Two scenarios come to mind, that I’m planning to do in the future:
- Setting up a trail camera / bird feeder camera and uploading pictures to iNat.
Would I upload them on my own account?
Because technically I did not observe anything with my own eyes.
Also I am worried that it might clutter my account.
Do you think setting up a new account like myuser-trailcam is a good idea?
- I want to do a little event for some friends, where we go out in small groups on a nice day and make some observations.
Most will not have an iNat account and many will not want to create one, but I would still want pictures to be uploaded.
Here I am also thinking about creating a myuser-guest account that other people may use temporarily.
Attribution for pictures my be given in observation fields / notes.
Is it your trailcam? Then the obs are yours. We are allowed only one account (because of sock puppet potential?) You could make a project for my-trailcam.
For the group - people make group accounts for kids too young to have their own. Otherwise again - note or comment - Sally’s picture - and a project.
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See “Account Settings” / “Content & Display” / “Licensing”:
So, I think it’s inadequate to upload photos made by others using your account (because at some point credit will be given to you for a work from others, even if you say “Sally’s picture” in the observation notes).
Rights can be transferred (another person can give you the right to publish their work), not authorship. Photos uploaded using your account must be your content. Being granted the right to publish someone else work does not make it your content, so it does not match what iNat says in the section “Licensing”.
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If it’s your trailcam, it’s your photo. No problem.
You should not post a photo that isn’t yours. (Yours = a photo that you did take, personally or with your trailcam). However, iNaturalist is tolerant of your occasionally posting an observation with a photo taken by a friend or relative, posted with permission.
If you want to post photos by others often, consider setting up an account for the relevant entity. The organization that sponsors the hike, for example. If it’s an organization, use its e-mail and to make sure others in the organization know the password and can take over if you leave. I’ve helped an individual set up an account that I mostly manage, using his e-mail and making changes (like posting his photos) only when he wants that. It’s clearly his account, I just help.
What you shouldn’t do is set up multiple accounts that are yours. This too easily leads to problems like confirming your own identifications. Or posting offensive comments without accepting responsibility for them.
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Yes, as others have noted, there’s no issue posting photos from your own trailcam.
Having multiple accounts is generally not permitted on iNaturalist except in specific circumstances. The scenarios you outlined don’t meet those, so you shouldn’t do this. Having multiple accounts can lead to account suspension, so this definitely is not recommended.
I realize that you said you wanted the images uploaded, but those uploads should be done by the observers to their own accounts. Perhaps have the participants use iNaturalist’s Seek app, that might be more appropriate. Seek does not require a login or an account to use.
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Others have pointed out the rules about multiple accounts and the fact that you should only be posting your own content, but I want to respond to this:
(emphasis mine)
It doesn’t matter what you want. It matters what the photographer wants.
If they took the pictures and they do not want to create an account (=share their pictures), it is not appropriate for you to upload the pictures “on their behalf”. They have a right to decide what happens to their content. For some people, this may be not sharing their pictures, even if this means that data is lost.
As noted, if they give permission for the pictures to be shared by you and they are aware that the photos will be saved under your account, this is tolerated, as long as you do not do so excessively.
Alternatively, if the barrier is not that they are unwilling to create an account, but they are not tech-savvy and overwhelmed by the idea, you might consider walking them through the process of creating an account and uploading observations.
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