Wow, thank you so much for doing this! I totally understand why you caution using this table as definitive evidence for/against anything. But I am struck by two things:
First, the decrease in rate of growth of observers in 2020 and 2021 - is this a result of the pandemic or a sign that growth in iNat use is beginning to level off? Perhaps a result of classes during the pandemic not using iNat?
Second, the slow decrease in ratio of identifiers (for others) vs. observers. My guess (a complete guess, mind you) would be that much of the growth in observers comes from teachers directing their students to use iNat. Understandably, those students (and maybe even the teachers) don’t feel competent to make identifications, or just aren’t interested, so the increase in observers is not matched by an equal percent of identifiers.
Aren’t data fun? Now I want to know how many observers never make more than, say, 50 observations and how that percent of “ephemeral” observers (perhaps students?) has changed over the years. And so on.
Thank you again!