I agree with a lot of folks that paying it forward is a big part. I know I like it when someone else confirms one of my observations, so I’m hoping I can do that for someone else so they enjoy iNat and maybe even start identifying too!
Two other, less noble reasons:
- If I don’t do it today, I’ll have twice as many to review tomorrow. Helpful to remind myself of this, especially when there are 100s of photos of the same plant by a group of “Duress” and “Contest” users, where identifying is a bit more draining.
- Peer pressure? Not exactly the right word but it’s a bit frightening that the number of regular identifiers that I see is a handful of people, so if they were to stop, it would be detrimental to everyone else’s iNat experience. If I identify, I’m helping lessen this problem, even if I’m nowhere near as skilled/experienced as the other identifiers.