I started the Nature Observer community about a month ago with the intention of bringing together contributors to iNaturalist and similar sites.
Of course, this requires at least some interest in nature, as it takes a bit of time and work to enter observations.
So far three members are contributing as I envisioned.
@lindoro was the first to join, if I remember correctly. He is from Cuba and has 21 sightings on iNaturalist, including several birds and a nice lizard.
@jazmin89 from Cuba is a complete newcomer. She has 5 sightings on iNaturalist and likes flowers and plants in general.
@tych021 from the USA joined today and has 5877 sightings on iNaturalist.
That's a lot of work already. Mostly mushrooms, but I've seen birds there too, and quite a few.
Others are posting here too, but without participating on iNaturalist or any similar site. The advantage of iNaturalist, in my opinion, is mainly the number of qualified participants who determine the sightings.
Setting aside the common knowledge of plants, animals, birds, etc, accurate species identification is often problematic.
For example @ekachiyuni/orgyia-leucostigma has nice macro photos, nice text but the Indonesia location without a date is really insufficient.
Because of that and because the sighting is not on iNaturalist (or similar portal) it has no scientific value.
@dzaky12/grasshopper-oror-nature-observer beautiful grasshopper, I admire what he can take with his phone but otherwise the same problem.
However, I am aware that not everyone has a computer at home and iNaturalist is harder to manage on a mobile phone. Plus, we have to make a living somehow, we have families and various daily worries and this takes time.
The @teungkulik/cyanthillium-cinereum has location, time and perfect photos. Unfortunately it's not on iNaturalist, but usable it is.
However, on iNaturalist and similar portals everything is together and you can work with the data.
A final note. All of us who post on Hive are interested in having as many users as possible and making Hive as valuable as possible.
Maybe this way we can attract users from iNaturalist to Hive as well.
So hopefully we'll get someone new again in a month.