What is up with ebird...?

[Clip]

https://ebird.org/alert/summary?sid=SN35605

This is crazy only one confirmation on the whole page of rare bird alerts for the county. The one that is confirmed doesn't have a photo and no actual description. Even entries with photos are not confirmed. The only entry that is confirmed is a new one while older entries remain unconfirmed. Ebird administrates frustrate me. Yes yes yes I know it is a volunteer position but if you don't have the time do the job well don't volunteer.

[meghann]

Hopefully something bad didn't happen to your reviewer!

[Clip]

21 minutes ago, meghann said:

Hopefully something bad didn't happen to your reviewer!

Doubtful as the one bird that is confirmed is a recent one. Not my reviewer this is for Wakulla County I'm in Duval.

[meghann]

The one that is confirmed may be a reviewer themselves, or someone that is well known enough that the reviewers trust them. I know there are ways to contact ebird, but I've never done that. I know things get confirmed eventually. We have reviewers here on the forum that may be able to offer you some insight, like @Liamand @DLecy

[Clip]

4 minutes ago, meghann said:

The one that is confirmed may be a reviewer themselves, or someone that is well known enough that the reviewers trust them. I know there are ways to contact ebird, but I've never done that. I know things get confirmed eventually. We have reviewers here on the forum that may be able to offer you some insight, like @Liamand @DLecy

Hopefully they pipe in. From my current point of view there is no good justification for not confirming the ones with photos at least. If you have time to confirm one with zippo description you have time to confirm ones with photos. Instead those people's photos remained flagged....The American Flamingo has been there for a very long time and difficult to confuse with anything else so even without a photo most of the sightings should be confirmed.  

[Liam]

What's going on here is the regional reviewer simply isn't reviewing flagged items. It's not that they are seeing the records and choosing not to confirm them, they simply aren't going to the review page to look at records. Maybe they don't have internet access, maybe a relative died and they're out of town, maybe they're in surgery or have health problems, etc... 

There are many reasons a reviewer may be AWOL. In some cases some reviewers take on more than they can handle and have hundreds of records to review and it takes them a long time to go through them while also juggling full time jobs, family etc.

For the longest time in Georgia, we had ONE reviewer FOR THE ENTIRE STATE. Imagine all the records that went through his queue. It often took him weeks if not months for to get records confirmed. It was frustrating for eBird users, but imagine how frustrating it was for him.

Since then, Georgia was broken up into different regions with two reviewers per region, so if one reviewer is busy or away, the other can pick up the slack. I review 14 counties in the eastern region of the coastal plain. This system has worked out great. Records rarely sit in the queue for longer than a day. I usually check my queue at least three times a day.

[Seanbirds]

48 minutes ago, Liam said:

What's going on here is the regional reviewer simply isn't reviewing flagged items. It's not that they are seeing the records and choosing not to confirm them, they simply aren't going to the review page to look at records. Maybe they don't have internet access, maybe a relative died and they're out of town, maybe they're in surgery or have health problems, etc... 

There are many reasons a reviewer may be AWOL. In some cases some reviewers take on more than they can handle and have hundreds of records to review and it takes them a long time to go through them while also juggling full time jobs, family etc.

For the longest time in Georgia, we had ONE reviewer FOR THE ENTIRE STATE. Imagine all the records that went through his queue. It often took him weeks if not months for to get records confirmed. It was frustrating for eBird users, but imagine how frustrating it was for him.

Since then, Georgia was broken up into different regions with two reviewers per region, so if one reviewer is busy or away, the other can pick up the slack. I review 14 counties in the eastern region of the coastal plain. This system has worked out great. Records rarely sit in the queue for longer than a day. I usually check my queue at least three times a day.

How many reviewers do we have here in Kansas? Do you know?

[Liam]

15 minutes ago, Seanbirds said:

How many reviewers do we have here in Kansas? Do you know?

I don't know, sorry.

[Colton V]

I had a frustrating time with reporting a Red-shafted x Yellow-shafted Flicker. I had good photos and other people confirm it on iNat but the reviewer would not confirm it on eBird. A day later someone reported another hybrid with no photos and a very brief description but it was confirmed almost immediately. As far as I know mine was never confirmed. 

[DLecy]

2 hours ago, meghann said:

The one that is confirmed may be a reviewer themselves, or someone that is well known enough that the reviewers trust them. I know there are ways to contact ebird, but I've never done that. I know things get confirmed eventually. We have reviewers here on the forum that may be able to offer you some insight, like @Liamand @DLecy

Just to clarify, I am not a regional reviewer. I am in close contact with the two reviewers for our county, and in full transparency, one is a personal friend of mine, but I don’t review in an official capacity with eBird. 

That being said, since the review queue is generated chronologically, sometimes the most recent reports get reviewed first. And as has already been pointed out, sometimes it can take a reviewer a long time to get to records for review…for a variety of reasons. For example, at one point this fall there were well over 1,500 records to sort through just from the Outer Point (a geographical designate within Point Reyes National Seashore). It took the reviewer awhile (maybe a couple of months?), but eventually everything was reviewed, sans a two difficult records that will likely be vetted through the California Rare Birds Committee before being accepted in to eBird.

Admittedly, some reviewers are quicker to respond than others. Lots of that also depends on the size of the review team, as Liam already mentioned above. Reviewers are also people with jobs, families, and the trials and tribulations that we all go through. I know it’s tough, but I would suggest simply being patient, and if months have gone by without a confirmation, I would then reach out.

[meghann]

24 minutes ago, DLecy said:

Just to clarify, I am not a regional reviewer.

My mistake! But clearly you were still a good person to tag. ?

[Clip]

5 hours ago, Liam said:

What's going on here is the regional reviewer simply isn't reviewing flagged items. It's not that they are seeing the records and choosing not to confirm them, they simply aren't going to the review page to look at records. Maybe they don't have internet access, maybe a relative died and they're out of town, maybe they're in surgery or have health problems, etc... 

There are many reasons a reviewer may be AWOL. In some cases some reviewers take on more than they can handle and have hundreds of records to review and it takes them a long time to go through them while also juggling full time jobs, family etc.

For the longest time in Georgia, we had ONE reviewer FOR THE ENTIRE STATE. Imagine all the records that went through his queue. It often took him weeks if not months for to get records confirmed. It was frustrating for eBird users, but imagine how frustrating it was for him.

Since then, Georgia was broken up into different regions with two reviewers per region, so if one reviewer is busy or away, the other can pick up the slack. I review 14 counties in the eastern region of the coastal plain. This system has worked out great. Records rarely sit in the queue for longer than a day. I usually check my queue at least three times a day.

I realize that ebird reviewers are humans that have jobs, school families possible health issues etc. and I might buy the human eliminate if not for the ONE that was confirmed. If not for that one I would have written off as a busy or ill reviewer. There are definitely more than one reviewers for Florida.

[Charlie Spencer]

Two-thirds of these alerts are the same three birds, reported by multiple people, often at the same time, over multiple days.  =IF= I was a twitcher (and I'm not), I'd consider that confirmation enough to go looking for those.  As long as I was there, I'd probably look for the others too.

What are your personal advantages do you gain from seeing alerts confirmed?  What are the negatives for you when they remain unconfirmed?  All of these are less than a week old.  I'm trying to understand why this causes you such apparent consternation.

[Charlie Spencer]

9 hours ago, Clip said:

Yes yes yes I know it is a volunteer position but if you don't have the time do the job well don't volunteer.

No one is forcing you to read the alerts.  You're not being billed for them, either.  If you don't like the job the reviewers are doing, you're free to unsubscribe from the alerts.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Charlie Spencer

[Clip]

14 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Two-thirds of these alerts are the same three birds, reported by multiple people, often at the same time, over multiple days.  =IF= I was a twitcher (and I'm not), I'd consider that confirmation enough to go looking for those.  As long as I was there, I'd probably look for the others too.

What are your personal advantages do you gain from seeing alerts confirmed?  What are the negatives for you when they remain unconfirmed?  All of these are less than a week old.  I'm trying to understand why this causes you such apparent consternation.

I guess I'm rather old fashion in that I believe if you are doing a job rather volunteer or not you should try to do the job to the very best of your abilities. I believe in a strong work ethic and if this was an isolated instance it would not bother me a bit. Sadly, it is all too common. This is suppose to be science which means accurate timely information is important. What the heck is a twitcher?

Edited November 12, 2021 by Clip

[Charlie Spencer]

1 minute ago, Clip said:

What the heck is a twitcher?

Someone who chases rarities.  One who learns of a rare bird and starts twitching to go after it.

[Clip]

4 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Someone who chases rarities.  One who learns of a rare bird and starts twitching to go after it.

Sounds more like someone sharing too much on Twitter or something.

[Clip]

18 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

No one is forcing you to read the alerts

No one forces me to stay at a Hotel but I still expect a clean room. No one forces me to drink milk but I expect the milk to be free of contaminates. No one forced me to go over a bridge but I expect it to built to hold up and not collapse while I'm on it.............................................................................................................................................

[Kevin]

I don't under stand what the deal is with everyone being excited about bird not being confirmed immediately. Around here it may take over a moth for my reviewer to confirm stuff. 

[Charlie Spencer]

12 minutes ago, Clip said:

No one forces me to stay at a Hotel but I still expect a clean room. No one forces me to drink milk but I expect the milk to be free of contaminates. No one forced me to go over a bridge but I expect it to built to hold up and not collapse while I'm on it.............................................................................................................................................

You pay directly for the hotel and the milk, and indirectly for the bridge.  Birding is a recreational activity, and how it's conducted isn't going to affect your sleep, diet, or highway safety.

No one is going to die if these sightings aren't confirmed this month.  The study of long-term trends isn't going to suffer either.  I'll ask again: exactly how is your birding impacted if they go unconfirmed for a few days, or even weeks?  No philosophy about work ethics, please, just tell us how your life is better or worse.  I regard an unpaid part-time reviewer as better than NO reviewer at all, which appears to be the only alternative you'll accept.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Charlie Spencer

[DLecy]

8 hours ago, Seanbirds said:

How many reviewers do we have here in Kansas? Do you know?

There are currently 22 regional editors (reviewers) in the state of Kansas. 

[Clip]

https://ebird.org/alert/summary?sid=SN35605

Now this person has confirmed 3 of the American Flamingo (not the one with a photo) sightings and nothing else. Not even others with photos. Which means all the people who have photos have their photos flagged for no reason. @Charlie Spencerso to answer your question this means that if I go and I get photos they will be flagged and they will remain flagged until this reviewer gets around to confirming it. It kind of looks like he won't get around to it. While I do not pay directly for ebird I do contribute to it volunteerly. In fact, I contribute a lot so do many others. Ebird would likely not exist if not for people like me sharing with them. In return they should do their JOBS correctly. My interest is the Henslow Sparrow with great photos. Though I would like to get better photos of the Flamingo. If I do apparently it will be flagged and will remain so.....which means not visible to the public and I probably won't be able to share it here or anywhere directly from ebird... I will actually probably not share my photo in this case because I don't want it to remain flagged. Which is automatic on rare birds. Ebird spends a lot of time asking people to share their photos and Audios. Seems wrong some how to then dis the people who do at least in this county (sadly probably others).

[Charlie Spencer]

17 minutes ago, Clip said:

Seems wrong some how to then dis the people who do at least in this county (sadly probably others).

Disrespected?  You're finding insult where none is intended.

 

19 minutes ago, Clip said:

I probably won't be able to share it here or anywhere directly from ebird

There are plenty of other ways to share a photo other than from eBird.

 

20 minutes ago, Clip said:

Ebird would likely not exist if not for people like me sharing with them.

I wouldn't worry, there seem to be more than enough people who satisfied with the rate the data is accepted to keep eBird from collapsing.

 

26 minutes ago, Clip said:

In return they should do their JOBS correctly.

It sounds like if they can't do it in a fashion you consider correct, you'd rather have no one doing it.  Have you thought about directing your issues to eBird itself, or becoming a reviewer so the job is done to your standards?

[Clip]

5 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

there seem to be more than enough people who satisfied with the rate the data is accepted

Satisfied or resigned! Why are you defending someone who is clearly not doing their job? That sir like it or not is the bottom line!

[Charlie Spencer]

50 minutes ago, Clip said:

Why are you defending someone who is clearly not doing their job?

Because I don't criticize people with skills I don't have, trying to do a job I can't do myself, with an outcome that has minimal effect on my life.

No matter how long it takes a reviewer to respond, he or she is going to do a better job of clearing that bird than I can.  If it takes six months to confirm, it's not going to keep me from seeing more birds.  If want to share a photo, I'll use one of the multiple methods other than from eBird, and add a note that it's still under review and I may have it wrong.  In the meantime, I'll get on with my life; no coroner ever listed 'Unconfirmed eBird Sighting' as a cause of death.

So if you have the time and skills to be a reviewer, I strongly encourage you to volunteer.  If you don't have the time and skills, if you can't meet your own job standards, how do you justify criticizing those currently attempting it?  No matter how slowly, they're doing it better than you are.