I keep changing my iNat user name because as soon as I change it to what I want I don’t like it anymore. 
That could just be me but I have know idea.
I didn’t even know you could change it, mine is just my name and it’s been like that since I made the account lol.
2 Likes
Mine’s ok, I think… just initials and a bit out of my email.
It’s back from when I wanted to add data to ALA (I think?) -iNat was the way to do it. I learnt of the rest -like the great community- soon after :)
A more relatable one might have been better in hindsight, I’ve considered changing it, but then some users might not easily recognize me. I do change my photo occasionally.
2 Likes
Either a real name (for scientists) or best of all your preferred taxon and its photo - makes it easier for us to remember who to ask about …
But consistent is good, whichever you chose.
Since we often have to prompt iNat to autocomplete, something like acacia not ljflkdjl and any (memorable) image that isn’t a grey ghost.
I was tricked into using my real name and face by the great google back in Google Plus days. Now I am consistent across social media - blog, FB, iNat.
3 Likes
Well you can’t change it now anyway because whenever I see a fern one person I think of is… “rgvhf” :)
4 Likes
Changing your name is a good way to confuse people around you on social plattforms.
I am rather consistent with my nicknames on the internet, just have a small hand full I am using since I am active on the interwebs. As a good german its of course never my real name (we value privacy highly), even if I realized by now, having been forced to use google products by my jobs in foreign countries and having lived in countries that are generally very different about the use of personal data, that it would not matter much anymore anyways. I just use my initials, written out how one would pronounce it in german.
Thought about changing my photo, but as these plattforms are very visual I know how confusing even this can be sometimes, so I keep it for now
4 Likes
This is one of my standard online handles, and I’m pretty happy with it. Annoyed that on a few platforms someone else is using it though.
1 Like
I started as Dinothedinosaur on Inat, because Dino has been my nickname since birth. There aren’t a lot of dinosaurs besides birds on inat, and I’m not great at those at all. So, I took the genus of my favorite spider (Mecynogea lemniscata) and put it together with the species name that both my favorite tree and flower share (Pinus palustris and Rosa palustris) to better match what I’m good at. It created a nonsense latin binomial in the likes of wily coyote, but it suits me. I like it.
2 Likes
I changed by regular decade-old nickname to my actual name, the only thing I’d change is that I want with the next passport to change my surname to a double one, so maybe change iNat name to a longer name too.
2 Likes
The issue of naming has come up before:
It’s not even something unique to the internet age since book authors have been using pen names for a long time.
I personally like consistency so I try to use the same username across multiple platforms. Mine is related to my name, but I don’t have any public/political ambitions so I’m not too worried about the New York Times Rule. I hope I don’t say too many boneheaded things, though.
2 Likes
Let me ask a clarifying question: Are you changing the username on your one account, or are you creating a different account under a new name? I didn’t even realize you could change your username!
I’ve never been a fan of pseudonyms but understand that some like the anonymity that those provide. I use my initials and last name for iNat because that’s how my name appears in research museums for specimens I collected many years ago. I view iNat as just another collection I submit “specimens” to.
3 Likes
We had the Nymwars on Google Plus. Many people left because they had valid reasons for using a 'nym (politics, stalking …
I started as Elephant’s Eye (and that *&%$ quirky apostrophe broke the display). Never again quirky punctuation. People who commented on my blog using ‘real’ names asked me to change.
But people forget - just because he says his name is John Smith and he has a nice smily picture with kid or dog, and a bit of context … you have NO way to know if any of that is true.
Different if John Smith is a prof and well known. Just bumped into my zoology prof on iNat … No picture - but name and informed comments = marine biology and Prof George Branch.
5 Likes
All you have to do to change your username is to visit your Account Settings page, type in a new one, and click Save Settings. Surprisingly easy!
1 Like
There are 6 other egordon accounts. I chose semi-random numbers and didn’t give it much thought beyond that. It bugs me a little that “egordon” did 9 IDs in 2019 and never came back.
5 Likes
Right?! I had Sungura for the longest time, and then once I got a Flickr account someone already used it, and it (was at the time at least) an empty account. WTF that my name. So I changed it a bit and it’s been this name online and for my photography for a looooong time.
1 Like
Keep in mind that if you change your username, any @-mentions on iNaturalist using your previous name will be broken. I think sticking with a name on iNat is best. As others mentioned, it allows people to know who you are. Also, it looks like there’s no acacia-lizards on iNat, so maybe you should update your username here on the forum to match your iNat username? If you can’t please message me.
5 Likes
I chose my username to match my email address. If I were to use a pseudonym, I would stop liking it and want to change it as soon as my interests changed.
Let’s see…Who do I want to be today?? Maybe “tiwane2”? Nah, since I’m bird-brained, I’ll just stick with what got me here! ;-)
2 Likes
Changing your username or your icon is a very serious thing.
I used my original username “Glycymeris” for three years and I changed it to “Invertebratist” last month because Glycymeris was a scientific name of a mollusc which prevented my profile to come first in search engine. Now many people have been telling me that they were very confused…
2 Likes