wolfram06's Journal

EDIT 5/19/2022 The problem is solved

Is there any way for me to see some kind of list of species sorted by how many of them ive ID'd? When I look at my ID's theres this stats box but it seems kinda pointless for it to only tell me how many ID's ive made for others, like... yeah, the numbers also right there on my profile. Like it implies that species I ID for myself are somehow the same as ones I ID for others instead of that just being what I mark a species as?

What I'm trying to say is I want the ID stats to be a list or grid that shows the different species ive ID'd sorted by how many of them I've ID'd like the species list for my observations. For example, I know I've ID'd several White-lined sphinx moths, but I dont know how many. And yes, I do know that on a specie's profile there is a list of identifiers but considering the fact that the White-lined sphinx has 2.6K identifiers why cant I just skip past spending forever scrolling to try and find my rank when it could just be on my profile? I feel like this should already have been a feature to begin with. If it is, it isn't easy to find.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I think observations should need more supporting ID's than 1 to become research grade. I know we all like it when we get a RG but I feel like only needing at least 1 other person to ID a species makes it too easy for misidentified species to become RG. Say an example being someone posts a picture of a Common Tiger Butterfly and ID's it as a Monarch, then someone else sees it and thinks it looks like a Monarch and ID's it as such without knowing? If/when these observations are used for research do these misidentified ID's can somehow be overwritten and corrected by researchers or iNat staff?
If this isn't already a feature I think there should be a ranking system in the iNat algorithm that sorts taxa by how well they're known/how easy they are to ID based off of how many observations they have or if they're just common enough. Taxa with less observations should take more supporting ID's to become RG so this doesn't mess with data of species that may be endangered.

Does anyone else get annoyed by how many observations are marked as "unknown species"? I will make exceptions for audio only observations, but theres 2.3 million observations with pictures that are left blank. I think it's weird because not only does iNat have an algorithm designed to ID species but these posts are like of a mushroom or something and OP doesnt even mark it as a Fungi they just go "I have no idea what this is!", either that or they're being lazy? Or pictures of everyday animals like deer or pigeons and people are still like "I've never seen this in my life.". Doing the math its only about 1% of all of the observations uploaded but its still kinda weird how many people dont even at least ID their observations as an animal, plant, fungi etc., like it's not that hard.

Maybe this is just me taking things too seriously idk.

Ive had two moths fly away on me in a row before I could get them on camera, I feel like such an idiot. I just want to enjoy my day and now I'm mad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE7LnfD9eno&list=LL&index=111
That feeling when you spend 30 minutes outside and film one Xanthorhoe Defensaria, two Garlic snails,
2 European Earwigs, one Brown Lacewing fly and one Clay colored weevil. Then your phone dies and you loose the video.
I went to bed at 2AM, woke up at 8AM, I vacuumed the car, walked several dogs, pulled rotting pine needles out of my gutter, put moss killer on my roof, and hand cleaned 4 floor mats, and didnt eat dinner until 10PM and this is the ending to my day I get?

I would have posted at 4:20 but I was at the dentist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUNt2fUTY2c&list=PLv-kM7bcufALNtKameyNkmxvBCoGkebOL

Plus I saw some beautiful butterflies :)

Why do we call them butterflies? Supposedly the name comes from the yellow coloration of the wings of many butterflies, or their butter like poop, or even the myth that they're actually witches that steal butter.
Regardless, why dont we call them flutterbees? I like to refer to them as flutterbees, it just makes more sense. They flutter when they fly, and they're well known pollinators like bees. Calling them flutterbees makes just as much if not more sense than calling them butterflies, yet I see no one doing this. Why didnt we just call them papilionoids or papillons before the dog breed was invented?? I wish more people called them flutterbees.

If this isn't already a feature iNaturalist should add a feature where when comparing images while IDing an observation you can overlay the two images onto each other and adjust their opacity. If this is already a feature, where is it?

I think it would be fun if iNat had achievements you could earn, and different levels and medals/badges that would appear on your profile.
For example:
If you correctly ID 100 different things you earn a "level 1 Identifier" achievement, then you get "Level 2 Identifier" after you correctly ID 200 different things ETC.
You get an achievement for observing a certain amount of a species category such as insects, mammals, fish ETC.
Profile badges could be earned based off of how many achievements you complete, as well as receiving badges based off of how many years old your iNat account is.
I think adding achievements and badges to iNat would make the app more fun to use and encourage people to go out and observe. I already think of iNat as a game like Pokémon Go where instead of catching Pokémon you collect observations so this would make sense IMO.

Maybe iNat could even add minigames where you are shown a picture of a plant/animal/fungi and have to guess what it is from 3 different options based off of a picture. Or a minigame where you name what plant/animal/fungi you see from 3 different answers. I would enjoy playing a game like "Whats that Lep? Saturniidae, Sphingidae, or Erebidae?".