I love how easy it is to put photos into posts here on the forum – usually I copy the image to my clipboard and just paste it directly into the composer. I don’t have to save the image to my computer or write raw html or anything.
In contrast, my usual workflow for posting images to iNat is to put them up on imgur, then copy the URL, then add the image via typing in html in the body of the comment. (I’m talking about images like maps to display on taxon changes, not actual observation images, example below.)
This request is for a forum-style way to add images on iNat. That means both having iNat host the images, and a way to insert them when composing comments, journals, etc. that doesn’t require writing out html/markdown.
Agree too. Especially when posting images in comments, it would be especially useful when someone asks for ID comparisons between two similar looking species. Since sometimes words may be too technical for the layperson, or sometimes too vague, so visual context would be useful in that sense.
Couldn’t agree anymore!
I am a web iNat user and sometime when I use the messege on iNat to comunicate ID and taxonomy topics, I have to send the photo to explain my idea or show more detail than the observation photo or just to let the recipient know what I am saying. But I can’t send the image directly because there aren’t the function on the messege. I have to send the image or original website link but some of the photo are saved in my computer an can’t find its original link any more so I can’t let the opposite see my image, that’s much annoying.
If we can send the image directly it will be easier and better.
I too would like to drag-and-drop photos into my journal postings. Not all photos that would go in a journal posting are what would be considerend observational evidence. They pertain to just the thoughts contained in the journal posting. They are not necessarily posted anywhere else.
PS: I have seen that the iNat staff almost never handles feature much. I have only seen a handful feature requests that have ever been implemented, or the staff comes up with some excuse or keeps silent. Very unfortunate.
Part of me likes this idea, but part of me knows if it were implemented it would mainly be used to post annoying photo reactions to observations, like
Which also raises the question of whether the photos added in comments need to adhere to the same copyright rules as the ones in actual observations. On most platforms, the photos used in the comment sections are pretty much all copy-pasted from elsewhere on the internet. Does iNat really want to deal with storing all that copyrighted material on their servers? Or deal with moderating/curating comment photos? This would be a much bigger deal on inat than it is here on this little forum with tight moderation.
Hosting an unknown number of images for the entire lifetime of the site is not a small request. The extra storage requirements impose ongoing costs in terms of either additional hardware or third-party hosting. Currently, Amazon is providing some free hosting for iNaturalist - but it seems unlikely that their Open Data Program would accept arbitrary images embedded in comments, journal posts, and such like.
I’m not at all opposed to making it easier to compose html/markdown content, but I think some of the difficulties may be exaggerated. The mardown syntax for an image is exactly the same as for a link, but with a ! in front:
Comment fields already provide a simple tool for inserting the basic markdown, so all the user needs to do is paste in the url (and perhaps add a ! for images).
Personally, if I regularly wrote journal posts, I would look for a third-party editor that could be configured to use only the limited subset of HTML/Markdown that iNaturalist supports.
