My Guidelines for using iNaturalist

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I just want to past this post for new people on here who are not familiar with this app because I am still considering myself as a newcomer. So, these are my guidelines that I have written down for my personal use to keep myself responsible and accountable! Feel free to use them as well!

• Focus on species until familiar
• Read the pages and research on web before identifying a observations that I’m not confident on
• Only agree with identifications that I’m very confident in
• Learn from others and ask questions
• Read identification books and websites
• Go on field trips often
• Take picture first and post later afterwards (preferably with camera)
• Take pictures of all angles possible and all important parts of plants or animals to identify
• Mark if the plant is planted as cultivated
• If many plants are in the photo, mark the desired plant
• Only do IDs that I’m confident in when tired and need to slow down
• Keep cryptic species at the genus level
• Use guide books along with internet (the internet is not reliable enough)

will keep this updated with new guidelines as I come up with them as best as I can

Feel free to give some feedback and suggestions that I should add to the list!

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Great guidelines! Though the first few depend on your personal aims, the ones about identifying are good advice for everyone. I also think it’s important to remind ourselves, as you do, that the Internet isn’t everything, and that there’s a huge bank of stored knowlege out there in books and field trip leaders for us to learn from.

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Yes! I just deleted the top two. Thank you for pointing that out and I will add your advice about the internet and guide books!

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Could you clarify what this means?

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I am basically saying that I should pick a taxon to focus on and narrow it down to the genus level and learn about the different species until I feel comfortable iding with those species

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