I check Cape Town Unknowns daily. When I come across new people, I try to ID ‘all’ their obs, even if it is only to Lepidotera … That first step gets it moving, and often by the next day they have their ID. And I in turn have learnt a little more.
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I get what you are saying - not gamifying iNaturalist by adding features, but, making your cohorts/friends interested by changing their perspective of iNaturalist. So that rather than looking for virtual species they are looking for actual species and collecting them. Great thing is, no matter where you are there always seems to be a rock/shelf/stair/leaf to look under and find something new. Or, try to find and identify subjects your friends before you have by “following” each other.
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I consider myself an amateur. I have posted about 200 observations from my home and some natural areas. It is a little discouraging for some of my posts to have never received any confirmation or disagreement. So I agree with all the people who suggested getting responses. I have to say that I haven’t spent time responding to other people’s observations. I guess I feel that I am not expert enough, however since lots of my friends send me pictures of plants to ID for them, I probably am expert enough to confirm some plants. What do you think?
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I think that how you contribute to iNat depends on your reasons for being here, what you hope to get out of it and the confidence you bring to it. If posting some observations is what you came here for that’s a perfectly fine contribution. I spend time checking what other people are posting and I make the occasional ID if I see something I feel confident about. I expect my IDs will increase with time but I’m mostly here to learn. I don’t think anybody should feel guilty about that; it’s pretty much iNat’s reason for existing.
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Absolutely you could do some plant IDs. Or try sorting unknowns* if you think that sounds like fun. As @pmeisenheimer said that you’re not obligated to identify anything, but neither should you feel you’re unqualified to ID because you’re “not an expert.” A lot of us aren’t experts! ID to the level you feel comfortable with, and if other people think you’re wrong, don’t be afraid to withdraw and/or ask for clarification/tips.
*if you don’t know what that means, I’ll be happy to explain.
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This is a bit of a side bar on the subject but I usually check who is identifying my observations. I have found that there is a portion of people who will identify my observations who have the same species in their observations that remain unconfirmed. If I am confident enough, I will suggest an ID that usually agrees with their ID - so a little reciprocal identification - or maybe I will find that they have other species that I am quite confident with. I am then on their radar and they are on mine. If you feel confident with your as yet not community agreed observation, feel free to search for others in the similar situation, they may reciprocate and you may learn some higher definition by seeing other observations.
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If you are discouraged that obs are not getting IDs, do try spending a little time IDing and learning as you go.
It can be as simple as annotating caterpillars as … Lepidoptera, larva. From that the species comes in.
If your friends send you pictures of plants, you do have knowledge to share.
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@suebee749 just a couple of things that might reduce some of the discourgement:
- there are definite tiers of families that tend to get higher rates of review/confirmation and get it done faster
Tier 1 - birds, mammals, reptiles, larger charismatic insects (that’s gonna get me hate mail) being butterflies and dragonflies and to a lesser extent fish tend to get very high 90%+ rates of review and quite quick
Tier 2 - plants, spiders, smaller insects and arthropods
Tier 3 - fungi
There are more plants submitted than anything else on the site, but fewer people comfortable doing id’s than the things in tier 1. You also have incredible diversity in the group. There are also lots and lots of garden and house plants submitted which can get demotivating for identifiers to sift through
- it may seem backwards, but everything, especially plants get reviewed more slowly in the northern hemisphere summer. With over 70% of the user base on the site being in Canada or the US, many folks who would otherwise be top identifiers are themselves out enjoying time in the field leaving less time to do id’s. And as you get further north in the US as you appear to be or in Canada it gets worse. There is always a surge of id’s in the winter, which I know seems a long way off as those folks observing opportunities decrease.
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This is a great topic. I am one of the demographics this discussion is trying to reach: an amateur who is motivated but unsure and no background in IDing anything in the natural world (before I started on iNat). So, I will try to tap into my memory about what kept me engaged and hope it helps :D
I have to be honest, I was super nervous and timid on submitting observations, much less IDing in my first 4-6 months on iNat. I felt intimated and afraid of “getting something wrong”. Actually, I had a previous account in 2017 or 2018 and deleted it because I was getting too many wrong. haha. When more experienced users started verifying my IDs in my “new” account, I started gaining confidence and soon, was putting myself out there more and taking more risks.
I agree wholeheartedly with all those stated that welcoming new users in the area and trying to ID their photos in some way is the best way, that I can think off the top of my head.
To be honest though, the learning curve probably is serving a “gate keeping” function right now. It is not possible for the more seasoned users to hand hold each new user, as much as we try. There probably should continue to be components of the experience that are highly self-motivated.
If some users are already irritated and overwhelmed at the number of unknowns posted (excessively, where no effort is made by the observer), the number of misidentifications, and “power grabs” (notice the quotations…) for the leaderboards…than I can only imagine that radically changing the system would make this subset of users more angry and frustrated than they already are…
…sigh. This is reminding me when I worked for the government…trying to balance all the demographics and making all shareholders happy. haha.
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I am not really an ID person, but I do sometimes try to go through and sort the Unknowns into broad categories. When I do, I copy/paste some comments to explain to new users; things such as:
- Many observations entered as Unknown do not get reviewed, so it helps to add even a very high level ID. I am identifying this very generally in the hope that it will be noticed and identified by someone more expert.
- I’m not an expert, but this was Suggested by iNaturalist Computer Vision. Did you know if you click in the Species Name box (its under the Suggest an Identification tab) when adding your Observation that iNaturlist software will suggest likely species? It’s not always right, so it’s worth checking further. The Compare button may offer similar organisms to consider.
Sometimes, I customize my comments and mix them up a bit or add notes like, Cool picture!
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I like those comments. I think that is very helpful and explains the “system” well. :) It took trial and error and the process of elimination for me to figure the points you make in your comments out.
thank you! In November 2018, I went to Iceland. My profile picture is the sunrise in the early morning. Thankful for the memories. Meanwhile, doing much needed hyper local exploring (^^)
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Sometimes I see your comments giving the user alternative places/apps to look for IDs of cultivated plants. Very nice :)
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I think that there are, more or less, three classes of users: those who are deeply into the observation of nature, those who are compelled to use iNat and those who are just curious of what iNat is. The two latter groups, likely, will unavoidably end up losing interest in photographing wild organisms and will leave iNat after having posted few observations. And there is nothing to do.
With the first group, as far as vascular plants are concerned, it could be important to encourage them to do this:
- explore as many habitats (from totally wild to totally anthropized) as possible in different seasons along an altitudinal gradient
- do not concentrate just on flowers but learn how the various part of a plant are made
- take care to notice the ecology of a species and the possible relations with the co-existing species
- if necessary, in the case of hard taxa, collect samples conscientiously
- always take with you a field notebook
- join field trips and join groups of people that are more experienced
We can provide them scientific literature and encourage them to become as more independent as possible as far as the knowledge of wild organisms.
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I’ve used the pokemon go analogy before and it sort of works for amateur naturalists but also setting up a friendly competition on who can find more species of fish, birds, plants, etc. helps get more people into life listing and using iNat as their catalog
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