I agree that it would be better to allow multiple choices. Certainly, the public benefit (increased quantity and quality of biodiversity data) of identifications on iNat is very important. But I think without positive emotional motivation and feedback from a very responsive and friendly community, identification would be boring and tedious work. So, the best definition (what is iNatting for me) I think is:
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Work in a library. Then add to your list, the reader who looks at That Book … then abandons it … somewhere … on a random shelf. Hidden in plain sight, and impossible to find for the next reader, until someone falls over it. Or finds it while shelfreading … a … whole library. Been there, done that. Or the student who hides the textbook in the library, where only THEY can find it again.
What drove me mad when I started working in Zentralbibliothek Zurich, was a closed access library. Where the books were shelved in many many many sequences. Swiss Alpine Club guidebooks had their own section and their own SACI, SACII, SACIII filing system. You had to know you wanted SACII 67 to find your chosen book. No way to browse across a particular geography!! All changed when I left, to open access. That must have been a mission to change.
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Honestly my reasons are a superposition of all the options, so it was hard to choose for me. I identify to increase my own knowledge of certain taxa in certain locations, and once I get better at that then I can get more specific in my IDs, hopefully further contributing to biodiversity data. Through IDing I interact with users of various backgrounds and expertise.
EDIT: So I suppose I identify so I can enjoy myself
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I identify because I want to encourage people who are just beginning to learn about biodiversity to continue that learning. I suppose that means I should focus on observers who are new to iNat, but I don’t; I make IDs for anyone I come across where I can be helpful.
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Oh, that one is infuriating. And that particular bad behavior isn’t just limited to library settings. Try talking to a grocery store associate sometime – hear their story about the mysterious dead smell, that turned out to be a package of meat that a customer “reshelved” behind room temperature items nowhere near the meat department. When you see that random tub of ice cream sitting on the shelf next to the canned goods – yep, that’s the reader from Diana Studer’s library.
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I am on a learning curve as a hobbyist, I identify the main local invasive I feel confortable with in the pool of “unknown”, thinking I contribute so to help people with recent interest identifying and managing their invasive on one hand, modestly reducing the pool of ‘unknown’ and hopefully reduce the workload of more advanced users on the other hand.
I voted for “increase knowledge of biodiversity” as a result,
It’s a ‘drop in the ocean’ contribution :)
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The reference to “stimming” as a motivator to ID is interesting. I wish I had that focus to do a repetitive task but I often get frustrated or bored or distracted, unless it’s something that really has to get done today. I’m a professional-league procrastinator with desperation and necessity being my main motivators. ;-)
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You would be horrified by the lack of order in my personal library.
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I used to play solitaire on the computer. Now I play identify on iNaturalist instead. Good mind filler and time waster. (Constructive procrastination, oh yes!). And like @owlshead-wren I love being a pedantic little know-it-all. And I like teaching and learning, and I do both here. And I really like feeling that I can contributing to a huge database that can be scientifically useful. Too many reasons to click just one.
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No - why - mine is also arranged to suit me. History books from my mother. From childhood. His German language books. Shelf of language dictionaries. Garden books. Cat books. Field guides. Every book I have can tell me a story, apart from the one printed in its pages. When we lived in Switzerland, I was always reaching for a book … then remembering it was in Cape Town.
And that irritating thing between English and German publishers that the title is sometimes
written UP the spine
and the next book is written DOWN the spine.
My neck hurts!
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Because I played too much Pokemon as a kid and this is the nearest thing to real life Pokemon
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Gotta catch 'em all!
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.
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I wasn’t able to do as many IDs this year as I was last year, and I was quite pleased that a few other people stepped up when I slacked off. You were one of those people, and I thank you for that.
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When we are IDing in a lonely corner, it is a breath of fresh air to see. Someone. Is helping out over here. I am not alone.
Daunting when I click my daily task URLs and the target remains. Exactly. Where I left off yesterday.
But once I can point them in the right direction the target melts away like snow in summer … (hopefully)
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It’s funny, because I never once thought to myself, I wonder where I can go on the Internet to identify plants? And yet here I am, spending more and more time identifying plants. I got sucked in. There’s something addictive about the activity.
Yes, part of it is learning. I am learning a lot, and learning is feeding the mind, which is satisfying in itself. It’s also like a virtual exploration of the world. I might never go to that alpine meadow and see the krummholz, but every day I can see what beautiful and amazing creatures exist in the world far beyond my doorstep. And not just in a passive way, as in browsing a plant book and appreciating the photography there, but the identification part gives me a way of participating in the experience and getting a response from others, whether it’s appreciation for my ID, confirmation from others, or a differing opinion that teaches me more about that type of organism and what to watch for in the next observation I look at.
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My motivations sound similar to yours, although I actually did think to myself where can I go to ID stuff.
One of the very few joys of using Facebook a few years back was my membership and administration of a group focused on NZ ‘bug’ (used colloquially) identification. It started as a bit of fun and it rekindled an old interest I had with critters, plus I turned out to be quite good at IDing.
So when I quit FB in 2019, while I never regretted it I found myself slightly adrift in terms of what had become one of my main hobbies. So stumbling across iNaturalist.nz was a real boon for me.
It’s taken my ID skills in some interesting directions, and I have connected with some truly interesting people. I’m very glad it didn’t turn out to be just FB for spiders. Even while we may like to gripe about some of the stuff on the platform and on these forums, there’s really no comparison to the dreadfulness of FB, Twitter, etc. Something to celebrate, I think.
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Yeah. As in my feed isn’t full of irrelevant “suggested for you” posts consisting of memes intended to get people arguing.
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(My FB Friends are curated to mostly nature oriented. I see some of the same names, photos, obs - and take the ID back to FB from iNat)
Even iNat and GSB are on FB reaching a wider audience.
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Why do I? It helps contribute data to GBIF, as well as help me learn new groups, try ID skills for new ones, and keep my old ones from getting rusty as someone else said.
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