[Taxacom] WoRMS: when biodiversity databases go wrong

[Stephen Thorpe]

Hi all,
As an example of how things can go wrong with biodiversity databases which tout 
themselves as reliable by virtue of authority of contributors, I would once 
again like to spotlight Kerguelenia on WoRMS (a generally very reliable database 
on the whole). You may recall that about a week ago I pointed out that the 
relevant primary taxonomist (Jim Lowry, who I do not know, and have no reason to 
think is unrepresentative of competent taxonomists in general) had added names 
from a publication of his, shortly before it was published and there were some 
discrepancies with the published version. Since that post of mine, he has 
modified the page, but it is still wrong! I have detailed the problems here 
(http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kerguelenia) in a NOTE under the WoRMS link. 
This annoys me somewhat, because users are more likely to believe the incorrect 
WoRMS version than they are to believe my correct Wikispecies version, since the 
former was written by the experts! I don't know what the problem is here, but 
perhaps taxonomists are not the best people to index their own work on 
biodiversity databases? Perhaps they are just too busy to give it due care and 
attention? Where is the quality control?
Stephen