Response to a post in “Having City Nature Challenge in April is Silly.” The response is off-topic there, so I am responding here. The context was a discussion on the rate of observation growth being driven by the success of CNC.
User growth, however, appears to be exponential. I ran a model based on annual number of users at the end of each year, and the model suggests that iNaturalist will have upwards of 2.7 million users by years end. I do not have access to the number of active identifiers. I rather suspect that number cannot be realistically determined. That said, concepts outlined in this topic and elsewhere provide paths forward to encouraging more IDers.
Separately, teachers should be encouraged in the strongest possible terms to follow each and every one of their students and engage in the effort to “clean up” behind their students. This helps close the loop on identification for student users and makes the use of iNaturalist a more meaningful and engaging learning experience.