You know you're seriously into iNat when

[janetwright]

@jakubmamulski

…

I figure if I am accused of a crime I can point to my time-stamped, geo-tagged observations as an alibi!

[upupa-epops]

Since there have been comments on other threads about the lack of things like this here

…you spend hours identifying things for other people when you don’t feel like doing schoolwork and still want to feel productive

Edit: A few more from others hidden up in the thread:

@biosam

… your idea of a fun Friday night becomes poring over field guides and identification keys to identify obscure organisms.

@jonathan142

… you can positively identify your specialty species from a blurry photo.

@cygnusa

… you find yourself eagerly IDing images of huge Australian Huntsman Spiders that a mere six months ago would have given you nightmares.

@nathantaylor

…your taxon of interest has nearly 15,000 observations, but you feel really surprised when one gets past you without giving it a proper ID or filing it in your mind to ID later.
…iNaturalist has led you to specialize in a larger group of organisms than you would have before leading you to go from restricting yourself to a group with 300-400 species to a group with over 2,000 that includes the previous group.
…you spend hours writing journal posts to save time when identifying to keep from writing down the distinguishing characteristics again.
…the first thing you do in the morning and one of the last things you do at night is to see if there are any more members from your taxon of interest that have been posted.

@KitKestrel

You are determined to plough through and ID 50 observations, only to discover 30 minutes later that you now know about 14 subspecies of some plant and you’re still on the first obs.

I can relate to several of these.

[charlie]

i do lots of IDs all winter when there’s nothing to add because we live in a snowy cold climate and my hands freeze off if i try to use my phone when it’s 0F

[afid]

@charlie

i do lots of IDs all winter when there’s nothing to add because we live in a snowy cold climate and my hands freeze off if i try to use my phone when it’s 0F

Yep, I can definitely relate!

[molanic]

I saw the comment on the other thread too about the lack of comments here about identifying. I didn’t mention it before because it’s not the most exciting aspect of the site for me. But, I do have about the same number of identifications for others as observations of my own. Like others I tend to do more identifying in the winter when it’s miserable outside… or when I’m trying to procrastinate doing something else. It’s always easier to justify procrastinating when you’re actually doing something productive or helpful!

I’d do more identifying if it was easier to do on a tablet. I’ve had some long identifying sessions on the computer where my neck was really killing me and I was like “just one more page and then I’ll stop.”

A few times I came across things that were definitely misidentified, but that I was totally unfamiliar with. They were so cool though that I spent way too long identifying them.

[danaleeling]

@upupa-epops

Since there have been comments on other threads about the lack of things like this here

That was me and I stand corrected! Thanks! I have more identifications than observations, I find working on identifying to be both challenging and fun. When I work on identifications, I learn more about the plants around me. I did start working on some identifications one morning and when I next looked up I saw the sun settling in the west. Just one more page…

[mamestraconfigurata]

I photograph all year round. At -30C it’s hard to do (especially with a wind), and since the result will be a bird you photographed last week, it seems pointless. But it’s data, damn it!

[kemper]

…you chase around a butterfly or dragonfly for 5 minutes, just waiting for it to land.

[alexis_orion]

@kemper

…you chase around a butterfly or dragonfly for 5 minutes, just waiting for it to land.

and then you get really frustrated when it doesn’t land, or only very far away.

[janetwright]

You talk to your dog constantly while walking her: “Just a minute, I’m coming, just one more photo…” and she rolls her eyes.

[RoseBones]

Or you spend so long in one spot tracking it with your eyes that you don’t realize you’re standing in something bad like ants or poison ivy

[mira_l_b]

you debate impulsively hanging up during an important phone call because you see two fireflies mating and need your iNat app on your phone to photograph it. Then the same thing happens twice more during the same conversation, once with a spider and once with a moth. You wonder, “am I an excellent iNatter but a terrible friend? Or, an excellent friend for not hanging up?”

[charlie]

nah the phone just sucks

[carrieseltzer]

@mira_l_b

you debate impulsively hanging up during an important phone call because you see two fireflies mating and need your iNat app on your phone to photograph it.

Pro tip: You can make an iNat observation (or at least take a photo) while on a call if you’re wearing headphones (at least on an iPhone!) :-)

[mira_l_b]

@carrieseltzer

Pro tip: You can make an iNat observation (or at least take a photo) while on a call if you’re wearing headphones (at least on an iPhone!) :-)

awesome! Mind blown! That doesn’t help with the inevitable “mental checking out” during the call if I figure out how to do that though!

[swampchicken]

I read nearly every one of these and said “YES” practically out loud… My people!!
A couple more ways you know you are seriously into iNat:
-You go to your phone to show your pictures of your kids to your friends and have to awkwardly scroll through hundreds of pictures of bugs and plants and mushrooms

• You can take pictures while on a call (with a headset in) but you hang up on ANY call when you see a new wasp or butterfly finally land!
• Everyone you know grabs you and makes you take a picture of any bug, especially your kids
• You get anxious about the summer because you know you’ll have to walk by SO MANY INTERESTING new bugs and might not be able to make an iNat observation
• Your browser history is full of articles about animals you never heard of before iNat!

[tony_wills]

@upupa-epops

Since there have been comments on other threads about the lack of things like this here

… you initially came here to get your blurry photos identified, and got so frustrated when things didn’t get to research grade quickly, that you started to learn how to identify things yourself … and now you find it far more satisfying identifying things for other people than making new observations yourself.

… the only examples of your favourite taxa that haven’t had an ID confirmation/refutation are your own because you’ve been through every other one to ensure they’ve been confirmed or refuted.

… you’ve reached the next spiritual level where you no longer care whether those 5 year old observations will ever be identified :-)

[mira_l_b]

…you casually realize that your front door looks slightly different than the front door of “normal” people because by your door, there is a step ladder permanently set up from the second moths begin to fly so that you can photograph the ones that land above the porch light. (You aren’t sure which is funnier, that you have the ladder there all the time or that you just noticed it was there and different!)

…you have a a list of gear (fancy moth trap) and/or field guides at the ready for “what do you want for the holidays/birthday/special occasion?” questions from loved ones.

[mangum]

… you stop to photograph that cool plant next to the sidewalk even though you are running late. Why stop there! Now you now know every plant that grows along the sidewalk.

[blazeclaw]

Replace app with phone camera because I like it a bit more that way