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by Denisovich87

I’m completely blind but I don’t let that stop me from doing the things I love such as gardening. This app was pretty darn useful and accessible using my iPhone screen reader, and although it rarely correctly identified the plant right off the bat, it would most times previous to about April 2021 give me the correct suggestion in a list of possibilities. I am really, really disliking the updated System as there are far, far fewer suggestions even when I go turn off the “nearby“ switch (which I seem to have to do with every single observation). Along with that, the things it does suggest are laughably far from correct; no, the iris I’m taking a picture of is not a toad of any species, nor is it a blue land crab,, nor also “magic mushroom“ (I kid you not, that was the title of a suggestion and yes, it was the psilocybin )trip( variety of mushrooms per the species name to that title). Basically, this used to be really good and I would happily pay for what it used to be, but certainly wouldn’t pay for what it is now.

by Only Angry Reviews

I loved the app for all the reasons noted in the other reviews. I used it for about a year and was enjoying contributing to the documentation of wildlife in my area. When I had an observation and couldn’t capture a picture it made sense to use the picture they provided in the identification process. Well I did that for 3 or 4 observations and they sat there for months. Then one day some lady starts leaving condescending comments on those posts that I can’t do that and that she was going to report me. Which she did. And they wrote me more elitist condescending comments. AND I am pretty sure they deleted one of my own photos…they don’t deserve it anyway. I’m sure they took my photos and observation data to use for their own benefits. So sign up but beware your working unpaid for ungrateful condescending elitist academics. This is why the massive social potential of the app goes right by them unnoticed. They have no social clues and they don’t care what the users want as long as they post content for them to steal.

by Yetanothermillenial

I love inat. I use it all the time. The taxonomy suggestions are almost always on point. I use it to explore areas I already am familiar with too to learn about the things living around me I’ve never heard of. Even the projects and guides are cool, because I can see which species in a group are most commonly encountered based on how many times they’ve been observed compared to others. The range maps you get for species etc are dynamic.

BUT, the social component to me is abysmal. “Leaderboard?” No one cares. It’s a meaningless statistic. I’d like to be able to see who is observing similar things to me in an area. Who is consistently identifying a specific phylum or genus? (Not me lol). They should be acknowledged as someone with some knowledge in that area. I know inat has powerful algorithms capable of identifying species based on photos - use some of those algorithms to connect peoples’ observational powers and curiosity. Sometimes I observe something that scientist haven’t completely determined what subspecies lives in my specific area- why can’t scientists send out questions for people to find out? Don’t know the southernmost extent of a plant? Ask people who have observed it before and live in the area to look for it.

This is a powerful app for taking citizen science to the next level. I’d love to see what they can do.