When I started extracting data from the internet, almost all records were of single species from a locality on the same day. The value of the internet as a medium for recording was only starting to become apparent and it did not really gain much traction until the advent of iSpot in 2009. That was quite a 'game changer'. The next big leap came in 2013 when the UK Hoverflies Facebook group was established. The effects of these two events can be seen in figure 1.
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Figure 1. Numbers of full and partial records of hoverflies from 2002 to 2019 extracted from internet sources. Numbers started to rise markedly in 2010 with a much bigger jump in 2014 which was the first full year after the establishment of the UK Hoverflies Facebook group. I only really started recording partial identifications in 2015; hence the low data for preceding years.
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The numbers of active recorders is probably a better test of the popularity of social media amongst the photographic recording community. This is illustrated in Figure 2.
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Figure 2. Numbers of recorders contributing to the data presented in Figure 1. The decline since 2013 reflects several factors; principally a reduction in the time I spend extracting data from Flickr and other sites, together with a gradual shift of recorders using spreadsheets or iRecord to submit data. The big drop in 2018 is almost certainly a combination of people shifting to the use of spreadsheets plus a big hit from the heatwave of June and July in which hoverfly numbers crashed.
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One of the big problems for recording schemes is that recorders can be extremely selective over what they submit. Many would only take an interest in the rare or unusual; a situation that probably continues in many other schemes. The HRS has actively encouraged the submission of full lists on all occasions, and I think this process has been very effective as can be seen in Figure 3. This shows the benefits of schemes directly interacting with recorders in order to develop new ways of working. In many ways, it mirrors BirdTrack which only uses full lists in its interactive feedback.
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Figure 3. The average numbers of records per recorder since 2009. This graph shows how there was a gradual rise in numbers until 2013 but in the following two years there was a paradigm shift in recorder behaviour. Part of this shift would have come from the reduction in my scanning of Flickr for occasional records, but even so, it does not wholly explain the results. It is noticeable how the average plummeted in 2018 but has rebounded very strongly in 2019.
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I think this is a good indication of the way forward for other schemes and for other recording media. The important issue is to shift thinking away from the idea that recording is about dot maps and towards the idea that total lists may help to provide the detail deened to track at least some of the critical environmental influences on Britain's wildlife.
