Illustrated Glossary of Malacological and Conchological Terms

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Because this site is new (released 10/26/2008), sufficient time has not elapsed to generate a substantial number of questions to decide which are more frequently asked than others. Thus, some questions presented here are those that were anticipated to be frequently asked, hopefully eliminating that prophecy that they would indeed be frequently asked!

Q: Should I use quotes when searching for a two-word term?
A: No, just type the two words. For example: Apertural lip ...although I don't recommend doing even that. The system searches for your text string, as is; it does not place boolean connectors (e.g., and, or) between multiple words. The more you type, the greater the chance of omitting desirable matches. Typing: "Lip, inner apertural" (without the quotes) may fail. Be as generic or simplistic as possible. For the previous term, simply try searching for: aper or: lip

Q: Can I search for portions of words if I don't know how to spell the whole thing?
A: Yes! The search function searches for your text, wherever it occurs in the term (not in the definition). Search for the letter "a" and you'll get a return of all terms with the letter "a" in them. If you are trying to find the definition of a term that you just can't recall, e.g., columellar lip, simply search for "lip" and you'll get a return. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this capability, and you'll get terms returned that are unrelated to your quest; e.g., a search for "umbo" will also return the term: circumboreal.

Q: Is a printed version of the glossary available?
A: No... not presently, and perhaps never. A printed version is convenient to reference, but becomes outdated very rapidly. With time, this online glossary will grow at a slower rate and thus contain the vast majority of terms that you'd likely ever need. At that time, a printed version may be more desirable to manufacture and distribute. Even then, it would be costly and time consuming to mass-produce and distribute; I'll consider it when it is appropriate to do so.
Presently, you can conduct a search for "All Terms in the Glossary" and choose to print the output. At about 150 pages of output (for 1600 terms; avg. = 10 terms/pg) at perhaps $0.10/page, it might cost you about $15.00 each. I may rewrite some code to produce a more "printer friendly" version, adding some legal jargon, acknowledgements, and omitting unnecessary headers that are only important when viewing online. Ideally, this printed output version would prohibit definitions from being split between pages (i.e., starting at the bottom of one page and continuing on the top of the next).
I could (perhaps) periodically create a "clean" PDF output file for easy downloading, and local reference (i.e., without an internet connection), and/or for printing... someday.

Q: Do I need to have an account with this website in order to use it?
A: No... Absolutely not! However, there are reasons that you might want to have an account. See the page on User Accounts for an explanation.

Q: When I enter a new definition, why is it unavailable to users?
A: New terms are immediately viewable, but definitions may not be correct. To release incorrect definitions may cause others to be misled. Therefore, I've implemented a process of hiding new (or modified) definitions pending approval by an Administrator. Additionally, pranksters may post undesirable content to the site... which, of course, should not be accessible to users. If this occurs, the terms may also go into a pending approval stage, and/or terms and definitions will only be allowed to be input by those with user accounts.

Q: How do I become a site Editor so that I can help with the definitions?
A: Open an account. Add some terms/definitions, demonstrate your malacological/conchological knowledge (your reputation may be sufficient!), and email me with a request to become an Editor. Some knowledge of html is helpful... if you have none, I can likely teach you what you'll need to know. There will likely be an "Editor's Guide" created soon, which will contain all you'd need to know about management of terms and definitions and html.

An Illustrated and Cross-Referenced Glossary of Malacological and Conchological Terms
by Paul S. Mikkelsen