[Zoobank-list] Zoobank

[John Noyes]

Frank Krell has just been complaining that there is not enough discussion on the list with regards to registration of names in zoology. I wonder if others have had the same problem as myself. I have sent in a comment, but somewhere along the way it seems to have got lost. I have asked the list-owner about this but as yet have had no reply.
 
In general I am in broad agreement with others about the registration of names, although I am not sure that mandatory registration will work because a good proportion of the taxonomic community will not know about it. My guess is that at least 10% of taxonomists out there do not even know of the existence of a code of zoological nomenclature and certainly do not know of the existence of the fourth edition. 
 
I am completely in agreement with Frank about keeping the whole thing simple and that we cannot afford the scenario as propopsed by Doug Yanega.
 
>From the discussion that I have read on this site, my opinion is that we can only succeed if we start with the simplest site and improve on it once we have found out the problems of running such a list, and problems there certainly will be. For  this reason, I would prefer registration to be voluntary and not mandatory. Once we see how it is working we can then, and only then, consider making it mandatory and adding a few more "bells and whistles"
 
John

John S. Noyes,
Department of Entomology,
The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road,
South Kensington,
London SW7 5BD
Tel.: +44 (0)207 942 5594    Fax.: +44 (0)207 942 5229

Universal Chalcidoidea Database (everything you wanted to know about chalcidoids and more):
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/chalcidoids

Message regarding the Entomology Department move to temporary accommodation 2005
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/move.html

Interactive catalogue and biological database of World Chalcidoidea on CD:
Contact the publisher: DickyS._Yu at telus.net, or Dicky S. Yu, P.O.Box 48205,
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see also www.taxapad.com