Sometimes when I tag someone requesting help on an ID, the person doesn’t see the notification because it gets lost in the midle of several others. It’s normal. I wonder if the same could happen when I flag something. Flags are always seen by curators? I’m asking this because a few days ago I flagged a plant genus requesting that a certain sp. was added to de DB and until now I got no answers. I know curators are volunteers and I know we are living harsh times. I’m not rushing or demanding anything, I’m just trying to understand the process and want to know if there is something else I should/could do.
Flags are not always seen by curators because there is currently no way for a taxon curator (or anyone else) to be automatically notified of a flag on a taxon. It’s something that has to be actively monitored.
Personally, as a taxon curator, I wouldn’t mind getting an @-mention to draw attention to a flag in the taxa I curate, but it’s possible other taxon curators would prefer that you wait until they have time to get to it.
There is no way to know if something has been seen unless it is resolved or comments added etc.
In this particular case it is likely it has been seen but not acted upon because the species you have requested is not accepted by, or even listed as a synonym etc by the authority the site follows for vascular plants, which means extra research for any curator who tries to take it on.
Thank you both.
Maybe it could be useful to have something like “flag under review” that would indicate the flag was seen and was been taken care. How can I see who are the curators for a given taxon?
There is a list here.
It’s also possible to check for any given taxon by clicking on Taxonomy Details and clicking up through the Taxon Framework Relationships until you find one with taxon curators listed.
There are no curators designated for plants (with a very small number of exceptions EDIT - if you look it does appear there is a curator for vascular plants but that is a little deceptive as this group is not locked which means it remains available for all curator to work on), and there are a small number of groups such as cacti and ferns that have unofficial curators who manage them.
On the relevant taxa page there is a taxonomy details tab, you can open that, and then you have to click on the link near the top that says ‘covered by a taxon framework’ to get to the parent level. If there is an assigned taxon curator for that group it will show there.
In general, specific taxa curators are only assigned when a group is ‘locked’. One of the criteria required to lock a group is all species in the relevant reference source the site uses must be in the iNat database. With plants, the site is kilometers away from achieving this goal, so plants will likely remain open for all curators to work on for the future.
Is there a way to find who is a curator for which group? I got a comment for one of my flags 2 months ago I answered it but got nothing from that time, I mean it’s a very uncertain situation and it would be helpful to know who else you could ask, even if the response will be delayed.
