[texbirds] Re: eBird's position on documentation
- From: Steve Gast <segast23@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "supersurber@xxxxxxxxxxx" <supersurber@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:55:01 -0500
I find it enjoyable to find and submit something that gets flagged. I don't
look for these on purpose but do get a kick out of finding something out of the
ordinary. I have made mistakes in data entry and a few times I don't have a
good enough description for it to be accepted ( yeah - OK - sometimes too I
just blow the ID) But that is ok because I end up learning how to study a bird
better or how to ID a bird correctly the next time. I am sorry for putting
reviewers to extra work though. I really don't want to do this on purpose and
so I never complain about either having to submit more details or volunteering
to pull the record down due to insufficient observation. I have the lesser
amount of work to that of the busy eBird reviewers ( God bless 'em)
The process however it plays out should be a learning one and enjoyable.
Steve Gast
Houston TX
> On Mar 20, 2014, at 3:00 PM, Brady Surber <supersurber@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> It would be much easier to document flagged sightings if one knew ahead of
> time what would get flagged, to my knowledge there is no way to view a list
> of what the filters hit. Frequently I get flagged for species that shouldn't
> be rare(granted that can only be fixed by more sightings with documentation)
> or that are in unusual numbers. Cases such as this if it were possible to
> know or see a list by region of the filters /with expected numbers it would
> be astoundingly easier for all of us to document things better.
> regards,
> Brady Surber
> Vernon, TX
>
>> Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:52:18 -0700
>> Subject: [texbirds] eBird's position on documentation
>> From: heraldpetrel@xxxxxxxxx
>> To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> Texbirders
>> I thought I would chime in here and provide some insight into how eBird
>> views the process of documenting rarities, and why that is important.
>> Photos are not required to support a record, but they are an excellent
>> source of documentation. That said, before digital photography was widely
>> accessible to the public, birders adequately documented birds through
>> careful description. In some cases, a careful description can be better
>> than a photo. Photos in the absence of any text description are
>> problematic. Ideally, a record would have both. eBird editors should not be
>> invalidating records with text descriptions as a rule. On the contrary,
>> they should be evaluating these to the best of their ability. If that is
>> not happening, I need to know about it. That said, some people refuse to
>> provide details, and it can be tiresome for volunteer editors who spend
>> countless hours trying to keep the database clean for scientific purposes
>> to request details and get none. The eBird review team in Texas has a huge
>> volume of records to review every day, and this is generally a thankless
>> job. Without them, eBird would cease to function, so please do your best to
>> help them by documenting any flagged records you submit to the best of your
>> ability.
>>
>> Please see the links below to learn more about the eBird data quality
>> process, and how to adequately document your records.
>>
>> Data Quality: http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/1055676
>>
>> Documentation:
>> http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/973980-reporting-rarities--elements-of-a-bird-description?b_id28
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> --
>> ===========
>>
>>
>> *Brian L. SullivaneBird Project Leader *
>> www.ebird.org
>>
>> *Photo Editor*
>> Birds of North America Online
>> http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA
>> -------------------------------
>>
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