Add curatorial buttons to more pages

[thomaseverest]

Platform(s): website

URLs: see below

Description of need: Volunteer curators provide the essential service of maintaining and updating the iNaturalist taxonomy. There are a number of proposed improvements that could be made to assist this effort, some of which deal with streamlining the curatorial workflow. A significant amount of curatorial work involves responding to flags, and many flags ask for new taxa or edits to existing taxa. Currently, the only way for curators to create new taxa is by scrolling to the bottom of the dashboard (to the “Ungrafted Taxa” widget of all places) or by opening a taxon change draft. The only way for curators to edit taxa is from the taxon page (after two clicks) or from the list of flags. Adding these and other buttons to more places would substantially expedite the curatorial workflow.

Feature request details:

1. Add the “Create a New Taxon” button to the new taxon page. This is helpful for creating parents that don’t exist yet when trying to add new taxa. It could look like this:

   

2. Add the “Create a New Taxon” button to the taxon editing page ( https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/XXXXXXX/edit , where XXXXXXX is any taxon ID). This is helpful for creating parents that don’t exist yet when trying to edit existing taxa. It could look like this:

   
   1

3. Add the “Create a New Taxon” button to taxon flags. This button should open the new taxon page with the parent ID automatically filled by the taxon ID of the flagged taxon, as the taxon being requested typically descends directly from the flagged taxon (but if it doesn’t, this can be easily edited). This is helpful for creating taxa when responding to flags. It could look like this:

   

4. Add the “Edit Taxon” button to taxon flags. This button should open https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/XXXXXXX/edit , where XXXXXXX is the taxon ID of the flagged taxon. This is helpful for editing taxa when responding to flags. It could look like this, in combination with number 3:

   

5. Make the “Edit Taxon” button for the Ungrafted Taxa dashboard widget actually open the taxon editing page ( https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/XXXXXXX/edit , where XXXXXXX is the taxon ID of the ungrafted taxon). It currently opens the taxon page, just like the link from the name. Maybe this is actually a bug. These are the buttons that should go to different pages:

   
   It would also be nice if the “Edit Taxon” button icons were standardized.

6. If 5 is implemented, it would be helpful to add a button to the taxon flags page ( https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/XXXXXXX/flags , where XXXXXXX is the taxon ID of the ungrafted taxon) on the Ungrafted Taxa widget if and only if any flags exist for that taxon. This would allow curators to see if flags exist, open flags, and open the taxon edit page without opening the taxon page (which can still be done by clicking on the name). It could look like this:

   

These are all minor changes, but they have the potential to substantially decrease the curatorial workflow, especially when curators are doing a lot of curation in one sitting. I am happy for other curators to suggest additional places more buttons may be helpful, particularly if their workflows differ from mine.

[sjl197]

Please think about how ‘search for inactives’ can be integrated. It’s been the bane of many taxon additions that an inactive already exists, then too easily misdupilicated without failsafes.

[escol]

(and so probably a check when creating a new taxon is needed, if the same exact name exists somewhere)

[thomaseverest]

Yes I was also thinking about that. I think that would merit its own feature request.

[tiwane]

We don’t make Github issues for things like this now, but I’ve added this request to our Product prioritization page, so the product team can discuss it.

[thomaseverest]

It would also help speed things up if the proposed “Create a New Taxon” and “Edit Taxon” buttons on flags (points 3 & 4) automatically added a link to the flag in the notes of the subsequent taxon edit page.

[tiwane]

Working on an issue for this. Would you say that clicking these buttons should open up a new tab? Personally I like keeping the flag open in its own tab so I can go back and refer to it, but I don’t do a ton of taxonomic curation.

Also, should the “Create a New Taxon” button use the flagged taxon in the Parent field?

[thomaseverest]

@tiwane

Personally I like keeping the flag open in its own tab

I also do this, but I generally prefer to be able to do this myself with keyboard shortcuts. Although I imagine that the flag should probably stay open as a reminder to resolve it or add a comment.

@tiwane

should the “Create a New Taxon” button use the flagged taxon in the Parent field?

Yes, I think that is what I was requesting, unless I am misunderstanding?

@thomaseverest

Add the “Create a New Taxon” button to taxon flags. This button should open the new taxon page with the parent ID automatically filled by the taxon ID of the flagged taxon

I think that would only apply when creating taxa from a flag, though (point 3). It could also be done when creating taxa from other taxa (point 2), but I don’t know how regularly I would want the parent in that case. A curator could just as often want to create descendants that use the edited taxon as the parent, as opposed to the parent of the edited taxon as the parent. That would depend on workflow and I don’t really have a strong preference there. Might just be easiest to leave that blank.

Thanks for working on this!