Terms & Community Rules
These rules apply to OrquIDea, Orchidarc’s citizen-science platform for recording and discussing wild orchid observations. They are written for field safety, conservation safety, and community trust.
Permitted use
OrquIDea may be used to document wild orchid observations, submit photographs and field notes, suggest identifications, discuss records, support conservation monitoring, and contribute to Orchidarc research and education.
Prohibited use
- No collecting, removing, cutting, digging, damaging, or disturbing wild orchids.
- No illegal trade, solicitation, sale, purchase, exchange, or trafficking of orchids or orchid parts.
- No disclosure of exact locations for rare, threatened, protected, or sensitive species.
- No harassment, abuse, threats, discrimination, or intimidation of other users, local communities, landowners, researchers, or moderators.
- No false reports, fabricated observations, intentionally misleading identifications, or manipulated records.
- No trespassing, unsafe access, or disregard for protected area rules, community rules, or landowner permission.
- No use of OrquIDea to encourage disturbance, extraction, or publication of sensitive field sites.
Sensitive species locations
Orchidarc may hide, fuzz, generalize, or restrict location data for any observation where exact disclosure could create conservation risk. This may apply even if the observation was submitted without a sensitive-species label at the time of upload.
Moderation
Orchidarc may hide, edit, moderate, restrict, or remove records, comments, images, accounts, and public outputs for conservation safety, user safety, legal compliance, data quality, or community protection. Orchidarc may also limit access for users who violate these rules.
Data quality
Users should submit records honestly and clearly. Identification suggestions are provisional unless reviewed or verified. Orchidarc collaborators and community members may suggest corrections, request more information, or mark records as uncertain.
Field responsibility
Users are responsible for their own field conduct. Stay on existing paths when possible, avoid damaging vegetation or host trees, respect local communities and landowners, and follow applicable laws and protected-area rules.
Conservation reports
If you see illegal extraction, trade, or disturbance, use OrquIDea reporting features where available or contact Orchidarc directly. Do not publicly post exact locations of affected populations.
Changes to these rules
These terms may be updated as OrquIDea develops, including before release on App Store or Google Play. Last updated: June 2026.
Contact
For questions, moderation concerns, or reports, contact andresr@orchidarc.org.