What for and how to create links to web resources?

Why collect links?

Collections of links to web pages are focused on two main purposes:

• providing site visitors with the ability to quickly obtain detailed information about a particular taxon;
• collecting information for preparing species descriptions for publication in plant identification guide (selection of variants of botanical descriptions, on the basis of which project participants can mark taxon-specific key traits — digging through books while sitting at a computer is very inconvenient).

Where can I add links for a taxon?

To replenish the set of links to web resources, there is a special page "Links to web resources" available for each taxon. Links to such pages are available in many places, for example:

• in the menu "Edit" on the left panel of the pages "Taxon details", "List of subtaxa", "Russian names", "Set of images" etc.;
• in the menu that appears when you click on the name of a taxon in the list of results on the page "Search for taxa";
• in the context menus that appear when you right-click on the taxon name in the "Taxonomy" section on various pages;
• in the context menus that appear when you right-click on the taxon name in the lists on "List of subtaxa" pages;

These links are visible, and the "Links to web resources" page is available only to project members who view the site in authorized mode.

How to add a link?

1. Log in if you are not logged in.
2. Search for taxa (species, genus, familia etc.).
3. Сlick on the name of the taxon you are looking for, then select the menu item Links to web resources.
4. On page "Links to web resources" fill the form "New links".

Notes

• The required fields are "Subject" (a very brief description of the content of the page) and "URL" (the address of the page copied from the browser's address bar).
• You can add multiple links with a single request to the server. To do this, after completing the description of the web resource, without clicking the "Apply" button, click on Add new link....
• To describe a web resource with content corresponding to one of the most common topics ("Ботаническое описание", "Использование" etc.), use menu Fill by template... (if necessary, the pasted description can be adjusted).
• To opt out of adding a link, clear the "URL" field.
• Add links to taxa of the appropriate level. If a page describes several species of the same genus, then this link should be published at the genus level; pages with family characteristics should be linked to the family level, etc.

How to decide whether to add a link?

When deciding to publish a link, follow these guidelines.

• Ideally, the set of links that accompanies the species description should provide resources containing botanical description, distribution (range), ecological properties, and information on usage. The link set for a genus may contain pages with genus characteristics, species identification keys, and botanical descriptions of the species.
• You should not publish links to pages overloaded with advertising (except in cases where the information is not found anywhere else). Other things being equal, preference should be given to resources with fewer banners and other advertising.
• Link to primary sources. Try not to link to resource pages that steal or copy the content of other sites. If you find it difficult to decide which of the pages with the same content is primary, choose the one with less ads (see above).
• Non-commercial, scientific and social projects are preferable to commercial ones.
• It is undesirable to link to pages with descriptions of species belonging to different genera and families (the exception is cases when there are no other suitable descriptions).

Any published links are reviewed by moderators, who may edit the description at their discretion or remove the link. Please treat this with understanding: such work is being done to improve the quality of information provided by "Plantarium".

Important notes

• No need to add links to all pages where the plant is mentioned: you still can’t refer to the entire Internet. If someone is interested in other resources not included in our collection, he can always use the search services.
• Remember that by adding a link, you are recommending other people to view the corresponding resource. So be as critical as possible!

What to do with broken and unwanted links?

Time goes by, the Internet changes. Some sites stop working, old pages are replaced by new ones, the content of the pages changes. So previously added links may not work or start leading to pages which content doen't relevant to the theme of "Plantarium" or has poor quality.

If you find such a link, you can draw the attention of the site administrator to it. Depending on the situation, the link will be removed or hidden.

To report a broken/unwanted link

• Go to the section "Web resources" on the taxon page.
• Hover your mouse over the link address, and button Complain will appear on the right.
• Click Complain button.

A link marked as broken or unwanted will be displayed as a strikethrough.

Recommended Web resources

• agroatlas.ru: areas and descriptions of cultivated plants and their wild relatives, as well as the most common weeds.
• bioaltai-sayan.ru: descriptions of plants and fungi of the Altai-Sayan region.
• botsad.ru: botanical descriptions of plants of the Russian Far East.
• ecosystema.ru/08nature/flowers/: botanical descriptions of the most common flowers in the middle zone of the European part of Russia.
• flower.onego.ru/home.html: Encyclopedia of garden plants.
• www.impb.ru/eco/: ecological properties of vascular plants of Central Russia.
• plant.geoman.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000004/index.shtml: Atlas of areas and resources of medicinal plants of the USSR.

See also "Рекомендуемые ресурсы" ("Recommended web-resources") on the forum.