Community Input lets you collect Events from the public without requiring them to have an EarthRanger account. This is useful for crowdsourced reporting, like wildlife sightings or incidents reported by people outside your organization.

What community members can do

Users will access a public link (or QR code) that opens an Event form. No sign-in required. When a community member submits the form, you  can expect:

• Their report to be automatically tagged with the Event Type you've configured for that link
• Their location to be captured automatically, if they're submitting from a phone browser

Setting up a Community Input

1. In EarthRanger Admin, go to Activity > Community Activity.
2. You'll see a list of your existing Community Inputs. Select Add Community Input in the top right.
3. Fill in:
   • Name — an internal label to identify this Community Input.
   • Value — used to build the public link for this Community Input.
   • Active — check this to enable it.
   • Cool Off Period — in minutes; leave at 0 to disable (see below).
   • Event Types — select one or more Event Types this Community Input should collect reports for.
4. Save. Your new Community Input now appears in the Community Activity list.
5. Select it from the list to get:
   • A QR code, downloadable as a PNG
   • A URL, which you can copy directly

What community members see:

• If you selected a single Event Type, the link opens straight into that report form.
• If you selected multiple Event Types, users will first see a selection screen to choose which type of report they're submitting, based on the Event Types you added.

Setting a cool-off period between reports

Because Community Input reports are anonymous, EarthRanger can't fully stop someone from submitting the same report over and over. Admins can set a cool-off period so a community member has to wait before submitting another report of the same type through the same link.

How this works: The cool-off period is enforced in the reporter's browser, not on EarthRanger's servers. It's meant to curb accidental or casual repeat submissions — a community member who clears their browser cookies, or uses a different browser or device, can bypass it. The rate limiting already built into Community Input remains the real safeguard against abuse.

To set a cool-off period:

1. Open the Community Input you want to configure.
2. Set the Cool Off Period field, in minutes.
3. Leave it at 0 if you don't want a cool-off period — this is the default.
4. Save your changes.

Users can set a different cool-off period for each report type on the same link — submitting one type won't block a community member from submitting a different type right away.

A couple of things worth knowing:

• If you change the cool-off period, it won't apply retroactively — it takes effect the next time someone loads the form, not on a page a community member already has open.
• This is a soft deterrent, not a hard limit. A determined user can get around it by clearing cookies or switching devices.

Reviewing community reports

Every report submitted through a Community Input arrives in the Review state. This keeps public submissions separate from your team’s confirmed events until someone has checked them.

To review community reports in EarthRanger Web:

1. Open the Events feed.
2. Use the event filter to show events in the Review state.
3. Open a report to check its details, location, and any attachments.
4. Change the report’s state to Active if your team needs to act on it, or to Resolved if no action is needed.

Your team can also put any event into the Review state. Use Save and review when saving an event, or Mark for review from the event’s actions menu in the Events feed.

Flag: confirm the exact state label shown in the UI (“Review” or “In review”), and which states reviewers usually move reports to.

Adding attachments to community reports

To let community members attach files, add an Attachment field to the Event Type’s form in the Event Form Builder. Any Community Input that uses that Event Type will then show the Attachment field on its public form.

Community members can attach:

• Photos (including iPhone HEIC photos)
• Video and audio recordings
• Documents such as PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and plain-text or CSV files

By default, each file can be up to 20 MB. EarthRanger checks that each file is the type it claims to be and rejects anything else.

How location works on community forms

When a community member taps Use my location, their browser asks for permission to share their location. If they allow it, the Location field fills in with their current position.

If they’ve blocked location sharing for the site, the button is unavailable and the form asks them to refresh the page and allow location sharing. They can also enter coordinates manually.

If the location takes too long to load, they can tap Cancel and continue filling in the form.