Change the behavior of the uploader to choose the lower taxon when a section and species have the same binomial

[gcwarbler]

This addresses the long-standing problem (apparently not a “bug”) with the uploader parsing Genus-species names in a filename to a Section rather than to the desired species name. See, https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/parsing-species-names-to-section/31509

When a section name has the same binomial as one of its included species, the uploader is currently programmed to pick the higher level name–an undesirable action in my opinion. The current behavior causes me endless headaches because a great many of the moth groups I work with have section-level names and I have to be on constant guard to correct names after the uploader fills in the section name rather than the desired species. I am requesting that this be reversed, i.e., that when there is a duplicate binomial for a Section/Complex and a species name, that the uploader select the species instead of the broader group.

I tried a work-around by attempting to add the work “Section” to the (scientific) “Name” of a section, but that attempt failed and just resulted in reversing the priority of the displayed name on the taxon name to the English name. That attempt is shown in the following screen capture:

I can’t think of any other way to distinguish the section and species names for the uploader’s behavior.

[keirmorse]

I would like to see this implemented for complexes as well. I had this problem a lot when I was uploading old photos of mine that had tags. It would always default to complexes rather than the species they were tagged as, and it was not obvious it was doing that. Very annoying!

[sedgequeen]

I think maybe this was a choice at some point. The idea was, people are identifying things to a lower level than they should. In many cases, the lower level taxa (often species) are hard to tell apart. People click on the species name not knowing they shouldn’t. So the genus or complex name is put first to help avoid erroneous species ID’s.

[gcwarbler]

Yes, Barbara, that is a problem when folks unthinkingly select a CV-suggested species, for instance. I honestly don’t know what the right balance is here. I just know I am routinely frustrated when the uploader fills in a section or complex I didn’t want–i.e. when I know what the species ought to be. There’s definitely a tension between these two problems. I’m open to suggestions!