[Taxacom] Why stability? - Revisited

Fri May 1 20:51:25 CDT 2015

I cannot believe that I am reading comments from known adult humans.
But I think Alan's point is well taken: Keep to the issue, do not digress too widely.

It seems that we have a bunch of people in boats who are dragging the bottom of a lake. 
As long as no one connects to something on the bottom, people just keep "casting".  When 
a snag is finally made, discussion goes off in all directions. 

And, just to give credit, I forwarded Wijeshinge's list of selected links to a whole bunch 
of people who did appreciate it. I see the list as a very positive submission.  Not everyone 
knows how to locate the links.

Robin

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Weakley, Alan
Sent: May-01-15 7:38 PM
To: Stephen Thorpe; Dilrukshan Wijesinghe; TAXACOM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why stability? - Revisited

I was just hoping (no "dictating" going on) for some focus on a topic of importance -- without haring off on other topics that have been hashed over repeatedly on this forum.  The "decline of monography" and "the evil of data aggregators" can have and have had their own lengthy strings (and I and many others I'm sure have their various and largely sympathetic thoughts on these issues).  But, both are tangentially related to the topic which I (and a number of others) thought was on the table in this string:  sec, sensu, precision in connecting an alleged identification with a name, "taxonomic concept mapping" (clear bounding of the "taxonspace" around the type specimen 'flag') and ways to go about best delineating that and communicating it to the benefit of current and future taxonomists and other users of taxonomic information.

In my humble opinion (IMHO) having some discipline about staying "on topic" would make this a more beneficial forum for all.  But, far from being "supreme ruler of the cosmos", I am "but an egg".

---Original Message-----
From: Stephen Thorpe [mailto:stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz] 
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2015 8:15 PM
To: Dilrukshan Wijesinghe; TAXACOM; Weakley, Alan
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why stability? - Revisited

@Alan Weakley: When you become supreme ruler of the cosmos, THEN you can dictate what other people can or cannot talk about on Taxacom...

--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 2/5/15, Weakley, Alan <weakley at bio.unc.edu> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why stability? - Revisited
 To: "Dilrukshan Wijesinghe" <dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com>, "TAXACOM" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Saturday, 2 May, 2015, 11:47 AM

 "Aggregators are rubbish".
 "Taxonomists are under citation pressure" to split their  work into smaller articles.

 And I thought we were talking about ways to better  communicate best taxonomy and unambiguous information about  the individual units (based closely on cited underlying
 literature) to the diversity of taxonomy-users (including
 ourselves) across generations.

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Taxacom [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu]
 On Behalf Of Dilrukshan Wijesinghe
 Sent: Friday, May 01, 2015 7:20 PM
 To: TAXACOM
 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Why stability? - Revisited

 Rod wrote:
 "I'm not denying that this is valuable, but it frustrates me  that there is minimal connection to the underlying  literature. What I see missing from many checklists, and  aggregators as well, is the ability to drill down to the  underlying science."
 That's why aggregators are rubbish. The idea that there  should be one (or a few) sites providing taxonomic  information on all organisms is ludicrous, yet this seems to  be the "philosophy" that drives the "aggregator industry".
 Every day we use specialized sources for information on a  variety of topics that are of importance to us. Obviously,  that is not seen as a huge problem; in fact, that diversity  and specialization is understood to be necessary aspect of  high-quality information.
 Here are some specialized taxonomic websites that are vastly  more reliable and useful than any aggregator:
 World Spider Catalog
 http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/

 The Goblin Spider Planetary Biodiversity Inventory http://research.amnh.org/oonopidae/index.php

 Pseudoscorpions of the World
 http://museum.wa.gov.au/catalogues-beta/pseudoscorpions

 Jumping spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae) of the  world http://www.jumping-spiders.com/index.php

 Catalogue of Pholcidae
 http://www.pholcidae.de/

 Orthoptera Species File Online
 http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Orthoptera/HomePage.aspx

 Cercopoidea Organised On Line
 http://rameau.snv.jussieu.fr/cool/index.php?&lang=en

 Coreoidea Species File Online
 http://coreoidea.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Coreoidea/HomePage.aspx

 World List of Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial Isopod  Crustaceans http://www.marinespecies.org/isopoda/

 Global Taxnomic Daabase of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera) http://www.gracillariidae.net/

 Psocodea Species File Online
 http://psocodea.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Psocodea/HomePage.aspx

 Cassidinae of the world - an interactive manual (Coleoptera:
 Chrysomelidae) http://culex.biol.uni.wroc.pl/cassidae/katalog%20internetowy/index.htm

 Priyantha

 D. P. Wijesinghe
 dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com

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