Melding pbdb accepted concept into 'high, medium, low' confidence of PBot

[aazaff]

PBot currently has users declare whether they have high, medium, or low confidence in their OTU.

PBDB currently simply has a TRUE/FALSE of Accepted or not accepted. The PBDB definition for accepted is "An accepted name is a valid name that is not a junior synonym."

I hereby propose changing the system to instead offer the following five groupings: accepted - An accepted name is a valid name that is not a junior synonym. superseded - A valid name that is a junior synonym operational - An informal name that can confidently be used as an operational taxonomic unit. tentative - An informal name that is not recommended for general use as an operational taxonomic unit. invalid - An invalid name.

PBDB further tracks a more detailed set of opinion relationships, and I have tentatively grouped them into the newly proposed schema.

accepted

1. 'belongs to'

operationsl

1. 'belongs to'

tentative

1. 'belongs to'

superseded

1. 'subjective synonym of'
2. 'objective synonym of'

invalid

1. 'invalid subgroup of'
2. 'misspelling of'
3. 'replaced by'
4. 'nomen dubium'
5. 'nomen nudum'
6. 'nomen oblitum'
7. 'nomen vanum'

[aazaff]

I think this is not quite right. The goal here is to simultaneously express confidence in the relationship AND what the relationship is in a single easily digestible variable, but this is hard to do.

For example, 'subjective synonym' and 'nomen dubium' inherently encapsulate uncertainty with them by definition.

However, SOME kind of logical reorganization of this will be needed.