I wish to raise some issues when recording abundances on the app
1)
For some (take Odonata for example), I have no option to record the precise number of individuals I have seen, only broad ranges. I appreciate that the DRS wants data in that format, but I feel that this use of ranges in entering data is generally poor practice. Record precisely, summarise later should surely be the better way of doing this. You can choose to record precise numbers on the website if you elect not to use the dragonfly recording forms, but there is no equivalent option on the app. I appreciate that in doing so you lose some of the information which the recording scheme encourages people to record.
I think users should have the ability to record precise abundances for any/all species groups on the app, and have the option to do more precise recording to meet scheme requirements (and indeed to encourage this).
2)
Entering large abundances are not possible for some species on the app. Large flocks of geese, large counts of moths - the abundance values on the app caps out and you cannot enter larger values. This is very frustrating as you have to go into the website to amend your abundances. Or at worst it can lead to grossly inaccurate data being recorded in abundance fields.
Both of these issues appear to be design choices on the app and I believe could benefit from improvements for users. I appreciate there are always compromises to be made, but sacrificing good recording practise and forcing imprecise or inaccurate data collection is not a good compromise in my opinion.
Mark Pollitt