How much do you "gamify" iNaturalist?

[brentturcotte]

I often like to compare where I am for number of species (taxa to be more precise) based on verifiable observations in Ontario. Sometimes I like to try to climb a few spots up. I am 68th in the province and could get to 66 easily. Get to 65 would require over 80 new taxa. Not gonna happen this late in the season, too little free time. I average about 200 to 250 new taxa a year and it is just enough to maintain my place roughly.

However if I am not enjoying myself, the pursuit of species new to me can seem pointless.

[eric-schmitty]

Do I gamify iNat? Yes, absolutely. One of the biggest reasons I got on the platform was because it was a competition, and I am a competitive person. For a long time, I was very, very focused on the observation count leaderboards. First, it was the statewide leaderboard, but as my numbers got big fast, I set my sights on the global list. About two years ago, I set the goal of being in the top 100 worldwide for observers, and from there, I went crazy posting some 25k observations in a little over a year. However, after I eventually got up to 98th place or something worldwide, I realized that I felt profoundly unfulfilled by having the bigger number…

Since then, I have been focusing a lot more on the quality of the data I am producing than on the numbers in hopes that it will give me more fulfillment. First, there is spatial mapping of under observed places(ie. making sure to get as many species that an area contains as possible for research purposes from places like small public parks) and trying to find more overlooked species like galls and plant pathogens. Also, I have started trying to ID a lot more, especially for overlooked groups like Arctium. It’s still gamified a little, but overall, I have greatly decreased my reliance on gamification for gratification in using iNaturalist. “Greater Life Balance” or something like that.

[Vireya]

I set myself goals for observations, species, and IDs for the year, but have passed them all already. My streak is currently 988 days, so I’m aiming for 1,000. Will I keep going after that? Probably. Once number of annotations became visible, I started doing a lot more just because I could see the numbers.

[sedgequeen]

I try to post something every day. My longest streak this year is about 9 weeks. Purely a game – and results in my posting maybe too many goldfinches and squirrels at the bird feeders, if I don’t get out to post other things.

I don’t ID to run up leaderboards. Mostly I don’t notice. I think I consider being on them kind of amusing in a positive way. But if I realize I’ve moved down in my leaderboard rank for some taxon, I’m disappointed! Obviously I have more ego wrapped up in this than I think.

I’m also mildly disappointed if I’m not first to identify an observation for a taxon, observer, or place I consider “mine.” I get lots of practice with this kind of disappointment, though; I can cope.

In a bioblitz, though! I get very competitive and struggle hard to get on or stay on the leaderboard.

[sedgequeen]

@ItsMeLucy

Condylostylus

Such cool flies!

[oksanaetal]

I sometimes try to reach a specific milestone in a specific time, such as observation #X (100, 600, etc.) before I come home after a trip.

[ItsMeLucy]

@eric-schmitty

For a long time, I was very, very focused on the observation count leaderboards. First, it was the statewide leaderboard,

@brentturcotte

I often like to compare where I am for number of species (taxa to be more precise) based on verifiable observations in Ontario. Sometimes I like to try to climb a few spots up.

Clearly, I have missed something. Where are these? (Maybe I am on a leaderboard?)

I do get excited when something I have seen in the garden is identified as something new and my species count goes up; I think it’s pretty cool to think so many things can be found in one teeny space.

[bouteloua]

I used to set some basic goals, but that was a long time ago :)

[eric-schmitty]

It’s literally just the normal explore page, but if you go over to the side, it lists the top for whatever area, taxa, etc. you have specified.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?subview=map&view=observers

If you’re on the website, you can switch between species and observations by clicking on one or the other where it lists them under the total observer count.

[ItsMeLucy]

Thank you! It took some wriggling, but I am on top of the list in Observations!.. but only for my colonia. (Basically a neighborhood.)

womp-womp

We will be leaving soon, though, I think, so it will be one of those temporal top-of-listness-es.

[martin53]

In 2023, I made a friendly bet with another Inaturalist user for most species seen that year. We agreed to meet up somewhere in the world in 2024 and the loser would have to buy dinner and drinks.

The bet led to me logging far more species than in previous years and my wife and I just got back from visiting the other user in Portugal and gorging on (incredible) Portugese food. A very succesful bit of gammification!

[euproserpinus]

Yes, I definitely gamify!

My primary motivation is to document biodiversity, so that’s usually my overarching goal. But I use all sorts of games – sometimes to motivate me to make observations, but more often just to add more dopamine rewards as I’m posting my observations. And FWIW, for me it’s almost always about # of species observed, rather than number of observations.

For example, here are some things I might check: most species on a bioblitz, most dragonfly/damselfly species in my state, most butterfly species in my state, most moth species in my state, most dragonfly species each year for the Odolympics, most moth species each year for National Moth Week, my state’s national ranking for # of species observed during National Moth Week and Odolympics (and my degree of contribution to that ranking), # of species observed in my county each year, etc. Also, finding a first iNat record for a species anywhere, in my state, in my county, in my local park, etc.

You asked about leaderboards. You can do a search to conjure up a leaderboard for all sorts of lists like the above, and projects also have leaderboards.

[euproserpinus]

I would love it if there were a standardized point system that could be applied to any project/search to produce scores for each iNat user. This idea was inspired by a couple friends of mine who devised a point system for their competition between each other during a bioblitz. The points might look something like this:

1 point - each observation
5 points - each species
10 points - each species observed only by you for that search/project/bioblitz
15 points - each native species first-ever-iNat-recorded for the relevant local boundary (city, park, etc.)
20 points - each native species first-ever-iNat-recorded for the county
50 points - each native species first-ever-iNat-recorded for the state
100 points - each native species first-ever-iNat-recorded for the country

[joedziewa]

Things that get me going is being the first to observe at a place, adding species to a well-observed place, trying to double the number species at a less-observed place in one visit, being the first to observe an invasive species in a place or the first to observe any species within a county or region. Doing things like finding more species alone in a local park that is almost completely mowed, paved, playground, or bare clay than the totals of over a hundred people at a nearby wildlife refuge or majestic Olmsted park can be a fun longer-term mission too.

In learning to identify, going through the gallery of research grade observations is usually helpful for me. It’s a bit of a game for me to find ones that stand out. It’s nice catching mixed pics for data accuracy, but it’s more fun learning of oddities and catching misidentifications while still in the processes of getting a grasp of the taxa.

I’ll go after ID leaderboards, usually for audio or invasive plant, but have found it better to ease into a taxa at first, to get a chance to get feedback from those more experienced. Agreeing with RG is fine and often helpful, and I can understand the opinion that shuns the aversion to it to the point that I sometimes scold myself, but my score-keeping mind that is ever aware of the large pile of needsID rarely puts agreeing IDs on RG obs and it’s usually with case-specific reasons.

Having the total of Leading, Improving, and Maverick IDs to be more than half of my IDs is thing for me.
https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?category=&current=&for=others&page=1&taxon_id=&user_id=joedziewa

Climbing a RG leaderboard with IDs mostly Improving to species can be a pretty satisfying and fun challenge. Sometimes, ID can be straight-forward, but the taxon just hasn’t gotten much attention, finding those niches is fun too.

The confusion around disagreements bothers me, so whenever possible I make it a point to force the “… disagrees that this is…” on my IDs to be exactly what it counts for, rather than just the current taxon. If someone says the audio is a cricket, but it’s a toad to me, it’s not just a a disagreement with cricket, it’s a disagreement with all arthropods. So, in the process of learning the taxonomy and trying to make it say what I want, sometimes I like looking for fun taxa to disagree with to bring the community to a taxon that will make the statement most accurately reflect the disagreement. "It’s not a cricket, it’s a blue lobster, no my mistake, it’s an American toad(disagrees that this is Arthropods). How could I have mistaken a toad for a lobster? I shall delete the ID in shame(if I don’t get distracted)… or maybe just leave it as withdrawn for fun :P

Accuracy, data integrity, and community is paramount, I can’t have fun if I don’t feel I’m respecting that.

[sbrobeson]

I try to keep my iNaturalist daily streak going – currently pretty strong at 511 days in a row.
I vaguely keep track of my records of the most under-observed organisms on iNaturalist – many are tentatively identified obscure parasitic fungi, but I feel pretty good about at least a handful of them, maybe 15-30%.

and that’s about it. I hope I appear as a top identifier for groups that I can reasonably help people with, and that I don’t appear as a top identifier for anything I can’t confidently work with – but I simply never remember to check my numbers or anything like that.

[jurga_li]

Oh yes, I do gamify iNaturalist! But only in observations, not in identifications. While identifying I only see four goals: 1. Just to identify – to raise value of an observation; 2) To correct misidentifications; 3) To train my own skill of identifying from a photo (it is somewhat different than identifying from a specimen); 4) To help other inatters to learn. But when observing, apart of a „serious“ part – documenting species occurrence, it is much of gaming: 1. See it all, record it all and 2. Tick the little squares on the map – as many as possible. Competition is fine, too, but rather secondary, compared to the two above points.

[earthknight]

I try to avoid all gamification of iNat.

Unfortunately, a certain amount is baked in, so it’s not completely avoidable.

[jarvo]

I bet your post gets more likes than mine

[paul_dennehy]

@ItsMeLucy

Some Observers have mentioned behaviors that are very Pokemon-like, with the “gotta catch 'em all” mentality with regards to species in their area or collecting colors of something or a specific species within a genus, etc.

I’m a pretty obsessive Pokemon Go player (lvl 50, legacy 40, full dex), and my local Pokemon Go community knows me as “the crazy guy who swipes out of Pokemon during Raid Hour to take pictures of a plant to get it on the county list”. There’s a perhaps-not-so-surprising overlap I’ve noticed between iNatters and Pokemon trainers in my age bracket, and I bet both of these activities appeal to a similar “collector-minded” personality type. I’ve been to more than one BioBlitz where the unofficial schedule was “catch moths all night, trade pokemon the next morning at brunch, do a few raids, get back to IDing the moths from the night before”.

[hthrd]

City Nature Challenge!