Making iNat more welcoming

After my May 7 post about the intense concentration of iNaturalist observations among the "top observers" in my region, several of those top observers made wise and incisive comments. They have gotten me thinking about how to make this place more welcoming to newcomers, so as to retain more of the millions of people who come through, make a few observations, and leave forever.

The first thing that comes to mind is there should be a "beginner mode" that walks you through the steps of posting. Modern websites often have these sorts of guides pop up for new users or for everyone after major updates. Microsoft's are sometime annoying but have gotten quite informative and useful.

So a new user posting for the first time could be told things like:
"Take the clearest photos you can by using bright light and holding your hand still"
"Take as many photos as you can of different parts of the organism"
"Show the parts that you might not always look at, like the underside of a mushroom cap or the stems of a flower"

Second, it should be easier to crosspost observations to social media, especially to Instagram, Flickr, and other visual sites. There is currently no way to feed specific images from a post over to Instagram, Mastodon, etc! That's a huge loss. Many people would probably use it. And while you can use a Flickr photo to populate iNaturalist, you can't do it with Instagram. As a result, people just choose one place or another to post. Since there is less social prestige from iNat posting, it's less attractive for many people. They will keep posting on addictive media. This deprives iNat of valuable observations and deprives them of learning more about biology. One simple fix would be to just make the "Share" button automatically populate the share with a bit of descriptive text in addition to the URL. Like:
"Pileated woodpecker observed by @xris on August 13, 2024 in Brooklyn, New York. http://..."

Third, there could be a clearer path from posting to deeper knowledge and connection. As @matthew_wills said, "The system doesn't explore or explain" what it means to be "a naturalist." As he said, "Focusing a camera, after all, is different from focusing a mind." That could come in the form of suggested readings, book clubs, meetups. The NY Mycological Society has weekly Zoom meetings to identify difficult specimens. There is no reason that iNat couldn't support something similar across a local bioregion. It would be great if a mix of experts and beginners could gather each week to show off and ask what

Fourth, it would be nice if scientists using iNaturalist data could alert observers who provided data, to let them know when their observations are being used for scientific discovery. This is a rare joy that none of us really get, because there is no way for a scholarly investigator to provide such feedback.

I have voted for some of these ideas in the forums.

Posted on 08 de julho de 2023, 02:43 AM by steven-cyclist