You know you're seriously into iNat when

[cosmiccat]

After 15 years and 300,000 miles, my old car broke down last month. When I went looking for a new one, I told the salesman I needed a car with spacious trunk and back seats that fold down so I could fit my equipment into it, mainly my microfishing pole. I also wanted something with high gas mileage to make iNat trips more affordable. He found the right car for me. ;p

[ellen5]

you lean in to photograph the cool things you just found in a pile of doodoo

[mira_l_b]

…on any given day in season, you have a casual backlog of 75 observations sitting in your phone waiting for the finishing touches (and you don’t want to upload them as unknowns because you asked this and you’d feel silly: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-some-serious-power-users-add-so-many-unknown-observations/282)

[kiwifergus]

… you drop your phone down the toilet (long story), and then find out it is NOT a waterproof model like your last one was, but you are more concerned about the iNat photos on it that havn’t been uploaded to the computer (or iNat) yet

[nathantaylor]

… you come up with a system in excel that lets you track the number of species on your group of interest you’ve seen in each state AND gives you the total number of species you haven’t seen per state so that the states with the most new species can be targeted.
… you share this excel spreadsheet with another iNat friend so that he can target the areas he is missing so that you have a better chance of seeing photos of every species in your group of interest in the US.

[whaichi]

@mira_l_b

…on any given day in season, you have a casual backlog of 75 observations sitting in your phone waiting for the finishing touches (and you don’t want to upload them as unknowns […]

Or the opposite:

… you stay up well past your normal bedtime editing photos you’ll upload to iNat and researching names because you want to either finish them all or at least get to an easily-found stopping point.

[shaunak]

…it’s your home page.

[ashley_bradford]

… you find somewhere new to go fill up your phone with photos because you know the next morning you have to sit through a several hour all-hands work meeting that doesn’t actually require your attention.

… instead of turning away from a truly ripe-smelling dead deer in disgust, you get real close so you can photograph all the cool scavengers on it.

[ashley_bradford]

@andrewgillespie

You regularly find yourself reading scientific names like a child learning to read; one syllable at a time. And if you do ever figure out how to pronounce it you spend serious time repeating it in your head so that you remember it.

I really enjoy pronouncing “Ampelopsis brevipedunculata” and was not pleased when the species got changed to “glandulosa”. It just doesn’t have the same skipping rhythm.

[kiwifergus]

lol… same! Hypoblemum albovitattum becomes H. griseum… sad :(

[ginsengandsoon]

for me it was this very large spider!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19452289

[crellow]

Ah! So the name did change? I noticed this recently and I was really confused.

[cmeckerman]

… When you even mention the word “inaturalist” your kids roll their eyes and leave the room lest they be trapped in a 20 minute conversation about my photos.

… When a good part of your adobe photoshop education came from working on iNaturalist pictures.

[clay_s]

. . . while avoiding stepping in the doggie poo left by inconsiderate people you check to see if there are any flies not on your life list yet buzzing around the pile.

[brentturcotte]

… in the winter you go into iNat withdrawal

[alexis_orion]

…you read this post, and are thinking about getting the book just to look for funny names.

…you discover the iNaturalist streak finder, and keep thinking “why on earth did I not take any photos that day?”

…you get a new plant ID guide, and get really frustrated each time you find a plant that you can’t ID.

[DriftlessRoots]

Feeling such disappointment when the you don’t bother to put on your glasses to run a quick errand and then stop in the middle of the street to squat down and photograph a moth that turns out to be a scrap of construction debris.

[mira_l_b]

what species of construction debris?

I’ve stalked plastic bags and many a gnarled branch with my glasses on

[mangum]

@brentturcotte

… in the winter you go into iNat withdrawal

We have the exact opposite problem down here in Florida. It’s painful seeing the rest of the US accumulating so many IDs during the summer! The heat + unpredictable storms + dangerous wildlife make hiking in the summer less doable down here. Also, winter is the best time to iNat in Florida. So many migrational birds!

[aispinsects]

Consider light trapping! That is, if it isn’t raining or mosquito time…