You can lead a person to iNaturalist...
...but you can't make them upload.
Person on a listserv (paraphrased): I saw this interesting thing that I'd like help identifying. Can anyone look at it for me and explain the behavior?
Me: I recommend submitting it to iNaturalist.org and adding it to any regionally or taxonomically relevant projects to help it get noticed. Email me your user ID and I'll try to help tag some people who might be helpful.
Person: Thanks for your suggestion. Would you be able to put me in direct contact with anyone who could help with the ID? It would be great if I could talk directly with a specialist, since I have a number of questions about the behavior I observed.
Me: I have one idea of an iNat user who does a lot of macro invertebrate monitoring who might know more. Hopefully on iNaturalist you'll come across a specialist and can ask. After all, it's a social network for naturalists. :-)
Person: Hello--were you able to find anyone who might be able to help me identify this species from the photo I sent?
Me: Did you upload it to iNaturalist yet?
Person: I appreciate the suggestion, but I'd much rather contact an entomologist who works with the group--I was hoping you might be able to recommend someone.
Me: headdesk
I should have just sent him to BugGuide.
Comments
There are days when all the chocolate/wine/running/self-medication-of-choice just won't help.
Haha!
Yes, it can be a difficult process to get others to upload... What I have done in some cases is upload the image for the person with a 'community' username (I use the name olivernaturepark)... Then, if he or she realizes how that adds to the broad knowledge of the species distribution besides just "finding out what to call it," that might entice them to upload more later...
Ooooooor, you can just say "b-bye." ;)
Some are just interested in an id; others are interested in contributing to the knowledge base of iNat.
Uuuuuuh, that sounds all too familiar!
Yeah Jakob it just happened for me with AfriBats on Facebook too :-/
Very well written and utterly-frustratingly recognizable! Thank you for sharing this!
Beyond the paraphrased first request, it's verbatim!
i usually end up ignoring those people since i am not mandated by my job to deal with them (unless I am)
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