Normally curators can select “Add a taxon swap” for any taxon at the top of the Edit Taxon view. This link is not available for taxa I created, included taxa I imported (which are labelled as being created by me, possibly a separate issue/update but I think it’s new).
Also, if anyone has any suggestions for adding swaps quicker, I’m open to them. This seems a little roundabout but I think it’s easier than starting with a blank one. Maybe not though.
Or maybe this is actually a bug…
(I made the title a little bit more specific, but it could probably be made clearer/revised - feel free to)
As far as quickly creating taxon changes, I usually just open https://www.inaturalist.org/taxon_changes/new in a new tab, which my browser remembers after typing out “taxo”. I’m not usually on the taxon edit view if I’m thinking about making a taxon change.
From a taxon page, I’ll click on Taxon Changes, then New taxon change to get a draft with the taxon already filled in. Saves me from spelling errors.
OK thanks. Same number of clicks, but it doesn’t open in a new tab so that might work better.
Yeah that might be quicker too. It’s not that hard to just input the new name.
On your test taxon above, I wonder if the fact that it is not grafted is of any significance? Definitely seems like a bug to me that that link would not be available to a curator on any taxon edit page.
I assumed it’s intentional. It seems to me that when originally written, it was supposed to be a binary method for changing an incorrect (e.g. misspelled) name, not a quick way to get started on any draft taxon change related to this taxon. So if you created the taxon, you can change the name by just typing in the box and saving, but if you didn’t create the taxon, the link to a taxon swap is a convenience to allow you to correct the name more easily.
Related request here (which, based on the “preferred option” screenshot, seems to possibly be suggesting getting rid of the taxon swap button whenever you have permission to edit the name directly?)
That the taxon change link is present in one screenshot and absent in the proposed revision isn’t part of that feature request. I just grabbed too much screen area in the first one.
Hm that’s interesting—I hadn’t thought to check that. Although it’s still the case for this grafted species.
The thing is, I imported this and some subspecies came along with it. It’s saying that I created them (which is maybe partly true) but I wanted to swap the subspecies because they weren’t valid. If I had manually created the taxa, the swap button would generally be unnecessary, but since I never actually wanted these taxa in the first place it was a little annoying.
Now I’m pretty sure I ended up importing the genus too, but I’m able to swap that one and it doesn’t say I created it. I had to graft it yesterday so I don’t think it was already here. Maybe this is because I was searching for the species and not the genus?
I also just tried adding a grafted species and it’s the same issue. This one I manually created, but it looks the same as the ones I imported.
Doesn’t it seem redundant to put who created it at the top when it’s already at the bottom anyway? (Also not sure why it automatically says “Updated by” when I only created it.)
Hmmm, interesting, I’ve used it for that purpose quite a bit, it often being convenient at hand. I guess if the original intent was to direct curators on how to make a mere spelling correction, that was lost on me, and so possibly others. Seems like a needless link in that case, and maybe best just removed from all taxon edit pages? I upvoted cassi’s request as soon as I saw it, hope it gets implemented!
