observations is hardly excessive. ---
**Author:** ![botanicaltreasures](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/botanicaltreasures/32/6537_2.png) [@botanicaltreasures](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/botanicaltreasures)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/52 "2020-07-03T01:52:42Z")
Probably my signage and mosaic will benefit my neighbors most, but if one “cabin bound” fellow iNatter decides to do likewise for his or her yard or nature spot so be it! 🌼🐝 ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 2:24am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/53 "2020-07-03T02:24:30Z")
I believe we may need a forum thread about sharing such things. ---
**Author:** ![Star3](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/star3/32/73028_2.png) [@Star3](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/Star3)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/54 "2020-07-03T18:02:34Z")
> [@jasonhernandez74](#): > > Perhaps, but they do not count as evidence of an organism. I would agree if @botanicaltreasures had IDed their craft as pollinators or dragonflies, but he or she IDed them as Human, so they do count as evidence of human organisms. 🙂 > [@jasonhernandez74](#): > > I saw this recently as I was providing identifications: a quite good drawing of Oregongrape (Genus _Berberis_ or _Mahonia_ depending on how you delineate genera); but it was tagged “human” because we have no way to know whether there was actually Oregongrape present at the time and place the drawing was made. As @marina_gorbunova already pointed out, that’s a mistaken ID. [The curator guide even specifically states that they are allowed](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide). For anyone who wants to see examples, there is also at least one a project for them: [https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nature-drawing-and-journaling](https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nature-drawing-and-journaling) And the reasoning is spurious. Generally speaking, we also “have no way to know whether” **most** observations’ location or date is correct: EXIF data can be altered, landmarks in the background could have been photoshopped in, etc. There is an element of the honor system to iNat. ---
**Author:** ![Star3](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/star3/32/73028_2.png) [@Star3](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/Star3)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/55 "2020-07-03T18:09:52Z")
> [@botanicaltreasures](#): > > 3 human observations out of 3000 or so nature observations is hardly excessive. That’s a good point re: volume. [The curator guide does specifically mention keeping it under 25% of your observations:](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#spam) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/c/c19e67d6342e0e286bd70b3c1a5e79c2ea05cca2.png) ---
**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/56 "2020-07-06T19:40:38Z")
> [@oxalismtp](#): > > I have also seen it used to log examples of garbage left behind at a site. That data could be used to improve outreach or policies at a particular park or site in order to help reduce such incidents. So long as it is marked as Human, and ideally, a note is made to indicate why they are posting it, that seems a reasonable use of iNat. Please [don’t use iNaturalist for this purpose](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#nonorganisms), at least not regularly. There are other apps/platforms designed for this, like [https://www.litterati.org/](https://www.litterati.org/) and [http://marinedebris.engr.uga.edu/](http://marinedebris.engr.uga.edu/) > [@calebcam](#): > > We have a _lot_ of data about humans. We have over 40,000 observations now - the CIA might be interested. Maybe we should start obscuring Humans until they pay us :-) Theoretically, all observations on iNaturalist (aside from trail cams and some other exceptions) are observations of humans as well. So there’s a lot more than 40k. ;-) ---
**Author:** ![connlindajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@connlindajo](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/connlindajo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/57 "2020-07-11T19:20:13Z")
[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2372054](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2372054) is an observation that has risen several times as it did recently and is always a joy to see. Great memory. Chuck’s stat reports are awesome. And as Sam has said, iNat is a community. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-we-have-observations-of-human/13807/58 "2020-09-09T19:20:16Z")
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