soup consumer

TaxonWorks is a web-based developer workbench created by University of Illinois’ Species File Group, ostensibly designed to help out the taxonomists racing to document Earth's biodiversity before it's gone (gee, I wonder why). They receive at least some of their funding from NSF.

Taxonomy and art are deeply connected fields, and this new logo business really feels like a slap in the face to both. As recently as a few weeks ago, their Bluesky also stated that they use Claude to vibe-code new site features. I don't know anyone in the field who would ask them for this kind of thing. I can tell you I would not use them, and I don't know who would.

They talk a lot on their webpage about supporting the community as a “digital companion” and about how you can “spend more time researching, and less time with the mundane”. That “mundane” stuff is usually called science. It takes a long time to do it right, but that’s how people trust the results.

my new moon snail plushie 🌙