A common issue brought up on the forum is an observation which looks like it meets the criteria for a certain data quality grade (i.e. Casual, Needs ID, or Research Grade), but iNaturalist does not label the observation as having that grade. While this is sometimes caused by a software bug, it is us…

I have recently joined iNaturalist and have been adding my Lepidoptera sightings made over this last summer, plus those in my collection I started 50 years ago. I thought I understood how observations get to “Research Grade” but I have one observation that perplexes me. Thus, I would like to ask tha…

there is a disagreement at Tribe level, Acleris is not in Archipini

OK. I see that in my original post plus the fact that I used the Machine ID for the moth to get Archipini as the tribe. So how do we get agreement that the tribe should be Acleris?

if you have the knowledge, add a new ID and your first will be withdrawn automatically. if you want to defer to the other IDs and not add your own, you can withdraw yours manually [withdrawid]

Thanks for your help. I have now withdrawn my original classification and it has now changed to “Research Grade”. When I entered this observation, which was my first, it was done as three separate observations (66346364, 66346365 & 66346366), so how do I consolidate multiple posting of this same mo…

[image] one72guy: When I entered this observation, which was my first, it was done as three separate observations (66346364, 66346365 & 66346366), so how do I consolidate multiple posting of this same moth without losing the comments, photos & id agreements? There isn’t a way to do so without…

OK what’s up with this observation ? It was S. daulensis RG, but changing the DQA made it show up as S. brasiliensis gabbi. Yet, that ID is somehow maverick, the community taxon is still S. daulensis RG (an inactive taxon) and the observation ID is S. brasiliensis gabbi RG![Screen Shot 2021-02-04 at …

In addition to being inactive, S. daulensis is also ungrafted, and iNat does weird things with the OID/CID when there are ungrafted taxa involved, see https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/ungrafted-taxon-as-observation-taxon/14398 .

For these observations the user does not appear to have opted out of the community ID, yet the observation is still labeled as “Needs ID”. Unsure what’s going on here. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2549785 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3106659

The observers checked the box “yes” in the Data Quality Assessment section asking if the community ID can be improved.

Why is this Observation Casual/Needs ID/Research Grade? - "Official" Topic

General

bouteloua January 3, 2021, 6:41pm 81

There isn’t a way to do so without losing the IDs and comments on the duplicate observations. Here are general instructions for “merging” observations: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-turn-multiple-observations-into-a-single-observation/9838

Topic		Replies	Views
Require 2 "No" votes in Can the Community Taxon still be confirmed or improved? to turn an observation casual. Feature Requests	32	1426	July 30, 2020
Research Grade with only one ID at that rank Bug Reports	123	5092	January 15, 2026
Users are (understandably) saying they "disagree" General	60	1407	July 23, 2026
Why does "Based on the evidence, can the Community Taxon still be confirmed or improved?" exist on the Data Quality Assessment? General question	25	739	January 2, 2025
Why are Two agreeing IDs (and no disagreeing IDs) needed to achieve research grade? General question	49	1309	February 3, 2025

Why is this Observation Casual/Needs ID/Research Grade? - "Official" Topic

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