species names for money

[Brian Brown]

Colleagues: A couple of years ago there was a debate about the advisability
of naming species after donors of large amounts of money. One apparently
cannot get access to that discussion right now (there are problems with the
TAXACOM archive), and I wondered if anyone saved the messages and could
forward them to me <bbrown at nhm.org>. I also wondered if there was any change
in the consensus (which was highly supportive of the idea). Briefly stated:
if a group of curators at a museum decided to sell species names to help
fund their
programs, would there be any negative perceptions? I have heard some people
say that it might seem disreputable, and I would like to hear anyone's reasons
for this opinion.

Please respond to the list. Thanks.