but - we can’t sort our notifications. Can’t bookmark how far we got with checking them. Can’t mark as done.
Have to go thru each one … clunk clunk clunk.
For busy people (not me, my daily count is usually under 100) it gets overwhelming.
I know of one person who has abandoned iNat due to a mountain of notifications.
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When suggesting ID it automatically follows the observation. If you unfollow after identifying, it will not notify you about any additional suggestions by others.
Maybe this should be an account feature?
I didn’t realise there was a tag option 
On holiday in Canada recently I was posting observations and one user suggested a different species. I didn’t agree so and said why not, another user explained exactly why the suggested ID was right. That was very helpful and worthy of thanks.
However, just because I was helped and gained new knowledge, wouldn’t have me running to that user all the time.
Off iNat I get pestered by complete strangers who, because of a letter in a journal, think I’m an expert on that subject. I initially pointed out their mistake but when it continued I just deleted without interacting. Perhaps that’s the best way to deal with unwanted tagging.
Have you tried this https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observations_updates.html, created by @pisum
The notifications you open drop off of it, but the ones you haven’t opened stay.
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I can cope with mine - only have 20 waiting now.
But that could help @dan_johnson who started this thread.
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so true, I barely send blurry images on Inat in general since unless it looks interesting , it’s not worth ANYONE’S time, and usually i’ll get a mediocre identification of it which i am thankful for since i didn’t know the family or genus of before.
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We appreciate this type of thread when it comes up because newer users get to empathize with power identifiers and learn about their different workflows and how the tagging feels for them, etc. It can really help connect us as a community.
We try not to make judgments of people, because judging can be inaccurate and because it tends to not help us feel the actual emotions alive in us or address our actual unmet needs. Mostly, the judging does the opposite of connect us. So when we hear the judgment that observers tag people quickly after posting the observation because they are “impatient,” we wonder if the observer might consider themselves “excited” or “enthusiastic,” What we are trying to say is that the judgment is less effective than empathy, than remembering when we were new users who wanted to know what we saw. We can try education and encouragement–and try to stay connected. Try to meet our needs for community and respect and learning and fun.
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If you know how to navigate your mobile device settings, you can turn off that noise for whichever apps you choose.
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iNat app doesn’t make notifications at all though, and nothing is shown until you refresh the page.
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That seems excessive to me. I recommend talking to them or asking them why they’re doing that and going over the issues it might cause.
I don’t mind being tagged (not that I’m an expert at all) but I truly detest someone just tagging me without some sort of comment or question. But others are fine with that, to each their own.
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This addresses the issue for you, but not if they are doing it with large numbers of other users, as it sounds like the OP is describing. I would want someone admonished more generally about this, ideally by a curator, with some sort of policy to point to.
If the policy doesn’t exist, we could create it. It is much better to have official documentation to point to that says “These are our guidelines, do this, don’t do this.” than to just ask someone to change their behavior.
I don’t know the scale of what you are describing, but it sounds excessive. I don’t mind being tagged, I often like it, but I’m not tagged repeatedly. I would not want to be tagged casually or repeatedly. I think it’s fine to reach out to individuals who you think could help with ID’s, if you’ve tried unsuccessfully to ID something and don’t know where to start, if you have specific questions you think an experienced person could answer, if you think the observation might be interesting to specific people, or for a wide variety of other valid reasons.
However I don’t like the idea of blanket tagging or tagging many people on every post just to get your posts ID’ed quicker. This seems an abuse of the system because it is demanding people’s attention to prioritize your records over other people’s. It also could deter more knowledgeable people from being active on the site, if they frequently get spammed with notifications. I.e. it fails the test of: “Would it be okay if everyone did this?” Like, if everyone did it the site’s notification system would be overwhelmed and become useless.
If someone has a specific observation that they’re really curious about, and they are otherwise an upstanding member of the community, then I wouldn’t think twice about it, but doing this all the time seems like it is “taking more than giving”, and imposing on others.
An easy way to address this issue without requiring extensive manual intervention for individuals, would be to set some sort of flagging system where it would automatically detect if a user had used a certain number of tags in a certain period of time, or perhaps, a certain number of tags relative to the total number of their observations. Then it would refer them to a page that could explain best practices for when to tag people and when not to tag people, and explain that it can be annoying if users are tagged too readily because it can cause them to get overwhelmed with notifications.
Then the user would hopefully change their behavior. And then if they don’t, the automated system could flag their account again and temporarily suspend their ability to tag people. Then perhaps a curator or someone could converse with them and decide whether or not to restore their ability to tag?
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There are a lot of things on iNat that would fail that test, including things that people in this forum have asked for advice on how to do (e.g., bulk upload more observations than the system allows at one time).
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I can think of 3 users I’ve interacted with recently who tag in an uncouth manner, which isn’t bad overall. I’m more annoyed with users who don’t provide an initial ID, don’t follow up on identifications, and those out of range species suggestions from the Seek app.
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i have been desperately wanting this forever
i accidentally became the #1 millipede identifier in the world after i had a phase fixing some observations of the handful of species i know of, because there are a LOT of misidentifications. more than i can keep up with.
and now people from all over the world tag me and message me about all of their millipedes and i have no idea what any of them are. and im not sure how effectively i can explain because we do not speak the same language and frequently do not even have the same alphabet
i just want off the millipede leaderboard
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that should be something iNat staff can do for you - on a one off basis? Hidden from the World, but still visible for your location?
I’m on the leaderboard for Microgastrinae wasps because I ID a lot of the distinctive cocoons, but unfortunately I am not expert in the adult form. When I’m tagged I have to leave a comment about my lack of expertise. I used to forward the tag to someone else (a busy researcher). Now, instead I add relevant annotations and add the Microgastrinae observation to the project https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/passengers-parasites-taking-rides
which I created to give neglected yet important parasites a home.
Unfortunately, I caused my experience with excessive tagging by myself; I can’t blame it on leaderboards. “Sedgequeen” seemed like a good choice since the name wasn’t used on iNaturalist and I occasionally get mail addressed to sedgequeen. However, it’s an exaggeration. I know Carex well in my area and some other places I’ve been. Other sedges fairly well in my area. However, (1) we really need to see tiny details most people don’t provide for iNaturalist identifications and (2) I have no clue about South African Cyperus. Sorry. When tagged, I’m embarrassed to admit I am clueless. Sigh.
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