we should normalize commenting things like “nice photo” or “great specimin” or even just commenting on observations in general. im suprised nobody does it because the commenting system is very good and deserves more love.
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How do you see it as not “normalized” currently? I leave comments all the time, so do lots of other people.
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Welcome to the forum @scarlong!
I think this is because identifiers are a small part of iNat users and assume that whomever they’re identifying for is a casual user and likely won’t engage with the comment? Identifiers also go through hundreds of observations in short amounts of time, so it doesn’t make sense to comment on every nice photo when IDing. Some identifiers commenting habits are discussed in Lack of Reasoning on Disagreements, if you want to understand them more.
However, you can build up a small community of regular observers & identifiers, who ocassionally do comment on your nice photos. This happens with time, the longer you observe and identify, the more likely it’ll happen.
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This might be more regional - there are a number of people in my area who do this. (I credit @sambiology for really pulling people into iNat in the DFW region and for encouraging them). I try to leave a Welcome note when I see somebody is new to the platform and encourage them for finding cool and interesting things - even if it’s a weedy plant in a sidewalk crevice, that’s a great eye they have for finding little details, right? So I’d say “go for it” to anybody who is considering dropping these comments on observations. I find they are well received.
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Please do be aware that if you write a comment, everyone who has interacted with the observation (ID’d, commented, favorited, added an observation field) will get a notification unless they have actively unfollowed it.
Those of use who interact with a lot of observations are generally not particularly enthusiastic about getting lots and lots of notifications for comments of “thanks”, “nice photos” and similar.
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but we do comment !
https://www.inaturalist.org/comments
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I once got a comment on one of my observations asking why nobody comments, which I immediately replied to, and never got a reply to my reply, so that was confusing
I see comments like “whoa cool” or “nice photos!” periodically, very occasionally run into extended discussion, and at about the same rate leave similar comments/participate in extended exchanges. As a percentage of the total observations I look at such exchanges occur on a very small number, but that’s because I’ve looked at… you know I truly do not think I can estimate how many observations I’ve looked at, double-checking how many I’ve identified. There’s just far too many observations to engage on such a level with a meaningful number, and even observers who do truly gorgeous work consistently I can’t compliment that many times!
However I do try to leave notes when people have done something I find cool, or interesting, or just really appreciate (“you included the back of the flower!!” “I’ve never seen that bit of the plant so clearly before, that’s really cool” “I’m sorry, the plant is HOW big?!”) or is just befuddling (“did the plant really just. fail to get its buds out of its own inflorescence bracts. what.” “wait the Cassytha did - did - I don’t even know what it just did what on earth did you photograph?!”) and am probably a primary cause of a lot of annoying notifications so hey
edit: also if the other people show any indication of wanting to talk, generally, that’ll often prompt me to comment even if possibly I should not!
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I will often comment on my own posts when an iNat “friend” fixes an ID for me. I will comment to thank them and tag them. Sometimes there will be some friendly back and forth in a thread.
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I mainly identify butterflies, which are very popular to photograph, so there are tons of absolutely stunning photos. I just don’t have the time to comment on each one, especially since I’m doing hundreds of IDs and annotations a day. I often work on look-alike species, so if someone asks why I disagree with an ID, I’m always happy to explain. I just can’t realistically comment on every observation I come across.
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I see this sort of unhelpful comment as spam. I like to receive notifications for updates to the identification or comments about the organism/identification, and I don’t want to get a bunch of useless comments telling my photo is nice.
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I agree whole heartedly! I regularly comment on observations posted around my area, I thinks its a good way to encourage people to continue posting observations and stimulate conversations and networking of like minded individuals. I can understand the people who do mass identifications wouldn’t want to take the time to comment on everything, and that makes sense! They’re doing enough work as is. I think it’s a local movement of casual users kind of thing. I can also understand people not wanting lots of notifications due to generic comments, but I think the benefits out weigh that con. I see it as something iNaturalist will have to address eventually, using some sort of AI screening. Maybe it wont send mass notifications to all contributing parties if it lacks a proposed ID or certain keywords. I also wish the “@” function on the iNaturalist classic app worked, so that you could be more likely to engage in conversations with particular folks.
So glad to see this post and I look forward to seeing more people having good, educational discussions on iNaturalist!
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I comment on and favorite observations I think are extra cool or stunning. I know how much I like it when identifiers give me compliments on my observations so I try to do the same. I would like to see it done more often, but not to an extreme which would probably be a bit overwhelming.
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Haha! I do indeed LOVE to comment on observations! iNaturalist is a social network as well as a database for me. One of my favorite activities on iNat is to explore other countries and comment on some of the amazing observations made around the world. After all, when was the last time you searched for “Beetles of Uzbekistan?!?” Not only are there indeed beetles, but there’s also a community of naturalists documenting them. I love to chime in with a “way cool observation of this really interesting beetle” – who knows – that may even make someone’s day and I get to meet a fellow naturalist from the other side of the world. Win-win!
Hopefully it’s not too too spammy to the ID’ers, but I don’t think they mind if it’s in moderation.
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I don’t comment to say “Cool photo!” or such, but I do sometimes. So many observations to ID, so little time.
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I’d really prefer people don’t do this on my photos. Comments about identification of the observation, great, but comments like “nice photo” don’t add anything for me and just clutter up the notifications. That seems more appropriate for Instagram, facebook or Flickr (one of the reasons that put me off using Flickr). But each to their own.
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I’m honestly surprised at the mixed reviews of commenting/acceptance of comments!
Personally, I do enjoy commenting and receiving comments, although I won’t comment on every post I see (I tend to ID in batches as many others do, so I get a good amount of notifications). I love the community aspect of iNat as much as I do the documentation aspect.
I only get a response like 1/3 of the time, but I that doesn’t really bother me. If there is a stellar photo, I may say it’s great, but usually I comment about the nature of the observation, if it’s comedic, or if there’s something helpful I can contribute or questions I can ask to improve my ID. I also like to thank people who ID my stuff + include comments/ID tips/resources in their ID, because that is above and beyond and so cool! However I don’t thank each person who gives me an ID…now that’s real clutter lol.
If you’re worried about commenting and cluttering up people’s notifications…if you had already made an ID on an observation, you can edit the id and include your comment there and (I think..?) it doesn’t add an extra notification.
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I like to leave positive comments :)
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I love when people leave comments! It’s great to hear when people enjoy a photo or observation and it makes me feel like part of a community of naturalists in my area :)
I also appreciate anyone trying to help with IDing a species through comments, or leaving any bit of natural history information they have on a subject.
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I like getting occasional comments just saying they like my photos or my choice of what to upload observations of, because I upload a lot of roadside weeds and other stuff that’s not conventionally interesting so I need constant reassurance I’m not pissing off everyone on the website 
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Nice comment. 
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