At first I though it was just me and that I must just offend people easily with the way I talk. But recently I have also seen people just generally being rude to one another. This isn’t to the extent that I’d personally say anyone is being harassed as it is mostly just a bit of excess harshness if anyone knows what I mean? Not everyone is a scientist, people will get ID’s wrong. I’m just curious as to if anyone else has seen this and if anyone knows why - it’s definitely increased since I first started using Inaturalist.
Edit: I thought that I should add this reply to @raymie as furthet context, I understand that, I’m autistic myself and make snappy comments stating simple facts like “this species isn’t found here”, sorry I can’t think of any good examples right now. I suppose my ASD could be a reason I find things ruder than they are as I struggle with understanding people’s tones, never mind online but I tend to not realise if people are rude or being mean rather than the other way round - I tend to get the same few people being rude towards me, I wont name them as they might not mean anything by it, I dont want to upset them. They tend to say things like “are you messing around? This clearly isn’t the correct ID” - which to me seems rude, perhaps not others.
Can’t say I’ve seen this happen particularly on iNat (not to negate what you’ve observed). But if it’s part of how people on the internet get ruder to each other as things in the world around us get perceptibly worse, I guess I wouldn’t be too surprised!
I think it mostly depends on the concept of rudeness. I have recently read a post here in which a user suggested not to tell other users what was reality or the truth but to try to beat around the bush because, otherwise, someone could feel offended.
Yes, there are people who don’t know what politeness is. Maybe, someone (or many) could think I am one of them. But, believe me, on the other hand, there are users who sometimes literally make others go off the rails. It is obvious that it would be better to always remain calm but we are all people and it is not always possible to stay calm and act in a way that is considered polite by everyone else.
There are cases in which it is just a matter of two (or more) different but still legitimate opinions. In such cases users should understand that it is conceivable that someone else could have a different point of view.
There are also cases in which there is clearly one who is right and one who is wrong. Especially when the latter goes on being wrong for long even if having already being asked to change many times, I think it is excusable if something considered rude is told.
As always, it would be important to understand whichi kind of person we are dealing with but, as already written, it is not always possible to be “perfect”.
I would also try to look at this phenomenon as a “half-full glass” because, in certain cases, it could be a proof that many users have things going right in iNat close to their heart..
I can’t say that I encounter more rudeness on iNaturalist – quite the opposite, in fact. When it comes to general rudeness on the internet, I’ve noticed two opposing trends becoming more pronounced – on the one hand, blatant and aggressive rudeness, and on the other, excessive sensitivity to the slightest criticism or mildest joking. The middle — the ability to take things with humor and an understanding of irony and sarcasm—is decreasing meanwhile.
Language/Cultural barriers. I ID and comment on a lot of posts in Spanish and Portuguese, neither of which is my first language. I try my best to make sure that I come off as polite and courteous, but I’m not always sure how. I like to try to give people the benefit of the doubt when it’s the other way around.
Brevity: Sometimes when making IDs it’s just easier to correct common mistakes with quick phrases, which might sometimes come off as rude, especially when all you see is text. For example, when someone disagrees with my ID and just writes “lacking cheliceral scopulae” or “X species does not occur in Y place,” there’s a lot of room to interpret the tone. I have autism and it is particularly difficult for me to tell sometimes so I usually assume that people don’t intend to be rude as a general rule.
Community differences: Obviously, the above are based on my own experiences IDing mostly tarantulas and a few other spiders. But it seems like a lot of iNat communities are pretty insular in that the people who identify certain things tend to stay within those circles. While I haven’t noticed any particular lack of manners where I am, it could just be that the people you interact with are different.
I don’t mean to say that you’re wrong for interpreting your interactions with other users this way, just wanted to provide my own input. There’s a really sharp learning curve for becoming a regular identifier of any taxon, and I’ve definitely had my fair share of pretty egregious mistakes in the past! That is to say, don’t give up on ID’ing! We all have to start somewhere :)
An alternative format is, for example, “X is an Euroasiatic genus/species”, it takes ± the same time to write, and feels a bit more constructive. Unfortunately, CV still causes quite a few IDs for the wrong continent.
Are you more active on iNat than when you started? Seeing more comments, and so more of the ‘iffy’ comments? If a particular individual, you can mute them - that is a good and useful option. I have one person muted.
If comments cross the line, they can be reported. Otherwise iNat’s rule is - presume - people have good intentions. With very few exceptions, that is true of iNatters.
a time ago I called someone ‘‘dear friend’’ here and I was really scolded telling me I’ was not it’s ‘dear, and not near a friend’. guess is a cultural thing calling someone dear or something like here in my country. it was a pure habit. to this day I’m so sorry.
I definitely have had a few interactions with “grumpy” or “rude” Inatters but those instances are few and far between.
If you are being belittled or insulted by anyone, or just feel unsafe with people’s comments/DMs/etc., please flag them as inappropriate. Inat needs to be a safe place for everyone.
Because iNat is on the internet and people are rude on the internet. Evolution unfortunately has not equppied us to correctly blend text-based communication and human emotion.
Please do always note that tone does not come off well over the internet in general, and iNat has a lot of autistic or otherwise neurodivergent users who already don’t understand how other people interpret their words and actions to begin with. What you assume to be rude may have no intention of being so.
it took me time to realise the same. i was feeling this from others at start only to realise then how my latter comments might feel to past me. so if i am on mobile i use emojis or settle for emoticons but not everytime those help too.
Several years ago my wife and I moved from California to northeast Germany, and at first we frequently offended strangers by smiling at them. The culture there considers it fake and even dishonest to act friendly towards someone you don’t even know. We also had to learn not to thank people working in stores. One time I said “thank you” to the lady behind a counter and she said, “You don’t thank me. I’m not doing it for you. I work here.” Different cultures can be very different.
I’m AuDHD and I definitely know what you talk about. I get along just great with other autists and no problem with socializing and understanding, but going over the neurotype gap is extremely taxing. And if at some point I am for example focussed on something, and someone initiates social interaction suddenly, I might forget to “switch on the masking” and… yeah. Direct and blunt, and momentary confusion on the other person’s part.
It’s much easier to communicate over text, but it’s also easier to forget it, and then the style just goes over some threshold and appears blunt to the neuronormative population even in text.
I don’t think anyones ever been rude to me on iNat. I’ve gotten a few comments that were pretty blunt, but I don’t think the users meant any offense, and they weren’t what I would classify as rude.
Are people getting ruder on iNat? Well, I’ve only been on here for about a year and four months, so I can’t say whether people seemed nicer before then, but I personally haven’t noticed any increasing rudeness.
I’ve been here only for a little over 6 months, and have seen a few somewhat rude comments, but directed towards other users. I wouldn’t necessarily say that people have gotten ruder, after all, as more people join INat there will certainly be more rude comments. But I think anywhere you go, whether online, at a social gathering, even just at a close nature area, you will eventually come across some rudeness. Then again, a lot of us (talking about myself here) may have unintentionally been/perceived as rude to other people. :)