Hi, I’ve been doing some insect identifications and a few observations of my own. I get tags sometimes. Some personal problems came up recently that I may need to spend less time on the computer. I anticipate requests for identification may not be attended to or unable to relook into some past identifications. Is there a way of communicating to the friends out there that I’m unable to attend to identifcation request at a point in time ? and next question if the messages are to accumulate into a very big listing over time, how do people usually deal with this ? Any settings ?
You could perhaps add something to your profile to say that you are unavailable for IDs until further notice. Hopefully people would look there if they weren’t getting a response they expected.
Best wishes with getting stuff sorted out.
Tool created by @pisum - I don’t use it myself, but I have seen lots of good feedback on the forum.
https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observations_updates.html
from https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-handle-a-growing-number-of-notifications/34735
And maybe, after your break, we will all have an update for https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/management-of-notifications/60134
“Best wishes with getting stuff sorted out.”
Ditto this, and a quick thanks for all your IDs.
In the app, if you go to the app… click in your picture, it sends you to a small profile modification menu.
It looks like this:
It says user name, then name, then email, password change and then at the end… profile description: there write something like
IDLE: will come back after 8 months
Or
IDLE: won’t ID for a while
IDLE: can’t reply PMs
IDLE: for personal reasons
That way, when people check your profile, know you arent active.
I feel very free to take breaks of any length whenever I feel like it without any notification. I enjoy ID’ing when I’m at home, but I don’t do it when I travel, even when I travel for months at a time. If I felt it was an obligation, it might stop being fun, and I might stop doing it altogether. I enjoy the feeling of having my opinion valued by the observers who ping me and thank me, but I try to resist any inclination to overestimate my importance to any of them.
Most commitments are optional
Sure, but I haven’t made any commitment. I just ID when I feel like it, which just happens to be quite often.
Benjamin, to add some context to my comment, the original post described a sense of duty; an obligation to stay on top of things and to respond to people.
This is a burden of the modern world: a never-ending stream of digital commitments, where you have to run full speed, or you fall behind. It’s not sustainable for anyone! What’s the solution?
You are a taxon expert who contributes a lot to iNaturalist. And yet, your post revealed an important truth: that most of these commitments, and when you think about it, almost all commitments, are burdens that we place on ourselves.
Your valuable reminder takes the sense of obligation out of it, and gives us back our sense of agency. We can always choose to take a break!
Your contribution is valuable, but is by no means an obligation. Take all the time away you need.
Your niche and expertise makes you important in my book
If you prefer not to edit your profile, another option is to create a Journal post. Barbara @sedgequeen created a Journal post for a similar situation: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sedgequeen/123851-apology