So the ID-a-thon has ended! Over the past five weeks, so much work has been put into this challenge, and hopefully we have all come out a bit more knowledgable or a bit more experienced. I know I sure did!! What week do you think you felt the most comfortable IDing, and which week did you learn the…

I thought I picked a nice visually simple dragonfly to try to isolate in my area to find there have been taxon changes and someone needs to do the DNA work to confirm the subspecies. If Rhyothemis variegata in Australia ever gets itself sorted I am there with the subspecies. IDing a few of the loca…

The Id-a-thon was targeted at engaging people who may never have tried identifying observations before, so measuring its impact needs feedback from them. Is there anyone on the forum who falls into that group? I have been very busy identifying, and trying to expand my identification repertoire, bu…

While I do believe that the target audience of the ID-a-thon; I was inspired to learn more about some of the plants in my area, I tackled IDing a all-too-common plant and its close relatives, and I went through 700 pages and confidently ID’d almost half of them to species level. I got stumped, agai…

I found the ID-a-thon educational and it was nice to see identifications moved along, including some old ones. The comparison/how to ID sheets were helpful and left me wanting to learn more. I’ve got a better understanding of flowering plants (dicots/monocots) so I’m able to use those instead of jus…

I started identifying a few months ago following the webinar on identifying unknowns. I could identify at a high level, like winged and once-winged insects, but the id-a-thon gave me insight on how to identify to a greater detail. It takes a little more time, but I’m learning much more which is rewa…

[image] JimAnderson: I enjoy adding a more detailed id to an observation from a few months ago, then checking after a few minutes or hour later and finding that someone with more knowledge has added a more detailed identification. Jim, you reminded me of this comment: [image] #IdentiFriday…

@AdamWargon Thanks for sharing that. I’ve been pleasantly surprised so see a couple of my identifications from a few months ago have identifications added during the id-a-thon.

Do we have any stats for what percentage of observations were at Kingdom before the event vs after the event? Some quantitative stats rather than anecdotal or individual impacts?

We are promised an iNat blog post ‘this week’ about the ID-a-thon. Those are the stats that will be interesting !

I had only tried a few IDs before the ID-a-thon. I wasn’t comfortable doing Unknowns, which mainly seemed to be indistinct photos. I concentrated on a few local plant species that are very common and hard to get wrong if a few key traits are in the photo. My goal was to clear some bulk from the que…

ID-a-thon Impact

General

AdamWargon January 18, 2026, 10:48pm 8

Jim, you reminded me of this comment:

Topic		Replies	Views
ID-a-thon goal check in General	24	796	January 26, 2026
ID A Thon Unofficial Guide General	135	2545	December 21, 2025
Announcing the (JANUARY) 2021 ID-a-thon (all welcome) General fun	94	5060	February 2, 2021
Identify identifiers IDs General identify	126	3593	September 13, 2025
#IdentiFriday is the happiest day of the week General	2315	61162	June 28, 2026

ID-a-thon Impact

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