Topic: Species Search still very confusing
Can someone check where we are on making the Species Search work in a more intuitive way? The use of 'fuzzy logic' matching is completely unnecessary for the majority of searches and should only be used if what the user searched for doesn't return anything. Also, the way that the list is being sorted is still bizarre.
Take "Dreissena bugensis" as an example - it returns 13 results but none are an identical match. But because the sort order is so unreliable I have to check both pages to make sure that the species isn't being listed on the second page. * The issue of why Quagga Mussel doesn't return anything is a separate issue, which I have emailed you about.
[* BUG: If you go to page-2 and then click "Species" to refine the results it doesn't reset the page count ("offset=10") so you get a blank page. Any refinement needs the offset resetting to 0.]
Searching for "Sparrow" still lists "House Sparrow" on the second page, third from last. How is the search ordering the results? A search like "sparrow" shouldn't return the commonest UK species on page-2 and 8 rare vagrants on page-1.
Searching for "tachina magnicornis" returns the junior synonym of Phryxe magnicornis before the accepted name Tachina magnicornis. Surely taxa that match identically should be listed above junior synonyms?
Ideally, I would want the species search to search for what you type "LIKE %search-text%" and if that returns nothing then run a fuzzy logic search. With any returned taxa we could list then in one of 2 ways:
1. Taxonomically: So matches where the name is the accepted name listed above junior synonyms; well-formed names above ill-formed names etc.
2. Rarity: Matching common species listed above matching rarities
I'm very happy to help with this if necessary because I think that having a simple and intuitive Species Search is vital to the usability and credibility of the NBN Atlas.
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD. (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)