Should I use iNaturalist as a backup for my photos?

General
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Is it ok if i just use Inaturalist to dump every single species i photographed in case my SD cards get corrupted and i lose MY PHOTOS???

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Short answer: No.

Literally it says not to do this.

edit to add: here is a great thread about photo storage.

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I changed the title of this topic to more accurately reflect what is being asked. There’s no mention of “captive animals” in the original post.

No, iNaturalist is not a place for backing up your photos. If you’re worried about losing photos, use a cloud backup service and/or backup hard drives. There are plenty of pages online that provide instructions and advice for backing up your photos.

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I see MANY MANY people post about their “captive species” from Zoo’s and Aquariums so why can’t i do it specifically?

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(I am confused: is it wild life photography if it is in a zoo? To be clear, your objective is to mass upload Casual Observations of already photographed species in captivity, most far from their natural range?)

@tiwane has already clearly stated that iNaturalist is not a photo backup. There are technical reasons for this you may wish to explore. That users from time to time have uploaded Observations that are Casual and/or within a zoo still does not make iNaturalist a photo backup; presumably those users have their photos backed up elsewhere, as should everyone.

There are alternatives within the thread I linked (and within the links in that thread).

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Not to mention “mass upload” i’m uploading one pic of every species i photographed, if i post a Humpback Whale picture i took years ago would that hurt anyone?
and “already photographed species in captivity”?? no these would be new species i have not yet posted

So what you call “backup” i call posting species and building up my lifelist

you also claimed the “mass upload” yet no one complained when we had a guy uploading a single picture over 60 times counting the individual grackles

also saying that a staff member threw in the word “backup” when I asked about this, but i’m not here to argue so i’m just gonna post my species for my lifelist and see what happens

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Assume good intent; I just was not clear on what constitutes wildlife photography. I assumed it needed to be, well, wild. You threw in there that you were a wildlife photographer and I could not understand what that meant or the relevance.

I also thought you had many Observations to make since honestly you seemed a little frenetic so I perceived multitudes of photos in danger of being lost on the SD cards imperiled with corruption. If not, surely one would take the time to slow down and research proper options for backups, read links provided, etc.

Short answer: Upload whatever you like, makes not one whit of difference to me. Backup your photos or not. But iNaturalist is not a backup.

So if it goes down or photos disappear (or the quality is lessened on upload), no crying foul.

I have no idea what situation you are referencing re: grackles but if it is something that might warrant Curator/Staff attention, flag it. (It sounds like it has nothing to do with this topic.)

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they allowed the grackles since i made a post about it 2-3 years ago

and yes my main point was to post every species i have ever photographed, they will remain organized in my SD cards for the time being but i’d love to get my lifelist proper while eventually getting a website for my pics

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I’ve closed this topic since the OP has stated that they will continue to post their photos regardless of feedback.

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