I'm not sure where to post, but I hope this is the right place for my suggestion: In my forum I (or one of the moderators) used to overwrite the titels of the threads in the plant ID section, if the plant is already identified... for example if the original titel of the thread was "What plant is this?" then the new titel will be "What plant is this? (=Cirsium eriophorum)" I think this method will be very useful here in the plant ID section too, because: - everyone could see easily (without opening threads) what threads are already answered (and what plants are they) - if there were more than just one answers / ID suggestions in a thread, then everyone could see, which one was the correct ID - in a plant ID question are usually pictures too... and if the correct answer is also there (scientific name in the titel of the thread!), then the threads are easily searchable and with the pictures it is a great and useful database, just like a plant-encyclopedia!
Previous threads on this topic: Naming threads; and what about renaming threads? | UBC Botanical Garden Forums change thread titles if plants identified? | UBC Botanical Garden Forums
Hi Junglekeeper, thank you for showing me these threads... well, if this idea/topic is 4 years old, and the renaming is still not in use, then it will be never in use... :) It was very interesting for me to read these pro/con arguments, because in my forum was everybody for the renaming! (And it works brilliant, not just in the plant ID sections (for example here: Native wildflower ID/ http://botanikaiforum.xobor.de/f142-Milyen-hazai-noev-ny.html , but in the Sumpers section too (http://botanikaiforum.xobor.de/f58-Fot-feladv-nyok.html) Hm, so I still think so, that the renaming is very useful and the forum members can learn much more if the correct name is there (if they want to learn of course, and they don't hate scientific names... :))) But of course it is not a problem at all, if the UBC members don't think this useful, and they don't want the renaming, fortunately the ID section works well without this too! :)
The forum you cited appear to be well ordered - it looks good. A few questions: Do the moderators enforce a one plant per thread rule to make this possible? Who decides what the correct botanical name should be? Names have varying degrees of certainty. For example, throw in a var., subsp., or cultivar name and the name becomes less certain. If a plant acquires a new name over time, are the thread titles updated retroactively? Is there an easy way to retrieve all identified or unidentified plants using the forum's software? Is each thread tagged with something like 'resolved' and 'unresolved'?
1. Yes. 2. Hm... I... or my dear amazing clever moderators!:))) If only the genus is certain, then there is just a genus name in the titel as our last ID conclusion (=Astragalus sp.), if the species is also certain, then it is also in the titel (=Astragalus vesicarius), if we can say a subsp. too, then it is also there (Astragalus vesicarius subsp. albidus) (And if the ID is not 100% sure, then there are other botanical abbreviations too, like cf. / agg. / s.lat.) But of course we can make mistakes too... :( Cultivated (not wild) plants are in a different section (garden plants / indoor plants: http://botanikaiforum.xobor.de/f5-Milyen-d-sznoev-ny.html But the system is the same, we never wright a cv. name in the titel, because I think they are in a botany (not garden) forum not so important... and because usually it is impossible to find out them. :((( 3. No... unfortunately it is impossible to update it always... synonym names are the worst thing in botany... :((( 4. I really hate, when we can't answer an ID question (=we can't say at least a genus ID), but it happens sometimes... if there is no answer, then after some weeks I used to send these unresolved threads in another section called X-files: http://botanikaiforum.xobor.de/f156-X-akt-k.html And we are always waiting for new forum heros, who could solve some of these old X-files! :)
Aye, it's been discussed before. I like the X-Files idea, though -- but I'm not volunteering to monitor it.
Well, you know, I'm on the side of renaming, because I consider the forums a source of information, not just a collection of dead questions and answers, and thread names would help a lot for knowing which hits to bother looking at when doing a search. Doing searches now is totally annoying - the thread title is "What is this plant" and someone throws in "it looks like my Astralagus" (to use Lila's exampe) when it's nothing like that, and I have to go look at that thread too because there's no way to tell if that thread is about Astralagus or not. But I was part of the problem, because I'd be renaming my threads when I thought I had the ID, and then someone would post something saying that's not right, it's this other thing, and people who were being so helpful couldn't keep track of the threads that kept changing their name. I'd like to at least allow or encourage changing the name, but there is this problem of chasing down the thread as the name keeps changing. I'd be happy to change the thread names when an ID is determined. Maybe we'd have to have a one-week delay to give people time to come up with other suggestions, and to give people who like the guessing game time to have their fun. I'd want more than just the name in the titles though - "yellow flowering tree" would help a lot. On the other hand, moderating would be a lot more work splitting up all those threads that are submitted with multiple queries. It takes a long time to upload a lot of photos - removing the posts and asking people to submit them again would surely annoy people. We could say "one id per thread", but a lot of people wouldn't read that. I see there's no sticky about thread names, though. I'm adding that NOW. Or did there used to be one and it was removed?
In my forum one of the moderators or I as admin used to rename the threads, not that person who asked, because he has no idea what plant is it... so he can't be sure, that the first answer he gets is correct. I rename a thread, when I'm sure, the answer is correct. (Because the plant is very characteristic, and it can't be nothing else.) If we have doubts (different ID suggestions), then we have to wait for new suggestions... and if someone (eg an expert of that genus) can wright good arguments why is it surely this or that, then the question is solved. If nobody is 100% sure, then comes cf. / agg. / s. lat. or X-files! :) But the threads are not closed, everyone can wright new arguments to old threads (or x-files) too, if he has good arguments, why our ID was incorrect and then the old thread pops up again and we have to change the titel again of course. (But that happens very very rarely... :) Sad, if the person who asked for the ID 2 month ago is not there anymore, but what else could we do?! The datebase function of ID questions and answers are for us very important, because we have more threads in the native plant ID section, than in the ornamental plant ID section. And this is very useful for the biology, botany students, because they can search scientific names. So if they find something like a Campanula, then they can get a lot of Campanula match, pictures from the gallery and information + pics from the forum threads too: http://botanikaiforum.xobor.de/search.php?q=campanula&type=all&matchtype=or&im_feld=text&orderdirection=DESC&orderby=date Hm, but UBC is much more international, as our small forum, so canadian botany students could find here less canadian native plants as other exotic european or asian plants... so it won't be a big help for their studies (eg to a "canadian wildflowers" exam), but maybe horticultural students are interested in non-native plants too! :) Yes, moderating is a quite hard work... and I can't do nothing if someone want to ask 34 plants for ID in 1 thread (http://botanikaiforum.xobor.de/t1102f143-Finnorsz-aacute-gi-noev-eacute-nyek-faj.html) I can just say, please ask next time just 1/thread... :(
