I might have overly played a rhetorical device and did not mean to be judgmental about the motives of others. I personally only started using iNat because I wanted to know what plants were called. If I had stumbled on another highly satisfying/effective/easy way of doing that in 2017, I would have stopped looking. Now that I am here, I love that iNat has a bigger impact than what my immediate goals were at that time. I’m sure other users have and will continue to join iNat for the broader purpose. Outreach to people motivated by iNat’s mission and thoughtful onboarding may become more important. Gatekeeping (expecting a lot of new users) may become more costly.
I agree! And a wonderful example.
I can’t give advice as an educator about how to get students to their initial observation post. I do know that I was highly encouraged by receiving IDs when I did post. If you are in a position to add IDs to even a portion of what people post, retention/continued use may increase. Encourage people to enable the daily email digest on their account to receive notifications for when they do get IDs. In my experience iNat doesn’t spam, and knowing I have a new ID pulls me back into the site.