Some locations were created using weird or unusual names … sometimes the names are ok, but not in a language i speak.
An example: I finally found a place that is largely equivalent to “Lesser Antilles”. It seems it has been around for a while, but i couldnt find it, because it is called “Eastern Caribbean”. Other users that search for “Lesser Antilles” might face the same problem. I would therefore think it might be great, if a search for “Lesser Antilles” in the place field, would come up with the existing place “Eastern Caribbean”.
And as my “ceterum censeo” i have to add, the locations “Greater Antilles” and “West Indies” are urgently needed.
jdjohnson … that might be a second good idea … however the place names of my example “Lesser Antilles” and “Eastern Caribbean” are both English.
All i suggest here is a function like the “foreward pages” in wikipedia. No matter what i search in wikipedia “Lady Bug”, “Ladybird”, “Ladybug”, or “Lady beetle” … i always end up on the page “Coccinellidae”.
ceterum censeo the locations “Greater Antilles” and “West Indies” are urgently needed.
In the taxon common names there can be multiple names for any language. For instance, the genus Lupinus is called both Lupines and bluebonnets in English and searching for either will take you to that taxon page.
Country names have been translatable for a little while now, eg if I’m using the site in French I’ll see the French name:
However, those translated names have not been added to the search index, so a French speaker won’t get United States if they type in Etats-Unis. I made an issue for this, but I’ve been told it would not be trivial to implement.
I don’t think we’ll be adding new functionality to places so I’m going to close this request. However, one workaround is to go to a spot on the map in Explore and click on Places of Interest. You’ll see a list of the iNat places in the area and if you mouseover one, you’ll see its boundary (eg Lesser Antilles here):
