This topic has been on my mind for a while and I want to know what you guys think, what will happen when iNaturalist dies? What will happen to all of the observations on this website. Will you be able to back them up or will it all be lost?

I hope amazone keeps de CC pics and GBIF the data?

In the end, the original purpose I think, like ebird, was data collection. The GBIF database will continue to accumulate and retain records, so that part of the legacy should be maintained. As for photos/recordings etc? There are certainly servers and storage that can hold all of the media (I’ve se…

Well, in the long, long term we and the universe will be free-floating hydrogen and decaying photons. But at least @silversea_starsong will have cataloged it all before then.

The sustainability issue with iNat has been discussed elsewhere on the Forum, such as: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/long-range-funding-plan-for-inaturalist-is-there-one/8818 although that discussion is a little out-of-date now given that iNat has recently improved its funding status: https://w…

I changed the title to make the subject more clear. It originally sounded like warning.

[image] WeeCorbie: what happens if it all goes “poof”? Obviously we can’t predict the future but I don’t think iNat’s going anywhere anytime soon. And if for some reason it does, we’ll do our best to make the data available and give folks as much warning as possible.

It is so reassuring to now that all my hard work isnt just going to disappear and I will have time to back it up

[image] profishing: my hard work isnt just going to disappear and I will have time to back it up I want to be clear that I did not guarantee this. I just said we’ll do our best.

The same thing that happened when the Great Library of Alexandria burned.

Just to note that GBIF content is created dynamically by harvesting from data providers, of which iNat is one. If iNat disappears then iNat data will go from GBIF. It is not an archival repository.

What happens if iNaturalist folds?

General

upupa-epops October 24, 2023, 7:21pm 20

Some options for doing that discussed here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/add-option-to-download-all-my-photos-and-data/13722

Topic		Replies	Views
How confident can we be that iNaturalist data will be preserved? General	21	3401	May 22, 2019
The Day iNat Ends General	58	2587	March 29, 2025
Backup: what if iNat suddenly disappeared General	24	1965	January 23, 2024
How is data stored on Inaturalist? General question	17	4102	October 28, 2020
Is there a recommended way to backup all my iNat data? General question	33	2931	March 10, 2023

What happens if iNaturalist folds?

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