Require iNaturalist user verification and limit number of forum posts for new users

I would like to propose that new users to the Forum be limited to a set number of posts per day for their first month. I am not sure what the magical number would be (5? 10?), but this would be a Community discussion, and it is possible that the Community would be not in favor, however limiting posts might encourage new Forum users to read (and possibly find whatever info they might be seeking in the vast threads already here) and also familiarize themselves with the tone and tempo, as it can be quite hard to remedy a first impression that may be less favorable.

I see where one can request features for iNaturalist, but is there such a place for the Forum? (Is this it?)

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This is the right place. As always, thank you for avoiding references to specific users or recent examples.

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Of course.

I was thinking this could be part of the larger ā€œneed for better Onboardingā€ discussion that has been underway for some time.

Perhaps during this month, a daily FAQ type post could pop up for a new Forum user to read that might guide them to use some aspect of iNaturalist in a way that was beneficial to them, so they have a full window to the site but also guidance, like an Orientation. (They could earn Badges for reading these.)

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Yes. As in keeping ID requests on iNaturalist itself and not using the Forum to promote projects, among other frequently seen problems.

I canā€™t remember now whether I saw these guidelines at the time that I joined, but a problem with this type of platform in general is that some people treat a forumā€™s guidelines like a software license: instead of reading them, just scroll to the bottom and click ā€œI agree.ā€ Is there a way to reduce this sort of behavior without becoming too onerous and off-putting?

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Perhaps in addition to limiting posts for a set period, new users also could be limited to starting a set number of threads per day. Perhaps they could only initiate one thread for the first week, two a day the second week, rolling upward to whatever the norm is after the month.

This would encourage them to read more and perhaps even seek out existing threads that might have information they seek.

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I think tiwane looked into it at some point and the available settings (as far as automated limitations) just for the first 24 hours of someoneā€™s time on the forum. Definitely something weā€™ve talked about though.

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There are various settings that can be tweaked, related to:

  • what accounts at each trust level are allowed to do.
  • what it takes to progress to the next trust level
  • whether accounts at certain trust levels can start topics in certain categories

Requirements to move up to the next trust level are based on number of posts read, time spent reading, days on the forum, number of likes received, etc. So it canā€™t be someting like ā€œfirst week you can make X number of postsā€ but you can approximate something like that using those other metrics.

Iā€™d like new Forum users to be able to start topics in Bug Reports and ask questions in General and Educators. That does allow people unfamiliar with the forum to create topics that arenā€™t for the forum (mostly asking for ID help), but I think the benefits of letting people report bugs or ask a question and get a response from the community outweigh the cost of errant posts. However, thatā€™s just my opinon. Happy to hear feedback about it.

I agree with you here and I totally find myself doing that when I join other sites or start up new apps - weā€™re all so overwhelmed with that kind of onboarding that I think we generally dismiss it pretty quickly out of habit. Beyond actually limiting someoneā€™s ability to post until they meet a certain requirement, I donā€™t think more infomational onboarding would do much.

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(Can a Moderator mark this UNsolved since @tiwane has indicated he would like additional thoughts, please?)

I have been thinking about this a lot, and one thing I think would be helpful is if to register for the Forum, a verification of iNaturalist username took place. This could be something as simple as:
(at registration)

  1. Are you an existing Member of iNaturalist? (click yes or no)
  2. Please enter your iNaturalist username here __________
  3. Then a Moderator/Staff verifies that username is in use.

Ideally, iNaturalist usernames would then automatically be visible on Forum profiles, although for the life of me I cannot see that mine is nor how to make it so, though I can see that they are on other profiles though not all.

This might preclude any registrations solely for identification (where they skip iNaturalist altogether) and would hopefully also prevent situations like this.

There are other benefits I can think of to having iNaturalist usernames automatically visible in Forum profiles but recognize I may not be aware of drawbacks, so perhaps this was a conscious design decision, however I would still like to know how to add my own iNaturalist username to my Forum profile.

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The answer to your original topic title question (Where should one propose changes to the Forum?) was the post marked as the solution, so I changed the topic to reflect your suggestions.

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To add to this, I wonder if the iNat forum could encourage people not to write short posts (where a heart would suffice) by showing some sort of pop-up message if a person tries to post a reply with less than a certain amount of words. I donā€™t know the amount of words that would be best to limit posts to, or if it would be better to still allow the user to post a short message after seeing the pop-up, if this makes sense.

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It does already do this. The minimum is currently 5 characters:

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My issue with that is - despite being called - the ā€˜iNat Forumā€™ - it is open to anyone. You do not need an iNat profile to post in the Forum. Free for all to chime in with their opinion and advice.
Since it is intended to be feedback and discussion about iNat, I would prefer an (active) iNat profile to be required. I wish.

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Yes, that is why I think having an iNaturalist username and having it be verified should be a requirement to join the Forum.

I think a fair amount of people confusedly think they are the same thing initially and so only join the Forum, in hopes of having one thing identified, which is like the one thing the Forum is not for. It feels terrible to be like, ā€œWelcome! Anything but that!ā€ (Maybe a prompt at registration would be a gentle Ohhhh moment for them. :sweat_smile:)

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I was going to say maybe it ought to be five words, then I remembered this.

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Well, that and ā€œJoin our project!ā€