Is iNaturalist newbie friendly?

I recently joined as I would like to share the insects I find both where I live and where I travel, but I feel as if I might be unwelcome due to my lack of ID experience/knowledge. I do my best to provide the details I have with iNat’s assistance but I am very self-conscious and want to know what you feel on the matter of inexperienced youths like myself joining to share photographs of the things they find. Thank you. :lizard:

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Sharing the insects or other organisms you observe is exactly what iNaturalist is about! You can upload your observations with your best guess of the ID (something like “insects” or “beetles” is perfectly fine) or just upload the observation with no ID if you’re not sure. If you get it wrong there is no harm, someone else will come along and add a better ID. We’ve all suggested IDs that were incorrect before.

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By writing this post, you’re already ahead of the game. Compare:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/open-letter-of-apology-for-once-being-a-reckless-user/26346

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I think you will find it to be a very friendly and welcoming place! Most of the users on here are not experts, just regular folks who want to learn more about their surroundings.

Also, some of the coolest observations on the site have been from inexperienced and casual users, who just happened to be in the right spot and snap a random picture that turned out to have enormous scientific value!

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We welcome young iNatters.
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/recognition-of-young-inatters/31178

Some of our taxon specialists are (or still were when they landed on iNat) high school kids.

Come back to this thread for support - if - you do have issues or questions. Since you are already on the Forum you are way ahead of the pack already!

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This community is friendly to newbies, so you can be calm. Conflict situations is very rare here. As i can tell from mine experience - i never seen a toxic specialists here. :) So, dont be shy if your identification was incorrect, i think if identifiers found this observation, they will just add another identification, so its okay to make mistakes here. Science based on mistakes and advances of naturalists, so))

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Welcome to the Forum!
iNat has been the most welcoming of platforms.
The people here are from everywhere in the world and are all ages and very differing skill levels all here to share their experience with nature. From the young people,(13 with their own account, earlier with adult) to those of us with higher year counts… the full range of photo equipment, education and experience.
Contribute what you can, when you can, and help ID or add annotations as you learn. It’s all good.
Here on the forum, we even celebrate the “worst photo you’ve posted” !
Edit: be patient on getting ID or confirming ID!
It can take years! This morning I received an ID on a photo from 2019.

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Welcome to iNats and to the Forum

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You want to know what I feel? I feel inspired.

@jujulues, you are young yourself, so to make the example relatable for you, imagine you get an ID on an observation, and you click on the identifier’s profile.

You see something like, “I’m only 3 years old, so take my IDs with a grain of salt, and please do your own research haha”

Then you realize that this small child seems to spend 16 hours a day doing nothing but IDing one taxon, and has hundreds of thousands of accurate IDs in that taxon.

I find that kind of thing inspiring!

Here is a child that, for most of human history, would have had no power and no respect, and today, thanks to iNat, they can interact with their peers and make valuable contributions to global biodiversity.

What a time to be alive!

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We all have been inexperienced young ones, just earlier.

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iNaturalist is just like everywhere else in the world, which is to say some people are very friendly, some people are a bit more reserved, and those at either extreme may find the other off-putting. Some people post long blocks of text and others are more succinct, and again those on either end may feel the other way is less polite even though again it really isn’t at all, it is just different.

As to age, some people are quite young and some are quite old, and you may or may not be aware of who falls into which group, but it needn’t matter because some of the most applied are very young and others very old, and likewise some of the least applied are younger and others older.

What you do with iNaturalist, within the terms, is up to you. I discover more ways to use the platform the longer I am here (and realize it is a bit of an iceberg, there is far more I do not know).

Welcome, and I hope you find your comfortable place here. :)

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I spend some time most nights identifying. Much of this is putting a coarse ID, like Aves or Araneae or dicot or Agaricomycetes (gills don’t guarantee Agaricales, some Boletales have them). Sometimes I find a genus or species I’m familiar with, like Pavo cristatus (the landlady has, or has had, some), Numida (ditto, and I’ve identified a bird as Numididae from just a feather), or Odocoileus (I’ve had a road accident with one), and can confirm a species ID. A coarse ID is usually soon followed by a more specific ID from someone who knows spiders or mushrooms or whatever and wouldn’t have found it without the coarse ID.

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As a former newbie, I would say yes. I made a few mistakes but other users gently guided me in the right direction and were kind while doing so. I picked it up quick and I’ve now been here for about three years or so.

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Inexperienced users are generally welcomed across iNat.

There’s no obligation on you to identify anything, not others’ observations and not even your own. In it’s most basic form, one of the primary uses for iNat is for people who don’t know what something is to upload it and get it IDed. There’s no judgement on people who only use iNat in that way.

That said, it’s certainly very helpful if you do add an ID when you upload an observation. But that can be a broad ID; don’t go feel the need to go beyond your confidence. It’s fine to upload something as a “plant” or a “beetle” or a “bird” if you don’t know its ID any more precisely than that.

With time, as you use iNat, you’ll likely learn more and more, and you will find you can provide more precise IDs to some of your observations, and even sometimes add IDs to other people’s observations.

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iNaturalist has been set up to promote engagement with nature, amongst other things.
Since I started, I found everyone polite and the vast majority friendly and helpful.

Welcome Jujulues!

You will find everyone on this platform is very positive and welcoming to newcomers. Don’t worry about being an inexperienced youth. We all have to learn and we all make mistakes along the way. If you don’t get out of your comfort zone into something new you never learn things!

I became involved late in life (I am well into my seventh decade now) and I am as inexperienced as the average newby teenager! And it’s great! :grinning_face:

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