Platform(s), such as mobile, website, API, other: All platforms
URLs (aka web addresses) of any pages, if relevant: N/A
Description of need:
When an observation has a leading subspecies ID and it is the only ID present, the Observation Taxon is accordingly displayed at the subspecies level. (Examples at time of writing: 1, 2)
However, if a leading subspecies ID is added to an observation which already has at least one other coarser ID, the Observation Taxon does not update to the subspecies level with it. It may update to the species level, but proceeds no further. (Examples at time of writing: 1, 2, 3)
What I described in the second paragraph feels less than ideal to me. For example, I sometimes upload observations having identified them to species, then return later to add a subspecies ID once I have learnt more. But if I do this when other users have already agreed with my initial ID with species-level IDs of their own, then my Observation Taxon remains stuck at the species level.
As a result, whether my Observation Taxon proceeds below the species level seems to hinge on the seemingly arbitrary criterion of whether I make that infraspecific ID before other users have the chance to add (species and coarser) IDs of their own. This observation illustrates this point: the other user only agreed with me to the species level, but my Observation Taxon still gets to be at the subspecies level simply because I made the subspecies ID first. This would not be the case if the orders of the two IDs were swapped.
I can conceive of other drawbacks, but this is simply the one that is foremost in my mind. I say more in my post in General, where I also express some doubt that this behaviour is by design.
(Note: this is not the same issue as the one in this existing and resolved request.)
Feature request details:
Simply allow leading subspecies IDs to update the Observation Taxon to the subspecies level, even when prior, coarser IDs are presentâ in exactly the same way that leading IDs to genus/species/family etc. update the Observation Taxon to the corresponding rank.