Platform: iNaturalist
URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: The examples I give below can be found on the pages for Arceuthobium campylopodum (and an associated pending taxonomic swap) and Pyrrocoma sessiliflora (and an associated withdrawn taxonomic swap).
Screenshots of what you are seeing: included below
Description of problem:
Context:
Taxonomic changes for plants now require 5 votes before being approved. A curator hits “commit” on a drafted change (step 1), and then the taxon change is “pending” until it has 5 votes (step 2). After reaching the 5 vote threshold, a curator can again select “commit,” and the change is implemented (step 3). Because of the two different meanings of “commit” here, I am going to refer to the steps in describing the issue.
In principle and in practice, taxon changes can be withdrawn during step 2, and often a curator commits a change (step 1) before initiating a discussion about whether the proposed change is prudent. Therefore, my interpretation is that no part of the change should move forward until step 3.
Problem:
If a swap is committed (step 1), the list of names for the input taxon is immediately added to the list of names for the output taxon, without the change needing to clear the 5 vote threshold.
For example, I see that on Nov 19, when I submitted the Arceuthobium campylopodum campylopodum → A. campylopodum swap, the name A. campylopodum campylopodum was added to the list of scientific names for A. campylopodum (as a name not currently in use).
This is premature, since A. campylopodum campylopodum is still active on iNaturalist, with the swap only currently having 4 votes of support.
In a similar example, a swap Pyrrocoma racemosa sessiliflora → P. sessiliflora was committed (step 1) and later withdrawn. The list of names for P. sessiliflora (note that this is currently an inactive taxon) still includes the list of names transferred over from P. racemosa sessiliflora despite the change being withdrawn:
There are many more examples, which are most easily found by looking through withdrawn plant taxon changes.
