Taxonomers Goes Live
Only 4 short weeks behind schedule, (who's counting anyway) today we are releasing our brand new peer published ant locations and identifications website, Taxonomers.
Located at www.taxonomers.com the website offer ant keepers a unique opportunity to record sightings of ant species they've come across. Not only that, users are invited to share photos of ants they are unable to identify. Using the location and other information they upload, other users will be able to help identify the ants for them.
Taxonomers also features a unique voting system that allows users to vote on identifications offered by other users. If an entry has enough votes it can actually change the identification given for that particular sighting. The total amount of up votes a user receives for their identifications is shown next to their username in brackets, ie. (24).
Clicking on the custom ant icons reveals the voting system employed by Taxonomers.
Users are also able to vote on the location a user has uploaded. If you know a particular type of ant species isn't found in an area the user has selected then politely down vote the location to let others know that it may not be accurate.
We also allow users to like a particular entry or photo. Not only does this give some props to the user who uploaded the image, but will also initiate a notification system that will let you know if someone else identifies the ant or adds a comment.
A sophisticated weather API has been included. Clicking on one of the unique ant icons and then clicking the weather icon in the lower right corner will reveal the weather the day the user has collected their queen or made the sighting. Showing 5 days in total, two before and two after the date chosen. This will help other users identify weather patterns surrounding nuptial flights or foraging behaviuors.
Specific weather conditions are shown to the user after clicking on the weather icon.
The map page features two filters. The first is a date filter. Allowing the user to display sightings between certain dates will assist the user to look for sightings found during a specific time frame. Perhaps isolating a particular month to look for queens found in their area during the dates selected.
The other filter is the genus filter. Looking for a specific genus of ant? Hit the blue ant icon in the top left of the screen and a menu will reveal a list of genera available to the user. Filtering in this way will enable the user to selectively find the type of ant they desire in a particular area. Coupled together with the date filter, a user can essentially single out a specific genus of ant during a specific time frame in a specific location.
Filtering by genera is an effective way of isolating the species you are interested in.
Clicking on an uploaded image will reveal more details. It's here that users can suggest a identification or offer a different one. Again users can vote, up or down, for other identifications made by other users. Users are also encouraged to comment on a particular entry if they require further information when trying to help others identify the ant, and it's on this page that they are able to.
Vote, like, comment and offer identification suggestions all from this page.
During testing we found that users were using the site to do unexpected things such as plotting sightings of the invasive Solenopsis invicta in their local area and establishing a time line.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to www.taxonomers.com sign up for an account and check it out. We really hope you guys enjoy the site and can't wait to see some of the information this database will uncover.
Be sure to checkout our Facebook page below for any updates.
