My iNat user name has been Botswanabugs because I’m interested in the insects of Botswana but should I consider changing it to my real name Tony_Benn1, so that the data I collect and submit may have more validity, acceptability and usefulness by the scientific community ? Are there many ‘real’ sci…

User name means little to me, however I absolutely look at a profile especially when the individual is a prolific identifier.

It seems as well that in the UK if there wouldn’t be the name “issue” they would find another excuse as fast. The trend everywhere is towards anonymity for data protection purposes as long as there is a traceability. The UK should look (perhaps they are) at enforcing scientific standards rather tha…

Whether you use your real name of a pseudonym really isn’t going to matter to (the vast majority of) people who consider using iNaturalist data. Do what you want. If you want your real name available, you can put it in your profile.

As far as I am aware the UK is indeed an outlier in terms of the strict requirements of many data aggregators for each record to come with a ‘real name’. I believe this is a legacy which has stuck around from of our long tradition of recording before the days of photo-based recording – where verific…

Some people have names that are common enough that it can be challenging to find an available user name based on one’s real name if one does not wish to adopt the rather impersonal-feeling formula of name + string of numbers. It also means that use of a real name becomes less meaningful as a way of…

I don’t believe that matters in my opinion. I will give my example. I am not a scientist, and I won’t use the data for academic work. So I simply use my comfortable internet username. I don’t know if it makes sense.

I actually went in the opposite direction. I initially used my first initial and last name (still my Forum username) to seem more legitimate and because I was hoping it would help people who I met IRL to find my iNat account. However people often spell my last name wrong so people would mess up tryi…

There’s also the ah, philosophical question of what your ‘real’ name is. I was born in China. The name my parents gave me is in Chinese. The name on my legal documents is not written the same way, because I live in America and American ID cards do not use Hanzi. I am transgender, so the name that I …

I don’t care if a person uses a real name or pseudonym. Where I would question is if the fanciful name is less than moderately serious. For example, I_Like_Big_Bugs carries more weight than I_Like_Big_Butts.

Should my user name include my real name so that my observations have more value?

General

bbk-htx January 3, 2026, 5:11pm 21

The only thing you can be reasonably sure of is the time and date.

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Should my user name include my real name so that my observations have more value?

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