How can I make contact with a user with a cryptic user name?
A record has been entered in a location where I have an interest and I would like to make contact with the submitter for more details.
Comments
Re: Contacting another submitter
If it's an iNaturalist record, you can go directly to the user's profile using https://www.inaturalist.org/people/username
(where username is the name of the recorder as shown in iRecord). You won't need an iNaturalist account yourself to access a known profile, but you will need one if you want to search for other users. Once you've created an iNaturalist account, you will also be able to send private messages to other users. This is undoubtably the best way to go about things, as most iNaturalist users will have no idea that their observations have been automatically imported into iRecord.
To contact a user with a…
To contact a user with a cryptic username, consider these steps:
- Check the Platform's Messaging Features: Most platforms have direct messaging options. Search for the username and see if you can send them a message through the platform.
- Look for Contact Information: Sometimes users provide email or social media links in their profiles or associated posts.
- Post a Public Request: If direct messaging isn't available, you could leave a comment or post where the record was entered, politely asking the user to contact you for more information.
- Contact Platform Support: As a last resort, reach out to the platform's support team. They may be able to facilitate a connection while respecting privacy policies.
iRecord encourages use of proper names, so this record is likely to be an iNaturalist one (clicking on the record details should tell you where the record originated). If so then you should be able to go onto iNaturalist UK and search for the username associated with the record, which should then bring up their profile. The detective work might end there, or they might have more details about their actual name etc that would allow you to get in touch.