Something like "fewer than five all-time reports for Oregon" would be helpful.
The fact that it doesn't match what the OBRC has would not matter in this
context.
Alan Contreras
Eugene, Oregon
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 30, 2016, at 1:39 PM, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx> wrote:POST: Send your post to obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pam & all,
Yes, the old "off by one" error could explain some number of incorrect
reports involving species that are on the list of expected species for
the place and time of year.
But so far as I understand, in order to add a completely out-of-range
bird like Gilded Flicker on eBird, you need to explicitly type in a
species name (at least on the main web interface, mobile-device
interfaces may be a different story).
If you do that, you get a screen that looks like this (see attached)
with a bland warning that:
"The species is rare for this date and location; please add comments and
check 'Complete.'
The problem is that the system doesn't give new birders any hint of just
*how* unusual a bird like this would be, or suggest alternatives that
are more expected.
Some ways to improve the system would be:
1) use information that's already stored in eBird to give a more
specific message, e.g. "This species has never been recorded in this
state" or "in this county" or "in this ecoregion," as appropriate;
2) clarify whether the species is just rare for the season or rare *any*
time of year; and
3) use information about the observer (e.g. how many lists they have
ever entered for this state) to trigger more "mentoring" information;
4) use a similarity matrix based on expert experience to suggest more
expected species that are likely to be confused, e.g., "Have you
considered Northern Flicker?"
None of these strike me as particularly difficult from a programming
standpoint. So I can't see blaming beginners for this kind of thing.
It's a system design issue.
Joel
On Wed, 2016-11-30 at 12:28 -0800, Pamela Johnston wrote:<GildedFlicker.png>
There is always the possibility that a person puts a fingertip/cursor on the
wrong name and the unintended species goes into the database.
I think of the mistakes I have made through this lovely opportunity to screw
up.
Pamela Johnston
