# Over a million identifications

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/over-a-million-identifications/38341>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [January 5, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/over-a-million-identifications/38341 "2023-01-05T13:51:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 106

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/over-a-million-identifications/38341/106 "2023-01-12T00:57:34Z")

</div>

> [@peakaytea](#):
>
> I’m disappointed that a thread set up to celebrate those making IDd has again degenerated into a critique of the value and motivation of those IDs.

I agree. I’m also not happy with the amount of speculation that’s going on here, which is the opposite of what iNat is about and is something I’m seeing more of the forum. Unless you’ve talked to someone and asked them, you likely do not know why they behave the way they do. As humans we make assumptions and personally I’ve found that mine are often incorrect or at least not as nuanced as they should be, espeically when it comes to something as complex and diverse as human motivations. Heck, I think all of us only partly know why think the way we do.

Let’s try and celebrate that there are people who want to participate in the community, and if that means they’re adding a 4th or 5th agreeing ID, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe they’re learning. Maybe they just like snakes and want to identify them as they go through photos. Maybe they _are_ just racing up the leaderboard - that’s not a terrible thing, as long as they’re accurate and taking community feedback into account. If someone is not doing that, please notify us - that’s why we [made a recent addition to the Community Guidelines](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/small-updates-to-the-community-guidelines/36410). We can all choose what we might respect more, or give more credit to, but let’s not take people down.

I should also note that expertise is in many ways relative. When I went to Australia I couldn’t identify common taxa and I’m sure some folks who identified my observations of common species wouldn’t consider themselves experts. But they knew the commonly-seen plants and animals there while I was totally clueless, and those users were able to help me out (for which I’m grateful), even if to them it was just another _Acacia decurrens_.

---

_[View the full topic](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/over-a-million-identifications/38341)._