Yup! That is why I titled it Patience payoffs. 
I definitely benefit from watching at length, observing how things move and interact with each other. It helps me to associate and sort them and fix them in my mind. (It also is helpful because I live in a part of the world where Identifications can take longer so I prefer to maintain a slower “I am learning and enjoying” pace.)
The funny thing is, the butterfly photos I took while waiting for the tide to go out were not only identified, but some were even called “interesting,” and were used as illustrations in a butterfly website. Meanwhile, the mollusks remain in limbo.
Yes. Many more people like butterflies than molluscs. Molluscs are probably almost as slow as most plants.
Kind of unfortunate, since mollusks are all really cool animals.
One of my favourite things when IDing is to sort by ‘random’. Often observations that are years old come up that were just missed, they’re not even too tough for me to ID to genus or species. Sometimes, the person has given up on iNat by then. Other times, they’re like Wow! Thank you for seeing this! And it brightens my day.
That’s what I do to.
Just got an id confirmed!
when I joined iNat over five years ago, I was one of the earliest to post records of the invasive Euphorbia maculata in Israel. I spent some time in herbaria to work on more sect. Anisophyllum and was dismayed that they only had one record of E. maculata - from (IIRC) 2012!
I decided to check all their E. serpens and E.prostrata, in case the species might have been introduced earlier.
It took me a few visits to get through hundreds of records, most from the 70s and 80s, but I did find my E maculata at last. from 2005, kicking back its introduction significantly. It felt great to have those hours pay off.
I did also correct a handful of IDs (serpens<->prostrata) and bring fresh vouchers of various species :)
sometimes going through “RG” can be a slog, but each time you find a treasure it compels you to keep checking.
Just this week a several years old spider I’d entirely forgotten about got ID’d by a spider expert!
I get something like that once or twice a month I think, but it’s hard to keep up with my n otifications after I do a batch of ID’ing myself
I’m not frequently on the forums here, but a friend and fellow iNat user pointed out this post, and I’m honored that my identification had such a positive impact that it (and jeongyoo’s subsequent ID) inspired such a lovely post! :-)
I got into identifying things stuck at Hymenoptera about a year ago, and since then I’ve made over 50k IDs, mostly to the family or superfamily level. I’ve actually gotten through the vast majority of IDable ones and have expanded into anything stuck at Apocrita too – which is how I got to your observation! It’s been a really fun and gratifying activity, and I find myself opening iNat to ID some more wasps super often. It’s satisfying to make such a dent in the number of languishing observations, and even moreso when it turns up cool and underobserved species like this.
Congrats on such a cool find, and here’s to many more exciting observations getting rescued from the piles of unknowns!
When somebody feels bad about a mis-identification, I like to tell them it’s the duty of all good identifiers to miss something every once in a while, so another identifier can have the pleasure of correcting it. 
I am so grateful for your efforts @cecildomyiidae which kick-started the whole thing, let’s be honest. I do not know as much about wasps as I would like but I am very much a fan.
Did you see our wasp appreciation thread? There were book recommendations in it and one in particular I am hoping to get my hands on (but after we move so as not to have to plonk one more thing in a box or bag). I doubt I will ever get to 50K identifications (holy frijole) but I do hope to carry a bit more of my weight.
Until then, thank you and also to the other identifiers for your work. I try not to litter the site with gratitude but every Identification that is made, be it refining, disagreeing or agreeing, with or without comment, I usually audibly exclaim over with some excitement (Think: “Oh! Someone looked at my ant!”).
To me it means someone has not only looked at the same thing I have, they have also considered it, a shared experience, which is just… really cool.
I agree with every word. My instinct is to thank every time I get an ID, but I resist so as not to clutter up the notification system. But it does mean SO much to me, not just for the ID, but also because it means I’ve been able to share my observation. And for me, every observation is an experience in itself. Yes, really.
Because it fits nicely…
Observation from almost 10 years ago, up here since 5, IDed to species yesterday…
Turns out to be only the second record of this species (not on iNat… in general) and first photo… I am very happy that back then I put much more effort in producing nice pictures
WOW! Yes in all caps because it ought to be shouted!
@tiwane can we suggest Observations to be highlighted in the sidebar? This one.
PD: would also fit in well in this thread, just wanted to admire that aspect.
What I really had in mind to say about this would probably have been flagged as “off topic,” so instead I’ll just say: I can relate.
Here’s one 11 years in the ID process: