Platform(s): web
URLs: Observation detail, dashboard, notifications
Description of need:
When taxon changes occur, observations fields with datatype=taxon are automatically updated as well. For example, if someone had added the observation field “Interaction->visited flower of” with a value Coreopsis tripteris, they recently were automatically changed to the new name Anacis tripteris due a taxon change[1].
The ensuing flurry of notifications about changes to observation fields causes confusion[2][3] and are technically incorrect, since the iNatters mentioned in the notifications didn’t themselves take any recent actions and the taxon name selection cannot solely be attributed to them (also mentioned by @annkatrinrose here[4]).
Feature request details:
I suggest iNat/the system be attributed to making the change rather than the original user who added the observation field. Similar to how IDs from taxon changes were updated last year[5] to say “iNaturalist updated the ID suggested by @usera” instead of “@usera suggested an ID”.
I suspect retaining the previously entered taxon for each observation field as a separate record is unlikely, so maybe there could just be a link to the taxon changes page for that taxon (e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxon_changes?taxon_id=1673460).
Current situation after taxon changes:
Observation detail pop-up: “Added by: @usera”
With notification: “@usera added a value for “Interaction->Visited flower of” t@userb an observation by @userb”
Suggested alternative:
Observation detail pop-up: “iNaturalist updated the field added by @usera (see taxon changes)”
With notification: “iNaturalist updated @usera’s value for “Interaction->Visited flower of” to an observation by @userb”