How to encourage users to take more and better photos

As much as your time allows, provide feedback to users in your area of expertise and some of them will improve their “behavior.” I try to leave useful comments, although sometimes all I say is “Leaves?” and hope they get the message. Even so, I am in the top 100 of plant identifiers on this site and I still contribute poor observations (especially while hiking with my phone) Genus Eriogonum (wild buckwheats) from Bosque Nacional Los Padres, Atascadero, CA.

There is a tension between users who are primarily here to engage with nature or primarily here to engage in research. An improved onboarding process that includes tutorials for better photos and other sources of griping (https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/does-anyone-else-get-bothered-by-how-many-observations-are-marked-as-unknown-species/31896/26) has been discussed in the forum.

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