2021 Jan-Feb ID-a-thon's Journal

Do you have a favorite taxon? And you want to be sure to find every observation which might be that taxon?

Or maybe you can think of a taxon people are constantly miss-identifying? (Ugh.)

Introducing your new favorite tricks:
&ident_taxon_id=
and
&without_taxon_id=

How to use them? I'll give an example.

1. Go to identify and type in a taxon. Add any of your preferred settings and hit go. For this example I'll be using Asparagus setaceus, searching for both "needs ID" and "casual"
   https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&taxon_id=75604&photos=true&place_id=any

2. Look at the URL of the page. Find the bit that says "&taxon_id=[number]" and carefully type in additional characters so that it instead reads "&ident_taxon_id=[number]" Now hit enter.
   https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&ident_taxon_id=75604&photos=true&place_id=any
   Assuming you didn't make any typos, you should now be seeing more observations than before.* The new ones are observations where a disagreement has occurred, but at least one person thinks the observation belongs in the taxon you're searching.

3. If you want to look at only observations where there is disagreement, alter the URL again to add an additional component, "&without_taxon_id=[yourtaxonnumberhere]" I find it easiest to add it to the end so that I am sure not to mess up anything in the middle. You should have just produced a URL containing both &ident_taxon_id=[number] and &without_taxon_id=[samenumber]
   https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&ident_taxon_id=75604&photos=true&place_id=any&without_taxon_id=75604

Neat! If you really want to dive into search URL tips and tricks, check out the forum guide: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-use-inaturalists-search-urls-wiki/63

This method also works great when tackling taxa from the list of Computer Vision Clean-Up: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/computer-vision-clean-up-wiki/7281

*Assuming observations with disagreements exist

the Resources post has been considerably expanded.

yet to be added:
Identify links
links to Forum (etiquette etc)

please let me know what else you think should be added.

at least one person was accidentally dropped from the participant list. please check the master list to make sure your name is there!

Hi everyone!

It's been a great first week (plus two days). Remember, slow and steady -- this is a marathon, not a race. Take breaks, drink plenty of water, and stand up and stretch periodically. You can do it!

First of all, Total% ... what have we done together, in this short span of time?
69 people have made a total of 35842 IDs!

Improve%

1st @natashataylor , 208%
2nd @zdanko, 172%
3rd @amujcinovic , 150%
4th @troisha , 146%

10th @murphyslab , 117.4%
20th @ddubois2 , 105.8%
30th @ellendale , 101.849%

40th 100.71%
50th 100.37%
60th 100.07%

If you are one of the top 4 in this category, you win the right to tag me (trh_blue) as many times as you want in the next 24 hours and I won't complain. Congrats.

To see complete improve% rankings for this week (and each week) sorted by username go here.

I am still working on up-to-date trackers.

And now, the grand reveal... what is Mystery% this week??
Most withdrawn IDs
It's part of the learning process. I'm proud of you!

1st @zdanko, 144
2nd @philodendronjoe , 47
3rd @oxalismtp, 32
4th @alex_abair, 31

And to all of you, thank you for taking part! Seven more weeks to go!

The hint for next week's Mystery% is:
the beetles

Question for all of you: do you think mystery% should also have prizes?

Hi all.

I'll be adding new links to Resources over the weekend, including an ongoing count of your IDs this year (sorted by date you joined iNat), useful Identify links, and more.

There are also some new answers in the FAQ.

The final category will be "old%", the greatest number of IDs on observations more than five years old -- ie, uploaded up to the last day of 2015.

Results and rankings for week one (Jan 1-9) will be posted on Sunday.

Stay safe
Blue

This list will be updated with Identify links, places to check your progress, info on workshops, and more.

People
Master List of participants
Blue's profile -- main admin
Amy's profile -- co-admin
Even's profile -- co-admin
@radak's profile -- programmer

Identification Guides
slideshow: Identifying Unknowns for Beginners
iNat Getting Started guide
True Flies of the United States -- moderate challenge level

Rankings/Stats

weekly full rankings -- all categories
this is updated manually, if something is missing let me know

How many IDs did I have before the competition started? (takes a minute to load)

tool created by @pisum (thanks)

Q: How will my identifications be counted?
A: automatically! with help from the iNat API.
The project does not count your IDs, it's just for information and journal posts.

Q: why are the project's observations your cat?
A: the purpose of the project is for you to get journals relevant to the project. the observations within it are irrelevant, so I chose my cat because I adore him and why not share his fluffy majesty?

Q: who are the admins?
A: @trh_blue is the main person coordinating this effort, but feel free to send questions to @arboretum_amy as well. @edanko is also helping, but is rather busy ;)

Q: can you give me a hat/stickers/etc if I win?
A: I'm already volunteering a lot of time to this I'm not spending money lmao

Q: can you help me learn more about identifying?
A: yes! check the Forum for information on ID workshops, or you can send me a message.

Q: why did you choose not to use the project to count IDs?
A: There are a few reasons I didn't make the project's observations the ones you'd identify for the competition.
One, there are multiple categories, so I'd have to make several projects, splitting attention. Two, the project cannot differentiate the date IDs were added, only the observation date. Three, I don't want to put focus on volume of IDs, rather on individual self-improvement and collaboration, and having a leaderboard where people are ranked by number of IDs is counter to that ethos.

last updated 9am EST Jan 3 2020

Blue

Hi. I'll be adding an additional category, starting on the second week of the competition.
These are not for mystery%, it will be a regular weekly category.

The approved potential categories are:

greatest % improving IDs at Kingdom/Phylum (rough approximation of your Unknowns activity)

most IDs on obs more than five years old

most IDs of taxa listed on the Forum as needing help to retrain Computer Vision

highest % leading IDs

highest % improving IDs

and you may also suggest a main category, mystery% category, or prize.

You can vote using this form.
Voting starts now and ends Jan. 8th.

I apologise for the delay, I was feeling unwell. Doing much better now :)

Blue

Hello everyone!
The competition begins tomorrow. Remember, this is a marathon and not a race; the most important thing is to build up a daily habit, to have fun, and to learn along the way.

Rules were posted in the project journal.
Next post, coming soon, will include a link to vote on an additional category.
Links for relevant Identify pages / an explanation of the filters you can use to ensure your IDs will count towards your total will come later in a Helpful Resources journal post.

The first "week" will be from January 1st to January 9th inclusive, with results posted the following day (Sunday). Thereafter updates should be each Sunday.
That post will also include a link where you can see your "starting positions" for the primary competitive category, improve%.

Your hint for this week's mystery% is:
fail faster

ready, set, go :)

Blue

Eligibility:

• Participation is limited to 100 users.
• Each user must have already made at least 100 identifications before the start date of January 1st 2021.

Qualifying identifications:

• Identifications must be made January 1st 2021 though February 28th 2021, inclusive.
• IDs must be made on observations uploaded before October 1st, 2020. Your own observations do not count--we are making IDs for others.
• IDs do not have to be to species! Any new ID from Kingdom down is good.
• IDs will be tallied in specific categories. Everyone who enters will be in all categories simultaneously. There will be a separate count and separate rankings for each category. In addition to an overall winner, there will also be weekly progress updates counting progress from that week. You can win any or all categories for any given week or overall. Since each category is different, the counting method may differ for each one.
• I will have a link available in a later Journal post, with a custom Identify URL for each category, or you can just do your usual thing and see what happens.
• If you really need to know exactly how I'm counting, I can share the link to the relevant API query.

What are the categories?
note: category names are written "category-name"% in reference to the titling of videogame speedrunning categories. Not all of them are an actual percentage.

• improve%: how many new IDs have you added in proportion to when you started? For example if you started at 253, and now you have 279, your score would be 279/253*100 = 110%
• total%: how many new IDs have we been able to do together? This category has no single "winner."
• mystery%: a surprise category that will change every week. It will usually be something silly. The topic of the mystery category will be hinted at at the start of the week, usually in the latest Rankings post, and revealed at the end of the week when results are posted.
• additional category -- to be determined by vote (voting will start Dec. 29th and end Jan. 8th)

Participation rules:

• If I think you’re trying to rig the system by e.g. just hitting Agree on RG birds 10,000 times (why would you even?) I’ll send you one and only one warning before booting you from the list of participants.
• No spamming or harassment of any kind will be tolerated, including but not limited to comments made on forum threads, project journal posts, observations, or in direct user-to-user communications.
  
• No wagering

If you have extra questions about the rules, leave a comment and I (Blue, trh_blue) or one of my co-admins (arboretum_amy or edanko) will answer and update the rules.

And finally:
Be nice, and try to have fun!