Platform: Web
Description of need:
When editing, adding, removing common names, we are prompted with the following note box asking for justification, which is a very good thing. If someone makes a change, I can then go to history and see who did it and why.
When changing the default common name on the “Manage names” page, there is no such box requiring a justification for changes made. This would again be useful in knowing both who is making these changes and, more importantly, why. I request this justification box be added and required for changes made on the “Manage names” page for any taxon.
Secondarily, it would be nice if the justifications were actually shown on the relevant page rather than just in the History page. I really like that the Atlas page has a commenting option so that people can easily see what was done and why on that page, assuming the person who made an edit was kind enough to provide an explanation. An example is the Atlas for Malacothamnus davidsonii where I first entered that range based on available references five years ago and then reduced the range 4 months ago as a new species was split off. Without these comments, someone may look at an old map that is incorrect and think they should add those counties that were removed back onto the atlas.
Relevant comments should appear on pages where changes were made so that it is easy to see why any changes were made and the source of the information. Regarding default common names, it would be nice to see similar comments on the “Manage names” page. If there is a lot of discussion needed, it would be nice if someone could make a comment linking to a flag for discussion so that it is obvious that there is a flagged discussion that should be looked at. Maybe curators should always look at the flags and history for any taxon before making any changes but it would be nice if all relevant information was on the page it is relevant to.