I think its a question of security in our neck of the woods. Inat has all your previous locations, when you were there and how often. It probably shows the roads more frequently traveled and if you inat around your own home (it shows that too). If hikes are too unsafe with a camera (which it is in some cases) and you use the phone app, then if you upload live… You get what I mean. Showing you are old and that you frequent a route with a high res camera might get you into deep waters in a 3rd world country. You do not need to be tech savvy to figure this out. In fact, all you need is a phone and you have access to this information. I have been robbed on multiple trails and the police recommended no live uploads or uploads on trails I frequent on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, when you start to use inat seriously as a means for gathering data, this kind of exposure is inevitable. I know some of the other data gathering scientists freely give out their details, some even promote it during the CNC. In my opinion anonymity is still safer and no one needs to know your obs count to know you as a person. You can still discuss iNat or plants with people without sharing your online account. Its all about being aware of the choices you are making, the data you are sharing with the world and if you are TRULY ok with that level of exposure. (Just as an after thought, I am aware one can hide the gps coordinates and share with trusted projects but this becomes a hassle when the projects become ever more complex/list longer. Plus few people actually bother with tagging all observations as private)
I use a camera (not an expensive one) and upload the pictures a day or more later. Either way - using social media to say I am ‘here now’. I am ‘not at home’. Is not for me.
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/option-to-hide-time-show-just-the-date/4469
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/default-obscure-account-settings-inaturalist-user-safety/25272/5
I wear my iNat t-shirt in public rarely, as I rarely go anywhere public. When I do, and am asked, I politely (and rather enthusiastically) try to explain what iNat is and how it works in basic terms.
I got rid of the worry about targeting where I am observing by relocating the location, within iNat bounds. I do that because of my life circumstances, my location and trying to retain my sense of personal safety.
I google my name a couple of times a year. There are one or two entries from LinkedIn about my workplace, the rest are photos from iNaturalist and Google maps that I posted, sometimes used elsewhere with credits.
Off-line, I only mention iNaturalist when a related subject comes up. If I did not read the room right, I get blank stares.
The quotes above reminded me of the post below, which I am sharing for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Maybe you can relate:
I think I live in a different world sometimes. In Costa Rica, stopping with a camera to take a photo of, well, anything, is part and parcel of how this country works. Nobody minds. Nobody gives you stares. At worse, someone will stop and ask you what you see and will then take pictures with you. Birds, monkeys, plants, snakes, lizards…a worm…a caterpillar…it doesn’t matter. People who come here want to SEE things. I wish the rest of the world had managed to develop the ecological marketing that Costa Rica has perfected.
There are several other people with my name or similar enough variants to come up on Google. It would take some doing to figure out which (if any) are me.
My iNat profile is my main online presence and the one thing I’m not shy about telling everyone I know. :D
I’m currently on an excursion to Spain with a bunch of other students and my gushing about iNat has gone so far that my iNat account is now linked on half of the project posters because I’ve given them my images, and that I’ve recruited 3 or 4 of my fellow students to join iNat.
I feel like other online places are much more personal and intimate, whereas iNat is “Look at this cool thing I found”. (Which incidentally is a sentence all my relatives and friends are tired of hearing coming from my mouth, I’m sure)
The most famous of my doppelnamers is an artist in the UK. (I am appropriately “chuffed”.)
I have met two other iNaturalist users in person, intentionally and after much communication.
I was invited to a NaturalistaMX meeting here recently, however I felt I would be out of place and perhaps even seen as intrusive so did not attend. (I assume the secret handshakes were much in use though!)
If it makes you feel better, it’s pretty awkward when people do recognize you from iNaturalist… Every time someone waltzes up and says “hey are you [insert username from whichever website they know me from here]?”, all I can do is smile and hit 'em with the awkward “haha, yeah that’s me” 
The conversation ends there, usually.
If there is anything else that works as a reply that generates an actual conversation, I haven’t found it yet. I never know if I should be saying something else, or if they just don’t know what to say, etc…
There’s always something to overthink about, no matter the situation 
I ran into a fellow iNatter today just by chance, both of us birding. He’s also active on eBird whereas I’m not. Hadn’t seen him in about a year. No awkwardness. Maybe because we’re both older guys and don’t care what others think. Had a good chat, swapping stories. I never felt meeting an iNatter I don’t know would be awkward either.
Oh you’re THAT Diana!
??
I have a namesake in America who writes children’s books.
Despite being born in South Africa and marrying Swiss - Diana Studer - is a common name in German-speaking Europe (and USA)
I think they regret that you didn’t come
You’re very kind but as I am well aware of my place in this particular ecosystem, I was not surprised when nobody noticed at all. (Así es la vida. )
You are not sciency enough for them? I appreciate your enthusiasm, and your kindness.
Literally no one i know has an Inat account, and very few are nature-lovers. So this isn’t to much of a problem for me.
Without knowing the specifics here (not prying, just admitting I may be misinterpreting), I relate to these thoughts, but my heart breaks thinking that you might see yourself this way, or have been given the impression that others do. If anyone really does think this, it has more to do with their own limitations than yours, in my view. I think you could only add value.
I understand. I have attended symposia, trying to network, only to realize that I was out of my depth. It had nothing to do with the way other attendees treated me; it was seeing the research they were capable of when I was an observer with nothing to present.
I think I am more uncomfertable revealing my actual identity online. In person, it’s easier for me to gauge if I want to share my iNat account with them.