10 April, 2021

How iNaturalist has helped me so far

I recently realized how much iNat has enriched my life, and I thought I should write it down somewhere. This seems appropriate. Here are the ways using iNaturalist has helped me:

  1. Community. I enjoy interacting with other users, and I feel more welcome here than many other places. I've also made a few friends, though none that I've been able to meet in person.
  2. Responsibility. Here on iNat I am treated like an adult, which makes it much easier to act like one. As well as helping others with identifications, I've been able to provide several solutions to problems both on the forum and iNat itself. I also signed up to be a mentor in the next ID-a-thon, have submitted a request to become a forum moderator, and am considering applying for curator as well.
  3. Knowledge. I've learned a lot through iNat and the forum. Most obviously my identification skills are increasing - I can now identify one species of grass (Dactylis glomerata) thanks to @sedgequeen, and two species of gull (Larus canus and L. glaucescens, also primarily due to sedgequeen). I know many more scientific names than I used to. And I've learned a thing or two about computers and the internet, for example how to use iNat's search URLs and how annoying the API is when you actually want to use it for something!
  4. Curiosity. That "gotta get a picture for iNat" mentality has driven me to discover several interesting organisms that I otherwise would have overlooked, like this pseudoscorpion. What's a pseudoscorpion, you ask? That's exactly the point! Before discovering iNat, I would have just thought this was a bit of dirt and ignored it. But I'm glad I looked closer, because it's actually really cool looking!
Posted on 10 April, 2021 16:07 by fluffyinca fluffyinca | 2 comments | Leave a comment

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