Names vs Anonymous
Recently attended the Ohio Amphibians conference (2016), and one talk was on whether platforms like iNaturalist were actually useful to scientific research. Overall, the research indicated that it was, but only if the data was accompanied by specified locales (they wanted GPS coordinates, to pinpoint township, which iNaturalist does offer), a verifiable photograph (or sound, I presume), and especially by the "collector's" name. In other words, they tossed all data where the collector was anonymous. So, if you have your profile set as anonymous , not showing your name, just be aware that your data may not be usable in scientific research, no matter how interesting the sighting is.
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Interesting. There isn't any real way to post anonymous data on here except that some people go by a pseudonym. is that what they meant?
Yeah, people not using their real names, I suppose. I realize there's a privacy issue, but maybe there's a way iNaturalist could keep names private if requested, but still have those available for researchers requesting data.
you could put in a feature request on the google groups (link is at bottom of page) and see if others would be interested. or you could just message anonymous people to ask for info. I'd never heard of scientists not using data for this reason, but seems like it could be an issue in some cases.
They were accessioning the data into a museum for further use, apparently (in this case, they're trying to get more data for the upcoming reptiles of Ohio book). I suppose they could ask someone directly if there's a particularly interesting report, but overall it just seems to be a good idea to include a real name when possible to accounts.
there are a lot of really good reasons to contribute data without giving a real name. None of them apply to me, so I did share my real name, but I would not be in support of trying to mandate it on the site ever. There was a big struggle about that on Google Plus and it's part of why the site failed.
I've never really had any problemsh using my real name on social networks, but I have noticed that alot of my female friends don't use their full names on Facebook. I think I know why too. sigh... the internet is the internet.
yeah... lots of things like that :(
I think "credibility" is an issue with any database... As I worked in the herbarium and looked at lots and lots of plant collections, there were both specimens collected by amateurs and by professional botanists. Though it was less likely, the professionals did make errors in ID and in geographic location (label data was incorrect).
If it's range maps that are being updated, I think using a citizen science network like this with photo evidence is wonderful -- and the trend of the future. :). It's a bright future, indeed!
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