Rules of the ID-Blitz (December 2021)
MISSION:
• Host a miniature, collaborative event to keep the community engaged and get some unknowns sorted out and brought to relatively low ranks.
• Teach the admins more about possible different types of events
• Alert people to mentoring opportunities
• Have fun
ELIGIBILTY:
• Sign-up process: Anyone who joins the project at least 24 hrs before start time will be considered participating.
• This mini-ID blitz is a group collaborative effort, not a competition. There will be no prizes or rankings. But we will send you a private message with the number of IDs you made during the event so you can see your contribution.
Qualifying identifications:
• Identifications must be made on December 10 2021 and December 11 2021, London Time (UTC+0).
• IDs do not have to be to species! Any new ID from Kingdom down is good.
• Total IDs will be exactly tallied, and IDs in different categories will be estimated.
• Custom identification URLs will be provided, or you can just do your regular thing.
CATEGORIES:
• Unknowns: Site-wide number of unknows will be noted at the start and end of event.
• Kingdoms: Site-wide number of observations exactly at kingdom (broken down for each kingdom) will be noted at the start and end of the event.
• Collaboration link: We will assemble a link to an identify page that will pull up observations recently ID’d by participants (okay technically it will pull up all observations ever ID’d by participants but if you have it sort by recently updated, that’s good enough). People who have more low-taxa skill are encouraged to use that link, so that people sorting unknowns can see some observations get refined quickly. Instant gratification!
• Improvement: During the competition, try to beat your own daily average. In the spirit of collaboration, we will not be posting a list to show the number of identifications and degree of improvement for each participant, but we will send a private message with the number of identifications you made during the Blitz so that you can track your progress. You can check your average IDs per day here.
PARTICIPATION RULES:
• If we think you’re trying to rig the system by e.g. just hitting Agree on Research Grade observations 10,000 times (why would you even?), we’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
Prizes:
• We award you all the warm fuzzy feeling of helping out and working with a group. Use the collaboration link! Your warm fuzzy feeling will grow. Thank You!
If you have extra questions about the rules, leave a comment and one of the admins will answer and update the rules.
And finally:
Be nice, stay hydrated, always wear your seatbelt, and try to have fun!