Permission to Edit (Only Certain) Taxa Revoked?

[bobby23]

Hello! Curator here. I've encountered a persistent problem with certain taxa that I have attempted to edit that hadn't occurred prior. For example, when I go to edit the Lion taxon page, I am denied and given this message:

"You don't have permission to edit that taxon. Please contact one of the taxon's curators or flag the taxon to request changes."

This confuses me because this hadn't occurred before, nothing in the Curator Guide suggests this could happen, and the message suggests there are curators designated for only certain taxa. Can permission to edit certain (but again, not all taxa) be revoked? If so, why? I do not believe I have done anything malicious in terms of editing taxon pages. As of late, I had been trying to add country and state specific conservation statuses for some taxa. I always added sources, and no one approached me with any concerns regarding this.

- Bobby

[Scott Loarie]

Hi Bobby,

We're still working on documentation for this, so apologies for that. 

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Scott R. Loarie, Ph.D.
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California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr
San Francisco, CA 94118
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[Scott Loarie]

Whoops - premature sent 

Hi Bobby,

We're still working on documentation for this, so apologies for that. But this is part of new 'complete taxa' functionality. The order Carnivora is 'complete' down to species 

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/41573-Carnivora 

(ie it matches the external IUCN source for mammals)

so there should be no need for curators to edit any of the nodes of that clade between order and species.

Documentation forthcoming. But is there any particular reason you wanted to edit the lion taxon page?

[bobby23]

Hi, Loarie.

I did suspect that that "Complete Taxa" thing was the case, but I was not entirely certain.

I have no interest in editing an organism's taxonomic placement or in adding additional taxa not acknowledged by the IUCN to "complete" units. However, I have expressed interest in adding regional specific conservation statuses to certain species, particularly for organisms that are globally abundant (say, considered Least Concern by the IUCN) but rare and depleted in smaller localities. The Lion, for example, is Vulnerable globally, but is considered Critically Endangered in some countries (particularly in northwestern Africa). But I suppose that's a poor example given I don't live in Africa. A better, more local example would be the Black Bear. It is considered imperiled in my state by NatureServe despite being "Least Concern" globally. I think that kind of information is important and that curators should at least be permitted to edit that data, especially since conservation status is not as static as taxonomic placements.

- Bobby

On Friday, November 24, 2017 at 7:55:23 PM UTC-5, Scott Loarie wrote:

Whoops - premature sent 

Hi Bobby,

We're still working on documentation for this, so apologies for that. But this is part of new 'complete taxa' functionality. The order Carnivora is 'complete' down to species 

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/41573-Carnivora 

(ie it matches the external IUCN source for mammals)

so there should be no need for curators to edit any of the nodes of that clade between order and species.

Documentation forthcoming. But is there any particular reason you wanted to edit the lion taxon page?

On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 4:52 PM, Scott Loarie <loa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Bobby,

We're still working on documentation for this, so apologies for that. 

On Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 12:11 PM, bobby23 <101b...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello! Curator here. I've encountered a persistent problem with certain taxa that I have attempted to edit that hadn't occurred prior. For example, when I go to edit the Lion taxon page, I am denied and given this message:

"You don't have permission to edit that taxon. Please contact one of the taxon's curators or flag the taxon to request changes."

This confuses me because this hadn't occurred before, nothing in the Curator Guide suggests this could happen, and the message suggests there are curators designated for only certain taxa. Can permission to edit certain (but again, not all taxa) be revoked? If so, why? I do not believe I have done anything malicious in terms of editing taxon pages. As of late, I had been trying to add country and state specific conservation statuses for some taxa. I always added sources, and no one approached me with any concerns regarding this.

- Bobby

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--------------------------------------------------
Scott R. Loarie, Ph.D.
Co-director, iNaturalist.org
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr
San Francisco, CA 94118
--------------------------------------------------

[rjq]

Hi Scott and Bobby
I have also encountered this issue when trying to add new subspecies to both Artiodactyla and Odonata. Is there perhaps a glitch in the new functionality which is stopping taxonomic changes at the subspecies level? Though Artiodactyla is complete at the species level, there are lots of recognised subspecies that have not yet been added.
Thanks
Rupert

[Scott Loarie]

Hi Rupert and Bobby,

If a taxon is complete from, say, order to species, you should be able to graft ssp. to it and edit the ssp.

Re: not being able to edit conservation statuses on complete taxa, thats a good point and an over site. We'll fix that

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[rjq]

Hi Scott
Thanks for fixing this, system now allows subspecies to be added again
Rupert