The curator guide says curators have the power to delete common names, but gives little info about when to do so, only saying to remove duplicate common names The naming policy also says that a new name should not be coined on inat, and names should be from an external source, which implies that na…

[image] cthawley: I wouldn’t say that one or two posts by a user on Reddit, for example, require adding a common name. I wouldn’t have thought of social media as a source at all actually [image] cthawley: I’ve heard suggestions that people have added common names to Wikipedia and then as…

[image] cthawley: In regards to translating scientific names, some common names have been created this way, but my take is that they should be created this way on iNat I think you meant “they should not be created this way on iNat”.

[image] insectobserver123: What new curator requirement? I became a curator this month and before that was never prevented from adding a name due to not being a curator I think @silversea_starsong was referring to the new required “Note” field that appears when adding a name. You’re right tha…

Previously anyone could interact with common names, now (as of some point in time within the last few years) only curators can.

[image] silversea_starsong: it’s very easy for someone to silently delete one at a moment’s notice and it’s just as easy for anyone to sneak a new one in with just as much notice

Is that true even for just adding a common name? I didn’t know that had been limited.

As long as I’ve been on iNat (~4years) it’s been anyone can add names, but only curators can remove or reorder names, unless somthing just changed?

I know I added names after the notes field rule went into effect but before I was a curator, I suspect the issue was changing the default common name, once a name is added that is the default name regardless of what other names are added later, and only curators can change which name is default

One bit of Wikipedia culture that I think has spread to other online info sources is the expectation for lay contributors to cite any document they used while writing their contribution. This is more likely to occur if the online info source software makes it easier to add a citation.

Just checked. Anyone can add them, but only curators can remove. I was slightly mixed up. That was the change whenever it happened.

Policy on removing common names

Curators

jasonhernandez74 October 23, 2023, 10:23pm 25

The thread If you could rename an existing species seems to have degenerated into exactly this kind of pedantry.

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Policy on removing common names

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