Sorry if this question gets asked a lot. I regularly observe organisms in 3 general locations, including, obviously, where I live. If I have observed a particular organism in this location once and added it to iNat, is that enough and I don’t have to do so ever again?
I assume not, since iNaturalist helps to track the presence of organisms in a location over time. I realise I can add observations as often as I like, but how frequently is useful? What is excessive? Every year? month? week? day? What do most casual iNat users do?
Some examples:
- The birds visiting the feeder in the garden. Once a year, per species?
- I track pollinators on our housing estate and in the local cemetery. About every week, per species?
This is a difficult topic with many differing opinions and systems. I posted a thread not long ago, where this rose up. You might want to check those comments out.
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In my humble place as a nearly daily observer, I will photograph and post the same things multiple times for a variety of reasons… phenology, time of day when the light quality changes, it has a cool insect or arachnid I want to check out, whatever draws my attention.
I let the whoever’s that use my observations decide for themselves what is or is not useful to them. I don’t do iNat for research or even for ID.
I iNat for my own pleasure… seeing, learning, mental and physical exercise, easing my soul.
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Welcome to the forum!
Here are some previous posts (though there are more) that address this issue:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inat-posting-etiquette-questions/15317
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/concern-about-of-observations/42392
I believe iNat’s general rule of thumb is something like one observation/individual/day unless something significant changes (change in life stage, interesting behavior, predation, etc.). But that’s just a general guideline. Otherwise, do what you like/what you find value in.
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Once per day per individual organism is OK. Posting every individual goldfinch at your feeder (for example) every day would seriously annoy us identifiers but technically it is allowed. (Please don’t do that.)
If you know for sure that you’re posting the same individual on multiple days, seriously consider using the field “Same specimen over time” to link them together. It can be interesting to watch how an organism changes. (I do this with some trees – not every day!)
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