Dennis, I agree. I actually (finally) joined the forum to read more about this issue. This came up when a significant observation I made recently was used in a publication, and they didn’t cite me, but just the iNat record (even though I’d corresponded with the lead author, and let him know exactly where I saw the thing, and then he went out and trapped more and described the new species!).
Universal agreement won’t be possible with pseudonyms so just as a workaround, I added a line to my profile indicating that people should use my stuff, but cite me (as in me, not my lame pseudonym, or some URL). That might be something to consider doing (since it rankles me too!)
That’s really weird thing to do from their side! I was asked to use my photo and asked how to cite me, just mentioning your observation when decribing a new species sounds unprofessional.
Citing as iNat, is equivalent to offering Facebook or Pinterest as a source. Or citing a journal reference as Anonymous article in Nature, and ignoring the author’s name. Beyond unprofessional - the editor of the publication should pick up such an obvious error.
That is not a source, that is a host.
The obs and the photo belong to a named person. Or it is scraping, plagiarism.
Gee, I can imagine that rankles… especially since you corresponded with the responsible parties, and they could so easily have asked how to add you to the citations. Sheesh!