Incorrect local taxon names on observation page <title> element (tab labels, bookmarks)

Bug Reports
1

Platform

Website

Browser

All of them: Firefox, Chrome, Edge, etc… (It’s not a problem with the browser; it’s the HTML that iNaturalist is serving.)

URLs

See explanation below.

Screenshots of what you are seeing

inat-canada-page-title-bug
inat-canada-page-title-bug1009×223 20.6 KB

Description of problem

The iNaturalist website is designed to display different local names to accord with regional variations:

The language and Place preferences in your account settings will change how common names are displayed on the site.

I have my language and place preferences set for Canada. (i.e. “Prioritize common names used in this place”)

For the most part this works, however I noticed that although all of the places where the local name are displayed within a page will match, the <title> element, and thus browser tabs, or bookmarked observations, often contain the wrong name for my locality. This issue can be observed on *.ca and *.org when I am logged (with preference set to “Canada”) in and only on the *.ca domain when logged out.

Example 1

I have an observation that I added recently, for Xestia c-nigrum:

On these I see two names:

  1. Lesser Black-letter Dart (the name show on iNaturalist.ca)
  2. Setaceous Hebrew Character (that appears to be the global or US name for the moth)

When I am logged in, both the *.ca and the *.org sites show the same pattern. The observation page’s <title> gives the following:

<title>Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum) from Kamloops, BC, Canada on May 27, 2021 at 12:30 AM by Jeffrey Murphy.

Seen at night outside; attracted to the light. 
 ·  iNaturalist.ca </title>

Further down in the HTML file, there is the data for the other name displayed, as shown at the top of the page and in the screenshot:

<span title="Lesser Black-letter Dart (Xestia c-nigrum)" class="SplitTaxon taxon species Insecta has-com-name parens">
  <a class="comname display-name " href="/taxa/203342" target="_self">
    Lesser Black-letter Dart
  </a> 
  <a class="sciname species secondary-name" href="/taxa/203342" target="_self">
    Xestia c-nigrum
  </a>
</span>

Example 2

The same problem also occurs with observations of Clintonia uniflora:

Here’s the <title> element from that page:

<title>Bride's Bonnet (Clintonia uniflora) from Pinecone Burke, Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, 
Canada on May 15, 2021 at 12:46 PM by John D Reynolds.

Burke Mountain Regional Park, BC, Canada
 ·  iNaturalist </title>

Elsewhere the name remains correct: <span title="Queen's Cup (Clintonia uniflora)" class="SplitTaxon taxon species Plantae has-com-name parens"><a class="comname display-name " href="/taxa/76401" target="_self">Queen's Cup</a> <a class="sciname species secondary-name" href="/taxa/76401" target="_self">Clintonia uniflora</a></span>

Taxon Pages

The issue appears to affect the <title> elements on all observation pages, however it does not affect taxon pages, e.g. Lesser Black-letter Dart (Xestia c-nigrum) has the following: <title>Lesser Black-letter Dart (Xestia c-nigrum) · iNaturalist </title>, both on the *.ca and *.org when I am logged (as expected) in and only on the *.ca domain when logged out (as expected).

Problem Duration

That moth observation just reminded me to finally write up a description of the issue, however it’s an issue that has been around for several months at least and probably longer. I first noticed it last fall, after updating the name of Clintonia uniflora.

2

3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Page title on observation detail page does not follow local common name preferences