I’ve just passed 1K identifications and my experience of doing ID’s has changed dramatically. At first, it was, “Oh, I know that one!” and it was all very simple and straightforward. Now, things end up in a few categories: I’m blind to everything except plants. I don’t know enough about this and…

As an amateur with no formal training, I can relate to all the points. I just passed 11K identifications and it has been a journey. I consider myself lucky to have had really patient and helpful members of the community as mentors. Until I started corresponding with them through comments and messag…

[image] spookyaranhas: sort by “random” I know that works for some. But I prefer - sort by Date Observed and Ascending. That way I clear the ones that missed their turn when they were fresh. And I can retrieve uploaded the same picture as multiple obs because … bad internet ? Or ‘one’ obs wit…

I still don’t fully understand how to deal with duplicate observations. Very often, users don’t respond to requests to delete duplicates. I also feel a bit sad when I see participants of the same bioblitz or project uploading very low-quality photos that cannot be identified at all, and again, they…

So much in this thread already that resonates strongly with me. For quick context, (1) I’m a generalist identifier with >25k IDs and (2) all of the following are purely from my own perspective, not intended to argue that everyone should do/feel the same. Learning broad groups (families, genera) …

[image] anastasiiamerkulova: I still don’t fully understand how to deal with duplicate observations. Very often, users don’t respond to requests to delete duplicates. I don’t think we’re allowed to do much about this. Everyone has a different definitions of what constitutes a duplicate and s…

Clearly you’re feeling frustration with the behavior of others as you ID. I hear you, but what you are doing is important and adds materially to the value of iNaturalist. Just keep doing the part that’s fun and interesting, and try to let the stuff you can’t control wash by. And keep in mind that…

If just 1% of observers identified 100 observations in a day, we would reduce the number of IDs of Needs ID observations by a good amount (10-20%). Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough identifiers on Inat. Whether it be due to a knowledge gap, unwillingness, or unfamiliarity—many observers sti…

[image] anastasiiamerkulova: . . .people who add third or fourth confirming IDs to almost everything. [image] anastasiiamerkulova: It makes me feel as if my identification work was done in vain, as if I wasted time that could have been spent identifying observations where no experts are p…

I don’t consider myself an identifier, but apparently I’m at 6000 something? I guess I learned that times does fly a bit when you’re enjoying yourself.

What ID'ing feels like at around 1K ID's

General

DianaStuder February 1, 2026, 1:24pm 13

Do you use a text expander for your comments ?

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/use-a-text-expander-browser-extension-to-quickly-enter-frequently-used-text/42842

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Tiny Little Questions General question	50	2894	October 12, 2023
Shouting into the Abyss - Why do some "easy" observations sometimes go unidentified? General	80	2249	July 23, 2024
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Adding unnecessary identifications to unique observations? General	43	1357	January 6, 2025
People identifying sightings identified previously when it is unnecessary General	101	3948	April 27, 2026

What ID'ing feels like at around 1K ID's

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