I found a topic with exact issue but as it is old I can’t write there: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/are-two-accounts-allowed-for-the-same-person/27028
My question is: have the things changed since that time and is it allowed to create two separate accounts to organize one’s observations? I seriously considered such thing but I don’t want to have my account(s) banned because of that. Below I’ll explain why I would like to do that.
For now, most of my activity on iNat is identifying observations of one group of organisms for other users. I have particular interest in this group and my notifications are full of observations of this group. When in the field, I of course see many other organisms and sometimes even take photos of them ;) I thought of putting them to iNat (in order to have them identified, and in the hope that maybe some day I’ll make an observation which will be interesting to someone) but honestly, most o them I keep on my hard drive because I’m afraid that Ill get lost in notifications and I’ll overlook something regarding my favourite group. I thought of creating a second account which would be named in connection to first one (something like “justyna_kierat_other_observations”, you know ;) ) and putting links to each other in profiles, with a few words of explanation. I’m of course not planning to ID a single obs with both accounts, and even if I would by mistake (we all make mistakes, and I do quite many) it would be immediately visible (two similar account names under one obs). On the other hand, if such two accounts are not allowed, it would be immediately found out (as I’m not planning to hide it) and if my acounts were banned I would lose all my history on the first account. So I decided to ask first, and if it’s not allowed then I’ll continue using iNat only to work with “my” group and not to post observtions of other organisms.
I would like this option too.
I have my own account and I have a project that helps to record the biodiversity of the conservation area I’m working in. For the latter I have a few antipoaching teams, my staff, and work with park rangers. I’ve given our antipoaching teams and staff cameras, and the rangers sometimes take photos and give them to my NGO as well.
These we also post and it would be nice to be able to have an account for the project where these can be recorded so that they don’t look like they’re my photos.
I don’t know what’s allowed, but I have set up accounts for two friends who wanted to post things but were overwhelmed with the process. One has taken over his completely. I still sometimes post things for the other friend, even do the occasional ID for him (checking with him each time). This is like setting up two accounts for oneself, except that the names and profile photo are completely different. So I’d say one can do it, but I don’t know what policy (if any) iNaturalist has about it.
There is mention here https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/community+guidelines
(!) Sockpuppet accounts. A sockpuppet account is an additional account set up to evade suspension, circumvent restrictions in functionality, or other forms of bad behavior, like confirming your own identifications. This does not include multiple accounts set up for multiple roles, e.g. a personal account and a professional account.
As you can see, it is not much elaborated according to the use of second account I’m interested in.
In your case, I don’t see anything inappropriate as in fact your role is extensive help in using iNat by someone else, if I understand well.
The previous thread answers the question pretty well. There staff said:
I don’t believe anything has changed in the past year with this guidance.
So for your use case @justyna_kierat having two accounts wouldn’t be justified. I think that you can use existing functionality with filtering or projects to get most of what you might want.
@earthknight it seems like you might be able to make an account for the NGO to use and administer it, though see some of the potential caveats in that thread. You’ll also want to think about implications for photo licenses too. If all photos on an account are set to be public domain it isn’t an issue, but claiming various licenses could be an issue (I don’t know exactly how it would work, so can’t offer any more specific advice!)
Thanks. I have to admit I’m quite disappointed as I don’t see what bad would result from such two accounts. I would think iNat is not a social media on which one person-one account is so important. On Wikipedia, mentioned in the older discussion, at least Polish version which I use, having “sockpuppets” to divide areas in which one is editing is one of allowed cases. Anyway, I’ll simply not post my other observations on the portal and stick only to my area of interest.
A couple of thoughts as It sounds like you are worried about managing notifications. In general, I think that there are a lot of users that use iNat similarly to what you describe: identifying a specific group of interest and observing fewer things that just interest them. So if others can figure out a way to manage it, I bet you can too!
One thought is that you could just see how it goes - start by posting a small number of observations and seeing what it is like. If it ends up being too difficult, then you can stop, but I don’t think a trial run would hurt.
If the potential issue revolves around notifications, iNat does have a revamped notification system on their “to do” list, though it isn’t certain what it will look like or when it will come out. So you could keep your eyes out for that and when it does come out, see if it meets your needs.
You could also consider some user created solutions to managing notifications. You can use this tool from @pisum https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observations_updates.html and see if it helps you manage notifications.
You could also just come up with some regular searches via filters to keep up with your own notifications or turn off confirming notifications (which is the biggest setting for reducing notification volume) - again, something you could try and reverse if you don’t like.
If you looked at my account you might see that I aready posted a couple of such observations, I also used to ID others’ observations from outside my area of interest, so I already know how it looks like.
Thank you, I can use searches of observations and I do when necessary but I also use notifications and informations shown on my “starting” screen (where I made some filters which show me newest observations interesting to me, other users’ activity etc). And it’s not that I’d like to turn off any information from outside my preferred area. I would simply like to switch between them, and most of the time work with my group, and sometimes look what’s up in my other observations. If it is possible to have two independent streams of notifications and news, it would be as useful for me as two separate accounts. But I’m also not adept at use iNat options so if it would require complex “programming” of account I probably won’t do it either.
Anyway, never mind. I absolutely can stick to what I’ve done up to now.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.