recommending new editors

Thank you all for your commen

Thank you all for your comments. I am going to encourage Derek to contact John and, in the meantime, see if I can do some of the millipede curation myself.

… Joseph DeSisto Alling, 9 April, 2015 - 11:23am

I think that the persons with study and with some, more or less, experience, in the field are great additions to the BG editors team.
I think you can find contact data of John on his homepage mentioned here.

… Iustin Cret, 7 April, 2015 - 2:52pm

Either he or you can write to John VanDyk

at Iowa State, the link to ISU is at the bottom of every page, we think. You can point to Derek's record here and explain how he would use editor status should it be granted. John will explain the responsibilities of editors when he makes a decision.

… john and jane balaban, 7 April, 2015 - 10:07am

I believe

Having somewhat of a history of reliable ID's here works in favor of eventually being allowed editor status. Thats how I did it, I never even considered asking for editor status until I had some history of being a reliable source of information, which for me was several years. He should start by leaving ID comments on the areas of his interest. Once he becomes established, then perhaps editorial status could be requested.

… Guy A. Hanley, 7 April, 2015 - 9:31am

Guy, despite your academic & curatorial work at an institution,

you delayed your request for BugGuide editorship until you proved to yourself and others that your posted identifications and discussions were indeed reliable. Undoubtedly many experienced workers like you and me had found themselves out of their comfort zone when confronted with images rather than specimens in hand. Image-based recognition of usually suboptimal photos is a separate skill that even the expert taxonomist must develop. One must learn to be tolerant of a greater degree of unavoidable error. On the other hand, a known authority who requests editor status prior to "proving" him/herself on BugGuide, probably should not be denied this privilege.

… Peter W. Messer, 8 April, 2015 - 8:31am

I did not say deny...My point

I did not say deny...My point, (and I think recommendation) was that someone with an interest in becoming an editor should be the one making the request after careful consideration of his or her ability to provide accurate information within the limitations of what is available in an image based site like this, thats all.

And..I do not allow myself to become tolerant of greater degrees of error. Society has become too accepting of this. I am skeptical of everyone and everything until proven otherwise. Now back to taking beetle images!

… Guy A. Hanley, 9 April, 2015 - 9:01am

Regarding that "denial" stuff, I was speaking generally,

not personally about what you said. However, in reading my lines I can see how you would get that impression. I for one admit becoming somewhat more tolerant of my image-based errors in identification to species. If I didn't resort to some educated guessing and only commented with 100% certainty, my entire life's contribution at BugGuide might be halved!

… Peter W. Messer, 9 April, 2015 - 11:17am

I see fewer misidentifications in the guide

than in the specimen collections I visit

… John S. Ascher, 15 April, 2015 - 9:55am