Why do I need to use my real name?
There are two reasons that we request that people use their real names when using the site. First, we hope it will help to maintain a civil and collaborative tone to the efforts here. Second, expertise and reputation are important for evaluating opinions in science. For example, it is useful to be able to distinguish between the individual responsible for collecting the data and someone who is just starting to become familiar with it.
Why are the ghosts of Robert MacArthur, Joseph Grinnell and Eugene Odum gracing the site?
They kindly take time out of their busy schedules serving as muses to the current generation of ecologists to help out with occasional testing and debugging of the site.