We've reached 150,000 observers!

2 weeks ago, we celebrated reaching 6,000,000 observations. This week, we have a related, but slightly different milestone to celebrate. We now have over 150,000 'observers' - ie people who have contributed at least one observation*! Here's all 150,000 observers (scaled by number of observations each). A big thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Here's another way of looking at that same data by plotting number of observers on the x-axis and number of observations on the y-axis. The curve shows the number of observers with at least that many observations.


So at the top of the curve we see @finatic in first place with 52,656 observations, @erikamitchell in second place with 36,662 observations etc.... Interestingly, the intersection of the number of observers and the number of observations is just shy of 1,000. In other words, there are just about 1,000 observers on iNaturalist who have each posted at least 1,000 observations.

Both these graphs show the disproportionate contribution that iNat power-users like finatic, erikamitchell, @jaykeller, @sambiology, @dpom etc. have had towards the total pool of 6,000,000 observations posted so far. I'm going to take this opportunity to coin a new unit of measurement which I'm calling the finatic with a current exchange rate of 52,656 observations. That means the picture below of sambiology, @psyllidhipster and @treegrow (courtesy of @muir from the recent 2017 iNat-athon in Southeast Arizona) weighs in at 42,240 (29,454+6,146+6,640) cumulative observations. Or 0.8 finatics.




Likewise, this picture of finatic, jaykeller, sambiology, @silversea_starsong, and @nathantaylor7583 (also muir's & from the iNat-athon) clocks in at 135,928 (3,769+20,372+52,656+29,454+29,677) cumulative observations. Or 2.58 finatics. If anyone can produce a picture worth more finatics than this one, I'd love to see it!



Its fun to joke around with competitions around these stats (I get great satisfaction pointing out to @kueda that he's fallen down to 20th place on the identifier leaderboard while I'm holding on in 18th place...). But it really is the hard work that each of these individual observers has put in recording and sharing observations (combined with the equally important work of the iNat identifier community) that makes all the science coming out of iNaturalist possible. This includes our recent computer vision analyses which is completely trained off of iNaturalist observations and identifications. Also our ongoing work to try to get a handle on the spatio-temporal distributions of organisms. For example, the visualization below of the spring bloom of Yellow trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) across the eastern US is completely driven by iNaturalist observations. And also all of these studies that have used data from iNaturalist shared via GBIF.





Sophisticated analyses like these computer vision and spatio-temporal examples are extremely data hungry, and the iNaturalist data stream has only just grown to the point where really exciting 'big data' analyses are possible. Our computer vision model, for example, is trained up on about 20 thousand species for which we have enough data. This may seem like a lot of species, but it really represents just a tiny fraction of the 2,000,000+ species we know are out there. So we have alot of work still to do!

Hopefully, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If we can sustain the growth rate in iNaturalist observations from the past seven years into the next three years, we'll be dealing with around 50,000,000 observations a year in 2020. While there are a thousand reasons why we shouldn't expect to be able to maintain this growth rate, its exciting to think about what this volume of observations would allow scientists studying life on Earth to do. Imagine the computer-vision and spatio-temporal analyses from the examples above working on hundreds of thousands of species from around the globe - that would be pretty cool!


And to continue this likely shamefully over optimistic projection, in order to reach that 2020 5,000,000 observation goal we'd need contributions from about 1,000,000 observers up from the current 150,000. And before reaching 1,000,000 observers starts seeming like an easy thing to pull off, remember that only represents a tiny fraction of the people iNaturalist would have to reach. For example, iNaturalist is now getting over 100,000 visitors to the website and over 7 thousand app downloads (iOS + Android) each week. But only about 500,000 of these visitors have taken the next step and created iNat accounts. And of these half a million people, only about 1/3 (150,000) have actually posted observations.



What would it take to try to get 1,000,000 people out observing nature by 2020? Is it possible for iNaturalist to scale that much and still be such a polite and knowledgable community of awesome people? I'm not sure 50,000,000 observations in 2020 is a realistic goal, but its kind of a neat number to keep in mind for where we'd be if we were somehow able to stay the coarse for another three years!


*As usual, when I count observations I mean 'verifiable' observations. We've actually had more like 190,000 people post about 7.3 million observations if you include 'casual' observations (that is observations without photos, or of captive organisms, or missing dates/locations etc.)

Posted on September 25, 2017 02:20 AM by loarie loarie

Comments

You have outdone yourself with graphics. The top globe-looking one is awesomeness.

Posted by muir about 7 years ago

Haha! I'm barely over half a finatic. ;) Also, this shot by @greglasley has quite a high finatic level... https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2372054

I'm sure I'm echoing a lot of those power users by saying that it's been a true pleasure and joy to contribute to iNaturalist. It's wonderful to be part of this revolutionary tool! I engage more with nature because of it -- it amplifies my appreciation for nature. :)

Posted by sambiology about 7 years ago

Very nice @loarie! I have enjoyed contributing to this site (primarily as an observer and [thus far] less so than I would have liked as an identifier) and more than that the fantastic learning experience it has been. Now if I could just figure out a way to find more time to process and post my thousands of photos in my backlog...

Also, we can probably basically credit @finatic for my contributions since he was the one that pushed me to come onto iNat.

Here's to the next 150,000 observers and beyond!

Posted by jaykeller about 7 years ago

WOW! This is so, so cool. Someday the social network analysis of this is going to be AMAZING.

I have a group photo post-centennial BioBlitz with me (4,842), @loarie (18,538), @reallifeecology (28,227), and @calopteryx (6,223) so 57,830 observations or 1.098 finatics at the current conversion rate ;-)

Posted by carrieseltzer about 7 years ago

Congratulations on an amazing job. It's so inspiring to think that your little project has turned into something that has the power to change the world.

Posted by dpom about 7 years ago

Ok... Here's a major finatic lvl shot... Not sure how to embed the photo (@loarie -- would you do that? you can nab the photo if you'd like): https://imgur.com/a/n2PBD
@bogslogger 375 obs, @finatic 52873 obs, @psyllidhipster 6721 obs, @jaykeller 29807 obs, @silversea_starsong 22900 obs, @kueda 29365 obs, @muir 16621 obs, @treegrow 6200 obs, @matthew_salkiewicz 4867 obs, @sambiology 29555 obs, @berkshirenaturalist 17109 obs... I WISH we could have gotten a group shot with everyone from the iNat-athon, but alas, we were out iNatting too much.

Posted by sambiology about 7 years ago

This is the highest @finatic level I could find in one photo, from the iNat happy hour:

@joelle 3398, @metsa 5635, @rebeccafay 5336, @kueda 24709, @tiwane 10412, @dpom 27074, @loarie 18348, @sea-kangaroo 22494, @robberfly 17001, @amybird 627... totaling 2.56 finatics. If you add in the photographer (@kestrel 8276), that brings it to 2.72 finatics.

Posted by kestrel about 7 years ago

Nice one Sam. I count 4.11 finatics. Looks like a record. Beating greg's photo (3.72 finatics) and also carrie's & kestrel's. Photos from that iNat-athon will be tough to beat.

(btw, Sam to embed, just us an img tag as described here: e.g. [start bracket] img src="https://i.imgur.com/YkMfenY.jpg" width=100% [end bracket])

Posted by loarie about 7 years ago

Excellent!! iNat has certainly changed my hiking habits 😃

Posted by metsa about 7 years ago

WOW!!! What else can I say? Except... DOUBLE WOW!!!!!

I appreciate the iNat family.

Posted by connlindajo about 7 years ago

Well, if there was a way to favourite a journal post, this would be the place.

iNat has kept this hobby fun for me -- if I hadn't stumbled across it by accident a while ago, I wouldn't be nearly as invested as I was now.

PS. that group shot is fine, I was hoping it would surface here eventually :)

Posted by silversea_starsong about 7 years ago

@vicfazio3 I spy with my little eye vicfazio3 in the centre!

Posted by henrick about 7 years ago

yesssss... this is awesome. we haven't had any big Vermont gatherings, I can't even find a photo with Erika and I offhand. The inat-a-thon is gonna win here. Or Texas. :)

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

Great fun and great job on all this, Sam and others. I especially love the Yellow Trout Lilly graphic showing the seasonal progression. That is just a small sample of what can be done with iNat records. Another iNat map illustration concerns porcupines in Texas. Most of the guides show porcupines well west of Austin and not reaching the Austin area at all, but iNat records (most are road kill obs) show the range right up into Austin, well east of the normal mapped range of the species in Texas. These are just the very beginnings of what iNat data can provide. I always am grateful to @kueda and @loarie for starting this...a touch of nature magic!

Posted by greglasley about 7 years ago

Very impressive. I'm glad the data are being used. Graphics like the yellow trout lilly above are important (and will become more important over time), and likely can only be done using data from a site like this. Re-emergence of the amateur naturalist, with a modern twist. Unfortunately my contribution over the past year has been mainly on the identification side of things, which is actually what I like doing best. Very time consuming, though!

Posted by mamestraconfigurata about 7 years ago

@mamestraconfigurata Scott should make a graph like that for IDs too! Or some index that combines both (maybe some correction since top IDers have more than top observers) . But i am only number 26 on ID'ing so i'll fall off the chart.

Here's an index: What's the highest total for the lowest of the two that someone has? For instance I have 46,747 IDs and 26096 observations so mine would be 26096. . @silversea_starsong has 56,240 IDs and 22900 observations so his would be 22900. @erikamitchell has 36995 observations (despite starting way later than me!!) but only 8040 IDs so her number is 8040. Finatic's would be 17994. Clearly I'm just trying to hand pick an index where I have the highest score (though I bet someone still has a higher score than me)

Anyway it's all been so awesome, thanks so much to @Kueda , @Loarie etc. I've been less active at meetups and stuff due to having a toddler, but soon she will be coming along too. She can already hike a mile at 18 months!

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

This is an absolute joy of a post! Ditto everyone's praise on the data analysis and graphic representation! It make me super proud to be even .08 @finatic ...

Posted by gbentall about 7 years ago

It seems that this is only the tip of the iceberg and, probably, we can not even imagine what information iNat will give us in a few years. It's not even about records, but that we are one. And we see the whole world.
I'm happy that I got to the right place a little over a year ago. And now I can not live without it)
Thanks to the community.

Posted by katya about 7 years ago

Really cool. I'm happy to belong to such a great group of naturalist and have enjoyed meeting and spending time in the field with so many members of this site. The photo from the iNat-athon this year had many of power users and may be hard to beat, for now. If only @charlie had been there...

As @jaykeller mentioned above, giving credit to who brought you onto iNat would be cool. @gyrrlfalcon brought me into the midst of the great site, so giving her credit for that plus those that I've brought on would show quite an overall impact in pure data.

Then there is @sambiology, ranking in the Top 5 for both observations and identifications. Add in all the outreach and new users he has brought onto iNaturalist. I'm much more of a contributor and just don't have the time to provide as many identifications as I would prefer. But the identifications are just as valuable, and maybe more so for retaining new users, than just entering observations. He earns the gold medal for all around! I don't know how he does it.

Please keep up the great work @kueda and @loarie.

Posted by finatic about 7 years ago

That's such an insightful analysis, and I appreciate the interesting data visualization. I'm currently at 2112 observations 40 millifinatics
Currently, 1 observation would be 19 microfinatics.

I did a manual survey in March, 2014. Finatic had 17945 observations; the top ten that I found manually (I missed a few I'm sure)
observer observation millifinatics
finatic 17945

sea-kangaroo 12071 673
kueda 11681 651
greglasley 10090 562
maractwin 7238 403
muir 7231 403
charlie 6993 390

loarie 6005 335
dreierj 5180 289
james3 4782 266
As an aside, I was at 56 millifinatics (1022 observations) back in March, 2014... so I've gone downhill!

I have to agree with @charlie that other interesting metrics for the future would be IDs, as well as observations plus IDs.

Posted by brewbooks about 7 years ago

Here's a technical question: there seems to be a seasonal variability in the observations per month. I can't quite tell from the data scale when I examined it in detail but it seems like that graph is ripe for a debias analysis.

Posted by brewbooks about 7 years ago

@brewbrooks Is it possible that the variation may reflect the impact of winter in the northern hemisphere? I know that in a few weeks here in Manitoba there won't be much to photograph, and I'm sure as the weather gets worse further south people may have the same problems. Perhaps observations co-related to daily temperature might be an interesting study.

Posted by mamestraconfigurata about 7 years ago

wow! And here I am, not even 1/3 of a finatic, but then, no one can challenge my-twin-separated-at-birth, @finatic ! My actual finatic rating is .32 of a finatic. Great statistical study. iNaturalist has been a boon to my life, to the Audubon chapter I work with, and to so many people who are good friends to me. Thanks to all involved, especially @kueda , @loarie , @kestrel , @rebeccafay and @joelle . Thanks to @finatic for the shout-out: I think my most important contribution to iNaturalist may be in the people I've helped snag into this addiction...I mean, project. So I also want to thank @birdernaturalist and his brother Ryan for being my gateway into this world, when Ryan's California Herps site sent me to iNaturalist as the new and better place to record the rattlesnake I had just seen back in 2012...

Posted by gyrrlfalcon about 7 years ago

@mamestraconfigurata That's a plausible hypothesis. Alternatively, I know that I do lots of observing in spring and summer here in the Pacific Northwest and then tend to work on posting observations in the gray, rainy winter months (unless I go to the Southern Hemisphere for fun!)

Posted by brewbooks about 7 years ago

I searched the globe graphic and found my avatar even though I'm only at 6.03 centifinatics. I guess that makes me an iNatFANatic.

I take pride in being the leading iNat observer of 58 species and the number one iNat observer in Fresno County.:-J

Who says competition isn't a great motivator.

iNaturalist drives my summer activities in the Sierra. It allows me to easily carry out a survey of a fairly rare plant, Lewisia leeana. I never would have had the organizational skill to try such a project without iNat.

Posted by sekihiker about 7 years ago

I think if we can ever quantify social influence, it will be measured in units of @sambiology!

Posted by carrieseltzer about 7 years ago

@mamestraconfigurata & @brewbooks A paper that I recently worked on looked at iNat observations per US county per day and correlated that with the mean temperature in that county that day. The bulk of observations definitely get made on days in the 60-75 F range!

Posted by kestrel about 7 years ago

Fantastic graphics and hilarious content. Well done @loarie !

Posted by leannewallis about 7 years ago

I am thrilled to be part of this magnificent informal society.

Posted by susanhewitt about 7 years ago

Yeah, in Vermont, iNat drops off a lot in winter. We are generally quite cold and snowy, sometimes below 0F, so even when there is something to see it's often too cold to use the phone. Also the sun sets early and rises late. And there's always winter tree ID and there is some fun snow tracking but all the wildflowers, insects, migratory birds, etc are gone. On the other hand I do a lot more IDs then! So it all balances out. I wonder if there's an ID uptick in northern hemisphere winter or if that's just me.

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

@kestrel That's an interesting study. I'd like to see a link to that (if possible), just for interests sake. I know that up here there is not much to observe during the winter.

Posted by mamestraconfigurata about 7 years ago

Darn, I'm only 0.01 finatics. I guess being 89th place in Canada doesn't compare much to being 1st place everywhere.

Posted by mws about 7 years ago

Nice work everyone...Here in S. TX I think the observations go up in winter; I know mine will :)

Posted by jcentavo about 7 years ago

@mamestraconfigurata The paper isn't published yet (just got sent in for review), and I'm not sure that particular aspect of the research even made it in the final draft. But I'll see if I can find the graph (and will ask the PI if she's okay with me sharing it!).

Posted by kestrel about 7 years ago

A nicely written article, and I can't stress enough how cool the globe with the all the users looks!

Posted by birdizlife about 7 years ago

The globe is especially cool if you can find your own avatar.

Posted by sekihiker about 7 years ago

Thanks for making this all possible. I love how you've "gamed" it for those of us who enjoy a challenge. I have been facing the challenge now to educate and motivate others to contribute. You have just described the challenge - a million observers by 2020. How will you "game" it for us in order to meet the challenge? I look forward to whatever you dream up!!

Posted by jwalewski about 7 years ago

This is fantastic---congratulations!

Posted by ecologistchris about 7 years ago

I actually think iNaturalist management has kept competition largely out of the site for the most part to-date, though it is tip-toeing in that direction, which I support. I think there are many opportunities to exploit that natural human trait that could be implemented here that, as long as it doesn't get carried away, can have very good results for the site and therefore citizen science in general.

For example, I personally tend to push myself to finding new species in an effort to expand my knowledge and increase the total species observed in a particular area and on the site. I've curated 565 species on iNat thus far, almost all of which were done since they were new to the site, and that probably represents something like 75% of the NEW species I have contributed here. It isn't really my number relative to others' that drives me, but just seeing my personal number climb for the reasons stated above. Others' numbers are sort of a helpful reference point.

Posted by jaykeller about 7 years ago

It seems like there are two kinds of iNatters; mappers and collectors. This analysis favors and encourages mappers. How do you propose to motivate collecters?
Collectors are those who tend to post a species only once.
Mappers post species multiple times, perhaps indicating an interest in ecology, and are not focused on just new species.
Competition is often seen as a dirty business, but it sure can be a great motivator. Perhaps some statistics featuring collectors could be included in future analyses.

Posted by sekihiker about 7 years ago

if you look at number of species rather than number of observations you'll get a proxy for those 'collectors'. I'm definitely more of a mapper than a collector, like you said for spatial ecology type stuff. But it's nice to get something new on the life list too

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

@jaykeller I find your thing about the seeking new species thing, because apparently the iNat team are working to make something called missions, which does just that: suggests species that you have yet to observe, and says where you can find them. My friend with the Android version of the mobile app can see this feature, but it does nothing yet for her. I'm still waiting for the feature to be fully released, but I feel like it'll be worth it when it is.

Posted by mws about 7 years ago

That will be great @jason_m and I look forward to it!

To those comments above about collectors vs. mappers, I am a hybrid. Lately I am driven by new species mostly, which gets me to new places, but wherever I go I have tended to micro-bioblitz it where I photo many/most of the organisms present. I do tend to pass by the most common species (time constraints), but will often hit one for the representation. I am in the office 50+ hours per week and often more, so if you want me to contribute more diversity, I have to let the air out somewhere. Especially in my local patch where I have submitted most/all of the regular species multiple times, I tend to focus on the new. In places I have never been, that's a different story.

Posted by jaykeller about 7 years ago

yeah that's a good point. If I've already been somewhere i tend not to remap the same stuff unless there's some phenology thing i want to record. I look for new species. But i do map to a pretty fine level. I'm a mapper above all else really and dislike when people don't bother to map accurately (if you don't know use the uncertainty buffer! and someday they will hopefully add a filter to exclude the way vague ones)

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

Now we're on a different topic. Let's not dump the more vague locations without analysis. For example, if I am on private property (with permission) or is a species that may get collected such as herps or scorpions, I often will remove the GPS and broaden the area for the protection of the location or species.

Posted by jaykeller about 7 years ago

@jaykeller I guess the same goes for endangered animals susceptible to poaching. I still haven't posted any of my elephant observations because I don't want the data to be used for the wrong reasons. Maybe there could be a separate private or protected database for species that are at high risk of exploitation or extinction? And if there is, I am not aware of it and would love to know.

Posted by rynaturalist about 7 years ago

i do that sometimes too @jaykeller . i just want to be able to filter out the really off ones (like >20 km or whatever) from maps like range maps. And by filter out i don't mean delete i just mean i don't want to see them on range maps (for plants). Unfortunately i think its low on the queue of things to add to the site. But in terms of zoomed out general mapping for private land type stuff, it's fine as long as the location is within the uncertainty circle.

@rynaturalist you can obscure or make the coords private, and you can do generalized mapping with a big uncertainty circle. There isn't a way to totally privately track stuff. I wish there was, but I understand why it isn't a popular option (makes the data unusable to others).

But anyhow i don't want to turn this awesome post into a geoprivacy debate :)

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

Threatened/endangered species are auto-obscured to most others on the site already, though this protection does not extend to species not listed, so care should be taken for those upon submission if you are concerned.

Posted by jaykeller about 7 years ago

Thanks for the information! I appreciate it :D

Posted by rynaturalist about 7 years ago

For example, look at observations of monarch butterflies. Their location is always obscured.

About the mapper/collector thing, I'd say I'm mostly a collector, but I map things that are interesting to me. For example, bees. I like bees so I'll often make multiple observations of the same species. If I see an organism doing something more interesting than usual, then I might also make an observation for that, even if I've seen that species before. Otherwise, I tend to stick to only new things.

Posted by mws about 7 years ago

obscuring monarchs doesn't make any sense. I hadn't noticed that but that's one we should un-obscure.

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

er... sorry, i'm derailing again. if anyone wants to discuss that with me they can do so in the google thread i made about it recently :)

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

12/1000 of a finatic for me!

Posted by danomaha about 7 years ago

This is amazing! My son, Matt (@calopteryx), encouraged me to join iNat and I'm very glad I did. It has been a source of such wonderful educational fun for me and I've learned so much.

Posted by peggyo about 7 years ago

I think we should see how many "finatic"s we can total up at Saturday's San Bruno BioBlitz ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/2017-bioblitz-san-bruno-mountain ) - I am pretty sure that we'll have a good number.

Heck, any time I go out with @leslie_flint and @dpom we total almost 1.0 @finatic right there (52495 for us, where one finatic = 52656; therefore the three of us have lunch and iNat a fly on our table, and we inch closer...)

Posted by gyrrlfalcon about 7 years ago

@charlie monarchs are endangered (in Ontario, at least), so that's why their location is obscured.

Posted by mws about 7 years ago

And I just hit my 1000th species thanks to iNat! Milestones left and right...

Ultra cool sightings make it to TWITTER/@216naturalist

Ultra cool footage w/ narration makes it to YOUTUBE/Virtual HIkes by Naturalist Marty

Posted by martycalabrese about 7 years ago

Very interesting graphics, i love them! And nice to see photos of real human beings -- our gurus who we know only by their handles, but definitely feel we know them

Posted by ellen5 about 7 years ago

This is awesome! And the graphs really look good!

Posted by amarzee about 7 years ago

🎉🎉🎉🎉

Posted by ck2az about 7 years ago

Awesome analysis! I'm lucky to be able to make observations throughout the year here in Arkansas. Ferns and fungi in the winter keep me busy on the frequent warmer weekends, with the height and heat of summer being my only real downtime!

I do wear my iNaturalist userID as a small badge of honor - #604 😄

Posted by eric_hunt about 7 years ago

Really great stuff here! Thanks to the folks who started this wonderful place! I am so happy to be a part of it. I look forward to what the future brings and meeting more of all the folks here!

Posted by mikef451 about 7 years ago

Nice statistics about our beautiful, and ever growing community! INaturalist, has totally change my view of nature, whenever I walk outside in my small town of West New York. INaturalist is a family, I am happily part of!

Posted by amirludena about 7 years ago

Wow, I'm only about a 3rd of the way up the No. of Observations vs No. of Observers curve. 410 isn't too shabby for only about a year and a half of work.

Posted by ryan84 about 7 years ago

More than 4 years ago i created an account (08-07-13) and recently i am adding observations. But i have a problem with iNaturalist app on iPhone6. It keeps up swallowing m1.2GB of data still after 3 days rebooting stopping and starting the app..SO i removed the app and installed it again. Maybe this will add up to the numbers of installed apps..just toe get rid of the date usage of the app.
PS
Where are the export options for observations ? It is possible to download your observations in a gpx like format (to add gps info to my or travelfriends not-gps fotos )?

Posted by ahospers about 7 years ago

@ahospers you would be best to email help@inaturalist.org for troubleshooting assistance. Thanks.

Posted by jaykeller about 7 years ago

@ahospers ditto Jay's comment. Speaking for myself, I have never used the app on a phone.....I do everything on a desktop computer.

Posted by greglasley about 7 years ago

the app can build up a huge cache as it doesn't clear the photos out for whatever reason, and for those of us who take 100s of observations it soon is many gigs. For me, what works is to log out then log back in again, this usually clears the cache (once or twice i've had to do it twice)

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

Thank you..I have 3000 observations from last moths, al with photos and i never logout..wondering what my password is..
but i will keep this in mind. But one month a go wthin 12 hours the cache was emptied but now it just did not empty the cache..

Posted by ahospers about 7 years ago

yeah if you never clear the cache it will keep growing until it takes over your whole phone. I hope someday they reduce the cache or create a clear cache button.

Posted by charlie about 7 years ago

Can't believe i missed this until now. So cool! Would be awesome to have a list or leader board (or graphic) showing the observers with the highest number of distinct species observed (to go along with the collector/mapper discussion above).

Posted by knightericm almost 7 years ago

And/or observers with highest number of first iNat species observations. Could be fun!

Posted by knightericm almost 7 years ago

you can see most number of species by going to https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&view=observers and clicking on 'species' to sort by species. If you do that by verified species you see that @silversea_starsong has the most species at 7,087 - wow! And I sink to number 66! (I do a lot of mapping and species lists of places, rather than primarily focusing on new species, Silversea does both). The order doesn't change much if you remove the verified filter.

I also see I am going to be knocked out of 9th place soon. It's been mostly below zero the last week with not much chance of warming any time soon... so I am doing IDs but not making new observations right now. There are a lot of people around 20 to 25 thousand observatonsright now.

I'd love to see a list of who had the most firsts! I'd probably do ok on that list since i was a pretty early adopter of the site

Posted by charlie almost 7 years ago

Enjoyed re-reading this blog as well -- great memories of this.

Posted by sambiology over 2 years ago

@gyrrlfalcon , some memories of @finatic , in case you missed this. 😀

Posted by metsa over 2 years ago

I'm in here too - and I would propose that 105,710 - the number of observations currently credit to @finatic - be a new standard measure for iNaturalist greatness. People can strive for the FINATIC level, and receive a suitable award when they reach it? Just a thought. Damn, I miss him so much already.

Posted by gyrrlfalcon over 2 years ago
Posted by loarie over 2 years ago

<3

Posted by charlie over 2 years ago

I had never noticed (or maybe just forgot about) this post when it was first made.

Interesting to read it now, especially the thoughts about getting to 50 million observations in a year (and that it would probably require 1 million observers).

2020 wasn't the year, but maybe 2024 will be? It was getting close in 2023 with over 41 million observations (so far, I know I have hundreds left to put in, and I imagine there are others, perhaps lots of us) by 910,000+ observers.

Year ---- Observations ------ Observers -- # Obs/Observer

2020 ----- 23.99 million ----- 857,765 ------ 28.0
2021 ----- 30.49 million ----- 942,129 ------ 32.4
2022 ----- 34.92 million ----- 960,103 ------ 36.4
2023 ----- 41.57 million ----- 910,614 ------ 45.6

It's interesting that both 2021 and 2022 had more observers than 2023 but fewer observations.

I wonder if the increasing average number of observations per observer is increasing more due to a growing number of mega-observers that represent a small proportion of the total (i.e., a scenario where the increase in average is due primarily to the top x% of observers seeing dramatic growth in observation totals) or if it's a broader shift where even more casual observers (let's say folks in the middle quartiles of observation totals) are on average making a handful more observations each year as compared to previous. I suppose another possibility would be fewer folks who show up and make a couple of observations to try it out, but never come back.

Maybe this sort of look at the numbers have been given a fuller treatment in a blog or journal post somewhere. If so, I would be happy to be pointed to it. Thanks!

Posted by gwark 9 months ago

I like rereading it once in a while, we didn't get 50 mil, but we were really close and won't wait too long till it finally happens, though originally authors took it more like "what if" scenario, it seems that the growth rate is still quite good. As per the last question, I try introducing observers I know with new things, and so far they do post more than they did before, I think it's a win-win situation, though I also know lots of people who are into nature, but still have prejudice against iNat, I'm looking forward to see new things that could make people interested. For example "the aims" app feature stops working after some time or sticks with 1-2 species only while there're more to find (and you shouldn't click on a specific group to find more, though even there it's often empty).

Posted by marina_gorbunova 4 months ago

We think the reason there were fewer observers in 2023 than 2022 and 2021 were 3 factors:
1) Staff were pretty distracted setting up the new org
2) An audit by facebook resulted in loosing the Facebook login button
3) Temporary experiments with requiring email confirmation to log in/post
Observers by year
2021: 900,145
2022: 930,233
2023: 918,041

2024 is not done but based on the year so far it looks on track to be a big year for observers:
Observers by partial year (Jan 1 - Jun 18)
2021: 516,437
2022: 553,649
2023: 583,127
2024: 695,560

Posted by loarie 4 months ago

Is there something that breaks observers into percentiles based on the number of observations they've posted?

Posted by ryan84 4 months ago

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