Curious, I just noticed someone was on r/iNaturalist saying that the new app was causing delays in people giving IDs.
When I ID on my iPad (iOS) in Chrome, I don’t see when the observation was added. I realize that I could address this by excluding today in the search filter, but I ultimately decided that this doesn’t make sense for my area. Unknowns are a group likely to contain issues - those issues are most readily addressed when the observer is active on the site - like when they are still on vacation and using iNat. I’ve had one person ask me to hold off on adding IDs in 2.5 summers of not worrying about IDing too soon.
I think that post was referring to the update in iNaturalist for iOS (version 1.0.5). The Explore page now defaults to a 1 km radius of your current location, not the 50km radius from before. They’re wondering if that’s causing identifiers to see fewer observations. I suspect it might make a small difference, but I imagine the vast majority of IDs are made via the website, not the new app.
I’m grateful for the identifiers on iNat and am happy when any of them take time out of their lives to look at and chime in on my observations. (Thank you)
I also have experienced the frustration of being beaten to “my own”* annotations while still working on the newly uploaded observation. My little workaround (above) has been good for me and I hoped it might help any others who also care about and enjoy annotating their contributions.
I don’t know @Thunderhead, but reading their profile made me wonder if the frustration may come from their particular situation. Having other people do things for you when you want to do them for yourself probably feels very different depending on your individual situation.
*It may also be something to learn to adjust to. It’s “my” observation but it’s for science and open to anyone else to interact with - sometimes it’s weird coming face to face with just how all this works and where “my” ends, and the group begins.
I’m extremely grateful for iNaturalist, even when I sometimes feel frustrated with some aspects of it. I don’t expect it can be customized to every individual’s liking, but sometimes when a problem is mentioned that can result in a nice fix, or at the very least, commiseration with others. Others who see things very differently can help me gain a new perspective, which is part of what I like about the forum - so many different perspectives to consider and learn from.
I think it’s a leap to read that someone wants to be able to make their observation complete before sending it out into the world and then to interpret that as saying they don’t want people to engage with the observation at all, and an unfair one.
I hope @Thunderhead will find their stride with the new app and that any frustrations will fade. Sometimes change can be difficult, especially with something you really love.