.org versus .ca

Hello .
New user here.
Just wondering why there exists:
iNaturalist.ca
iNaturalist.org

The two versions of the website are obviously related, so why the different URL?

Just so you know, it does cause confusion.
I signed up for the .ca version and thought it was only for Canadian observations (is it?)

…But then to access these forums, i discovered (and distinguished between) iNaturalist.org.

I had to be logged into .org to gain access to these forums.
This required a new sign up and new activation… yet with my same existing user name.

Of note:
In a current thread on the bug reports forum a .ca user also cannot link to these forums from her home iNaturalist.ca page.

Does every nation have there own URL? If so what is the benefit?

Thx
PS I was originally here looking to ask if I should log my bird observations on both iNaturalist and eBird, and how that data would appear/be interpreted to a future third party researcher. ~another topic for sure.

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The .ca and .org sites all go into the same database and are managed by the same team etc. There are several other national portals available such as New Zealand, Colombia, Mexico etc.

Really they just provide a way to add some national specific context to the pages, language specific help pages etc. Regardless of which you use, you can access the same data, if you use a regional portal such as the .ca one, the default may be to show Canada only data, but that can be turned off by simply changing your search filters.

I believe the team is working on the login issue from the .ca portal,

As to if you can or should log sightings on both Ebird and iNaturalist, really it is up to you. The biggest biodiversity aggregators such as GBIF import from both sites, so they will get your information regardless of which you choose.

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Submit the same sightings to both eBird and iNaturalist?

Unfortunately you can only log in to this forum via iNaturalist if you are currently signed in to inaturalist.org in your browser, not any of our member sites. It’s fine to create an independent account, but we ask that you use the same username as you do on iNaturalist, which helps everyone here know who you are.

Ya, thanks. I kinda get it… sorta…
Would any of our mothers ever figure this out?
(Mine wouldn’t so my humble vote is ditch the ‘member’ [national] sites and go with just .org)

~signed not-usually-this-cynical-but-it’s-twothousandandnineteen

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