Helpful links for using iNat and the forums
It's easy to start uploading photos, and even fairly easy to start identifying observations. But how do you know you're doing it right, not stepping on toes, or if there's just a much better way of doing things? When I first started, I had no idea there was a help/faq section, and it was so handy when I finally found it! So I've created this post to collect some of the most important links that can help you to get started.
For using iNat itself:
- iNat help / faq: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help
- How to respond / what to include in your comments: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/responses
- Tips and tricks: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/bouteloua/14205-inat-tips-tricks
- More tips & tricks: http://www.cassisaari.com/inaturalist-tips-tricks/
- How to use the Explore page: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/the-inaturalist-explore-page-an-introduction/12966
- Don't use projects until you have some experience and know what they are really used for!! https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/managing-projects
- Journals - how to add photos: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/karoopixie/21170-adding-photos-to-journal-and-news-posts
- Adding a wikipedia page: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-the-world-out-and-create-this-page-on-wikipedia/6101
How to use the forum:
- When you first start, there is a bot that teaches you how to carry out simple tasks. After that, you are pretty much left to your own devices, and there's not a lot of guidance about where to go next. I've collected some useful links here.
- Beginners Guide to the forums (called Discourse): https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331
- FAQ about using the forums: https://meta.discourse.org/c/howto/faq/4
Main forum areas: https://forum.inaturalist.org/
- General - mostly about how the forum works and why: https://forum.inaturalist.org/c/general/14
- Nature talk: https://forum.inaturalist.org/c/nature-talk/18
- Feature requests: https://forum.inaturalist.org/c/feature-requests/16
- Tutorials: https://forum.inaturalist.org/c/tutorials/12
- And more... Forum feedback, bug reports, curators, educators, news and updates
Some of my favourite wikis/tutorials:
- What you can do to help: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/ways-to-help-out-on-inat-wiki/1983
- Etiquette for identifying: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/identification-etiquette-on-inaturalist-wiki/1503
- Requests for help to identify: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/help-me-identify-non-experts-welcome/2915
- How to identify different taxa: some are covered in the previous point, but I thought there was a collection of this sort of tutorial, or at least a thread about it. I'll try to find it. Maybe I just started my own collection of how to identify different groups of animals.
- How to adapt the search url: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-use-inaturalists-search-urls-wiki/63
- How to use html code to change the formatting: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/useful-html-tags-for-inaturalist-comments-and-other-text-wiki/6198/5
Some of the conversations I'm following:
- Should we create a wiki of best practice, and/or a list of pros & cons? https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/geoprivacy-obscuring-and-auto-obscure-discussion/457/121?u=row_nature
- Should you ID unknowns? How can you filter to be more effective at IDs? https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/why-do-some-serious-power-users-add-so-many-unknown-observations/282/120?u=row_nature
- Is there a way to bulk-edit so that we can get through the Unknowns more quickly? https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/amount-of-unknown-records-is-decreasing/8594/298?u=row_nature
