Well, for special identifications, an occasional thank you is appreciated. 
When I identify something that hasn’t been on iNaturalist before, it makes me very happy, probably more than the discoverer. It’s also great every time I learn something new. I love exchanging ideas with other hardcore nature enthusiasts about interesting species with uncertain IDs. That’s actually reward enough to keep me going.
I’m unemployed because I have depression and some comorbidities. That’s why I’m poor. Nevertheless, I use my time every day to learn new things and help others, but I would really appreciate the opportunity to access scientific papers that are normally behind a paywall.
Unfortunately, I can’t afford that luxury, although it’s essential for some identifications and also for my curatorial work. Fortunately, many papers are already available for free, for example, on ResearchGate. Sometimes I have thankfully received paid articles for free, for example from the authors themselves.
Perhaps one could somehow make papers generally available to curators for free. That would be absolutely fantastic. Maybe this could also attract new, productive curators, because I’m always struck by how much work there is to be done, but a lot of it just gets left undone…
Another thing would certainly please me and many other identifiers: I regularly spend far too much time trying to manually mark observations of cultivated plants or domestic animals as cultivated. It’s not only time-consuming, it’s actually just annoying. I don’t want to offend anyone and have finally uploaded a few such observations myself (all marked), but in reality, this is mostly data garbage that unnecessarily takes up storage space and resources.
We live in strange times. We humans are responsible for the largest mass extinction in millions of years, but at the same time, we live in the age of discovery! New species are discovered and described every day, and these are by no means just inconspicuous creatures that can easily be overlooked or confused. Many species are discovered in Southeast Asia and South America, for example. Every now and then, however, there are completely unexpected discoveries in otherwise well-studied habitats, such as the recently discovered entirely new genera Ovicula (North America) and Petrolamium (Europe):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1608701-Ovicula-biradiata
https://novataxa.blogspot.com/2025/03/petrolamium.html
Ultimately, the greatest reward for me as a curator and identifier is to contribute to the timely discovery of new, little-known, or rare species and their long-term protection and conservation. Not for the sake of humanity, but because these creatures are all part of this wonderful planet and have a right to exist!
It’s important to me that the biodiversity data on iNaturalist is permanently preserved and secure. I want the data to outlive me and perhaps still be useful in the distant future. I’m very concerned about this at the moment, given the current administration in the USA…