How to promote Inat to non-Inatters

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Hey everyone!

I am a Biology major at Long Island University(LIU) and plan to lead a City Nature Challenge 2026 area for Long Island, NY. I’ve told many professors and some classmates about Inat, but pretty much everyone is unaware of it. There was a biology class that did a day of Inat around campus but all the users quit within a few days of using it.

How can a prolific Inat user introduce Inat appropriately to people with the hope of connecting people to nature? I don’t want people thinking this is a “stupid” website/app for nerds. Anyone can contribute to citizen science regardless of their background, interests, or careers. I would want to plan a “test” bioblitz on my college campus before I run the CNC.

-Robby

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Hi Robby,

I read some related threads, looking for an answer to your question:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-are-the-benefits-of-using-inaturalist-to-a-non-biologist/

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-introduce-new-users-to-inat/

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/good-ways-to-get-local-community-involved-in-city-nature-challenge/

But you specifically asked

Most of the people replying in those threads already had a pre-existing connection with nature, or at least, some kind of curiosity about it. So iNat was not necessarily connecting them with nature, but more like a tool to deepen or strengthen an interest that they already had. It wasn’t always true, but it was often true.

iNat is a tool that is powerful, sophisticated, and complicated. I don’t think it’s the best way to connect people with nature. It might be too much, too soon.

Like if a sedentary person wants to start moving a bit, we don’t start measuring macros and RPE and basal metabolic rate. We help them find a form of movement that they don’t hate too much, that is sustainable. Baby steps.

Ummm . . .

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Hi Robby,
I think the best start is demonstrating the search capabilities. You don’t even need to join to use it.
A spatial search shows what has been observed in an area. Restricting the date range shows what has been seen recently. Great for planning where to go to find what one is interested in, search is taxonomy aware as well.
Cheers
Janos

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In my experience, iNat will only be of significant interest to a rather small subset of wildlife lovers (by “significant”, I mean those with a desire to observe and/or ID regularly, as opposed to the much larger group who dabble a bit then lose interest, or log in once a year to get an ID on something they couldn’t identify).

I used to imagine that anyone into nature would surely embrace iNat as enthusiastically as me but, over the course of 14 years of using it myself, I’ve gradually come to realise that this is far from the reality. Most people with an interest in the natural world will be interested to hear about iNat and may take a look, but I have noticed that those who stick around and make regular contributions tend to be people who were already prolifically photographing wildlife, IDing their photos, compiling species lists (for their garden, say, or for a trip), or maintaining lifelists/checklists, or suchlike. People who don’t already have a nature-oriented logging-identifying-and-cataloguing mindset (or similar) aren’t likely to suddenly develop one just because they hear about iNat.

I don’t say any of this to discourage you. Please do continue to introduce iNat to your classmates, professors and others. Let them know the multitude of ways in which iNat can benefit both them and the wider scientific and conservation communities. Just don’t get discouraged if only a rather small proportion of them become regular users.

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A sign with a QR code - if you would be allowed to put a few up? There was a forum post with good discussion. A not yet iNatter needs to start with an interest in nature, and probably also in photos or sound recordings. My hiking group is interested in naming the plants we see, but even so, only a few of us are active iNatters (or willing to join our photo queue).

Make people aware that there is such a thing as iNat (what is it? Why use iNat?) Then help the self-selected to use it and navigate.

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Just use the normal propaganda stuff.

First you need to estimate what the potential new iNatters are interested in.
Some like the nice flowers like roses, some more like animals like flipper the dolphin or black beauty the horse or lassie the cute dog, some may more like fish to eat or mushrooms in a crime scene or just some nice singing birds.

Then you make them nosey about some species in the field of theyr interest, some thing they dont know, a new bird in the region, or the plant of which they dont know the name but which is useful for some thing, may healthy or food or tea.
Then tell them about inaturalis, this super great app which can ID all life forms.

Explain them how they can use the app to ID some observations, tell them how to do good observations, like to picture mushrooms also from the bottom side, or also the stem from plants or the open wings from butterflies (what ever they are interested in, just tell them how to do good observations).

Then tell them how to use inaturalist for theyr interest.
Do not just tell them to use inaturalist and then let await any thing.
Give them some perspective and also do this with some enthusiasm.

Its totally amazing, plants are so interesting you can find your own tea in the woods, you dont believe that because you dont know the plants, but if you use the inat app, you can picture the plants you see and soon you get an ID, then you have the name and you can look it up on wiki and then you will see there are many useful plants, you will learn so much it is totally amazing, and you even will help scientists, your pictures can even get some scientific status, you dont believe how amazing this app is and how much you will learn i a short time.

So it is not just about picturing life, but there is also a perspective to why a non scientist should use inat, because they get the names and they can look it up on wiki and then they can use it in theyr kitchen. Thats much more than just to picture life because it makes some professor happy.

Or the animal lover story…

Its so amazing what you learn about animals, first you think its just a slimy snail, but a snail is not a snail, no its a Arion or a Limax, and if the Arion eats your salad you need more Limaxes which eat up the eggs of other snails, and if you dont know the difference between arion and limax, just ask inat, inat is amazing they know every thing about wild life and you will learn even more about animals or fungus on your plants, on inat they can identify animals even by traces, every one should try this, once you get into it you will never stop inatting.

Just make up some catchy story for the potential new inater individials.

Add the common stuff as you know it from the internet or newspapers.
”its amazing”, “it can … any thing”, “everyone”- or “most”- or at least “many”-”use it”, “you will want it”, “why you guys dont know it? (whats wrong with you!)”, “even such (what ever) people use it”, “every day they get more and more inaters, its seems to be very trendy (may with a odd face)”, …

With scholars or may young students you may also can apply the reverse psychology trick.
”Find 10 odd wild life-forms in nature, picture them and identify them your self. (you should try to identify them your self, but we will not check if if you have used inaturalist)”.
This gives the impression that they have to do some thing, what is boring or they dont want or do not have time for, and it will suggest them that the short “forbidden” way ist inaturalist, but you already let them the door open as you say that you will not check it. So they get the impression that inat is a secret cheat app.

Once they are in inat and they have found theyr interesst, they will keep using it or at least they will come back by the next chance, or may just even remember it as the app they used to cheat some homework and then they may will recommend the app to other “cheaters”.

Also if you expect them o appear on inat, keep an eye on inat and the specific region of the new inaters, if no one else does, try to ID theyr observations to give them some fast success, use the comment section to tell them how to make better observations or how to ID animals them self, explain them odd stuff about the difference of some similar bugs, or telll them a odd story about a mushroom that looks similar to an other mushroom. Keep them interested and even open up some new perspectives or interests up to them.
Make inat theyr new drug :))

You can also use the Pokemon2Go-Effect https://wild-achievements.mywild.co.za/
”It is like Pokemon-to-go, but it makes sense, because you learn a lot and help science, if you beat me you are better than me.. try it your self, i bet you beat joe on day one, but if you beat Josh you are my new king”

Here you can also compare user versus user or just watch your self https://elias.pschernig.com/wildflower/leastobserved “if you beat this guy on limax you are the king, but to beat him on sunflower will be hard”.

A good one is also to find endangered species “If you find a lot of them in a region they may must protect the region and call it a natural reservate… be the grain of sand in the system, get an active activist”. (a good one for anti-authoritarians)

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I may be somewhat contradicting the previous post, but keep expectations realistic. People who expect to get instant IDs will be disappointed if/when they don’t eventuate - and are far more likely to just give up as a result.

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How does an updated Inat achievement website get created? I would want to add more achievements.

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Have you checked out the resources that @kestrel has made to support this kind of outreach? We also just announced today a new ambassador program. There’s a webinar about it next week.

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Annual Citizen Science Initiatives
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Thanks Carrie! I applied to be an ambassador and luckily don’t have class or sports during the webinar.

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Introduction to iNaturalist - Google Slides

I made a slideshow that combined the three recommended slideshows and added a section on “Inotting” about flags and other inappropriate behavior on Inat.

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The ambassador program sounds like a wonderful addition to the site! Although I noticed that one of the activities ambassadors are expected to do is to hold at least two events per year. Is this a mandatory part of being an ambassador? Do these events have to be in-person? I worry that this may pose a challenge for prospective ambassadors who live in rural or otherwise remote areas, regardless of their level of passion or dedication.

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I would keep it simple. That presentation with 73 slides contains a lot of information and it will overwhelm new users.

Consider introducing iNaturalist around a purpose or a mission. For example, pick a handful of common organisms around your area and create some “field guides”. A field guide in this case is a one page fact sheet about a species. Include a short, very short story about the species and why it’s important to “observe” it. Your presentation and introduction to iNaturalist should be strictly based around these species and “field guides”. Example species that you can find around this area:

  • Lycorma delicatula (Spotted Lanternfly)
    • “Introduced in blah blah it’s bad because of X blah blah”
    • “This is their life cycle, blah blah”
    • “Here’s a few photos of the insect in its adult form and in its nymph form. To make the observation easier to ID, take one from the top, and one from the front.”
    • “If you’re not squeamish, make the observation and then kill it please.”
  • Bombus impatiens,Bombus griseocollis
    • “Ah, pollinators, blah blah blah blah, important, blah, ah pesticides, yes pesticides bad, blah blah”
    • “Here are a few photos. This one will be challenging because they don’t stay put for too long. To make the observation easier to ID, take a picture of its butt, from the side, and the top.”
  • Harmonia axyridis
    • “More aggressive than our native ladybugs, blah blah, displacing native species, blah blah, more than 200 distinct color forms!! Wow isn’t that crazy!?”
    • “Here’s the life cycle of ladybugs.” here’s a video for you (warning, loud): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqddneGYkc4
    • “Here are some pictures of its larvae, pupae, and a few of its color forms.”

Add a plant species or two.

Follow with a tutorial for taking photos, based around the species you select. I would honestly teach people how to take them with the phone’s regular camera app 0and then do some basic editing before uploading it with the iNaturalist app. I don’t have an iPhone I’ve never used new iPhone app’s workflow. But anyway, editing photos, especially cropping, is an essential skill because new observers tend to take photos of beetles or even flowers from a standing position and they come up all dark and tiny. Get close to the thing you’re taking a photo of.

Then there’s the iNaturalist tutorial. Again around these species but with the usual guidance that’s in some of those slides (wild vs captive vs cultivated, etc).

And finally how that information is useful to science.

And at the end, tell them that for your test bioblitz or whatever, they are not really limited to these species; but please use what they learned in this presentation to create high quality observations.

I don’t know, something like that seems OK in my head.

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Definitely not! Virtual events are great too.

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Who is your target audience? You are at a university. Are you hoping to enthuse other students and lecturers or are you aiming to reach the wider public? If the former, you could demonstrate how iNaturalist data can be used as the raw material for student projects, so draw them in as data users then lead them on to providing data. If you are aiming for the wider public, I haven’t any original ideas to offer unfortunately.

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I would want to share the presentation in person(that way I can skip over a lot of slides) to all the bio majors at my university.

For the wider public the best place would probably be advertisements in libraries for the CNC when it comes around. I really don’t know though.

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I’m a life-long birder but dropped listing a while ago. eBird gave me a chance to do something for the future of the planet though data, so I use it almost daily. Generally, I have concluded that if an observation (no matter how ptetty) isn’t useful data, it is just experience.

I also use iNat for the same reasons. Yes, I learn a lot about ecosystems, large and small. I can name more organisms but I recognize relationships too.

Maybe others will see the future of their kids and other’s kids as their interface too.

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Well that flopped terribly…

Some guys I went to high school with(in my fantasy football league) were asking me about the ambassador program today(they are on Inat but are not serious about it, only uploading casual grade or a few RG observations).

One of them said they uploaded two photos of their dog but it was a photo of me. I’m really uncomfortable and concerned that students at my college will do the same.

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Sorry to hear about that. Sounds both childish and nasty with it.

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I don’t think anyone has mentioned the “educators” section of the forum, but there are lots of good suggestions and resources in some of the threads there.

For the biology students, I agree with the suggestion to not start with the app, or even with making observations, but rather introduce iNat as a resource for biodiversity data and a way to share interest and knowledge about the natural world. i.e., start with what iNat can do before any discussion of how to participate.

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