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Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide
- KineticLensman 11y agoTo be clear, the U.K. Govt website [1] allows people to submit suggestions, and the NERC are not obliged to use the highest ranking suggestion. Although personally I liked 'what iceberg' as a name Edit: added link [1] http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/releases/2016/10-ship-naming/ http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/releases/2016/10-ship-naming/
- manuelflara 11y agoThere were actually some hilarious suggestions on Reddit (not sure if they're all actual submissions) like Usain Boat, Ice Ice Baby, Boatimus Prime, Notitanic, Boats by Dre or Pier Pressure.
- NickNameNick 11y agoThe company that does the maintenance on the waterfront and harbour near where I live has a small barge called Pier Pressure.
- rShergold 11y agoMy old university town of Aberystwyth has a club called Pier Pressure which, rather pleasingly, is on a pier.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- masklinn 11y ago> Although personally I liked 'what iceberg' as a name That's a very Culture ship name.
- arethuza 11y agoBanks' father was in the Royal Navy and he grew up in North Queensferry right next to the Forth Bridge and the Rosyth naval base - pretty sure that influenced his love of really big things and Ships With Cool Names - the RN being rather good at the latter and there are few bridges with the visual impact of the former.
- scarygliders 11y agoI was musing on a Culture-type name last night, and came up with; Anticipation Of A New Iceberg's Arrival, The
- jaxb 11y agoThey See Me Trawling...
- genericpseudo 11y agoIce, Ice Baby
- arethuza 11y ago"Arbitrary" might be good as it collects snowflakes as a hobby.
- Eric_WVGG 11y agoPillar of Autumn is one of the runner-up votes, and it is widely speculated that the original Halo was heavily influenced by the Culture books. http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.html http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.html
- masklinn 11y agoThat doesn't have the classic "lack of gravitas" of Culture ship-naming conventions though. It reads more like a Morthanveld or Zihdren-Remnanter ship name. Unless there's a joke I'm missing in there.
- 11y ago
- noir_lord 11y agoThey should run with it, the positive PR now and in the future when the RSS Boaty McBoatface docks would be worth it. It would also show a sense of humour and make it something fun.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoTotally this. And it would be brilliant for kids.
- noir_lord 11y agoIndeed, if they spent some money on artwork they could do "The Adventures of Boaty McBoatface" and work in it's research activities.
- uptown 11y agoBooks. Cartoons. T-shirts. Educational materials. They're short-sighted if they don't see the opportunity to leverage this for good.
- adwn 11y agoMerchandise! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZove4OTtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZove4OTtI
- monk_e_boy 11y agoThey mentioned this on Radio 1 this morning. First thing the DJ said was 'where can I get a hat with Boaty McBoatface on it'.
- chiph 11y agoA series of young adult adventure novels are easily possible: "Boaty McBoatface drills for Deep Ice" "Boaty McBoatface meets Pagophilus the Harp Seal" "Boaty McBoatface vs. the Clathrates of Doom"
- chris_wot 11y ago
- bitwize 11y agoThis is 2016's "Mr. Splashy Pants".
- Pxtl 11y agoWhich shows the right way to do this: don't provide a free form text field, and give one really silly option that you can live with. The internet piled into the silly option and created a massive public awareness swarm for their cause.
- arethuza 11y agoPossibly a bit late, but I'd love to suggest: "Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall"
- spacecowboy_lon 11y agoI know a Tribute to the Late Iain M Banks would have been great.
- NoGravitas 11y agoGoing to have to agree here.
- ck2 11y agoWell just give people a vote but secure veto rights so you can pick from a runner-up. Not that complicated. Crowdsourcing can be wonderful but it does have its pitfalls for the lowest common denominator.
- fsdafsadafsd 11y agotips fedora
- chris_wot 11y agoAnd there's another one - Red Hat. I mean, one of the top IT companies in the world, and it's named after a fedora.
- Nutmog 11y agoHow is this the lowest common denominator? I'd say "Shackleton" or "Falcon" are lowest common denominators. They're basic ones that nearly everyone can accept. Isn't that the definition of lowest common denominator when it comes to people? What's wrong with a comedy name? Google managed OK being called Google. DuckDuckGo isn't doing too badly either. But SpoonRocket recently shut down, so I guess it doesn't guarantee success.
- kristianc 11y agoI can't imagine Google would have done so well if they'd stuck with BackRub.
- syntheticnature 11y ago"I BackRubbed for car dealers." Nope.
- dingaling 11y ago> Crowdsourcing can be wonderful but it does have its pitfalls for the lowest common denominator. Actually the Boaty... name was proposed by one of the NERC staff, so isn't actually a result of crowdsourcing.
- rubyfan 11y agoWhat is so wrong with it? Does it sound like every other seagoing vessel before it? No but who cares. It's unique and wonderful that human beings have a sense of humor. Maybe public works projects need more of this.
- spacecowboy_lon 11y agoWell for one She is a Ship not a Boat - and Maritime types get quite upset if you refer to their ship as a boat. (think Pissed off Gibbs from NCIS) I did like that "Forward Unto Dawn" (the ship in halo) was 4th at one point
- arethuza 11y agoI think it was "Pillar of Autumn"
- coderdude 11y agoI think Pillar of Autumn is the coolest name ever given to something fictional. Followed by Shadow Moses island.
- Klathmon 11y agoHalo had the best names. Some others: Forward Unto Dawn, Shadow of Intent, Long Night of Solace, Point of No Return.
- arethuza 11y agoWell, if you want to go full Culture you have ship names like (in this case a warship): Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
- Nutmog 11y agoIt's also a thing not a woman so I don't think maritime types really have much credibility when it comes to word choice.
- eps 11y agoRemember that episode when Colbert managed to get 17 million votes to get a new Hungarian bridge named after him? That's versus ~10 million of total population of Hungary. The outcome was highly predictable, but it didn't make the process any less entertaining :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megyeri_Bridge#Results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megyeri_Bridge#Results
- coderdude 11y agoThey should just admit that Boaty McBoatface is a stupid name, that asking "the Internet" to decide was a stupid idea, and quickly bury this idea behind them. At least it would set a precedent. I can't ever remember anything like this turning into something cool or favorable. I know it was for the publicity. It worked, so good for that boat-line.
- imron 11y agoIt didn't work well enough if you think it's a boat-line doing this.
- gruturo 11y agoSimilar thing happened in Iceland a few years ago. Before starting work to review the constitution, they ran a facebook poll to get input from the population. Top suggestions were "Free Ice Cream"and "More Volcanoes": http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/31/icelands-crowdsourced-constitution-submitted-for-approval-nyan/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/31/icelands-crowdsourced-con...
- Graham24 11y agoMore Volcanoes? That's just greedy...
- userbinator 11y agoBetter than paying a group of "naming experts" some huge amount of money, only for them to come up with a generic-sounding name. The Internet can be very silly but also a great source of creativity.
- yread 11y agoWell they asked internet for suggestions and got some good ones and some bad ones. Plus some extra publicity. So it worked
- rglovejoy 11y agoBack in the 90's, People magazine ran an internet competition for the most beautiful person alive. Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf won by a mile.
- donretag 11y agoThat is the first thing that came to my mind as well. Must have been the first popular internet voting campaign to go wrong. And for those that do not know the story, Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf (RIP) was very much a real person.
- exar0815 11y agoWell, they should have known better. When they were searching a name for a bridge close to the new Wembley Stadium, german fans hijacked the Poll and voted for "Dietmar Hamann Bridge", a german national soccer player. Also, in a small town in germany, people voted for a "Bud Spencer Tunnel". As a concession, the city council named the local swimming pool for him, after they found out he had been training there when a olympic swimmer prior to his acting career.
- whatusername 11y agoIn Australia - we have a swimming pool named after a former Prime Minister.... who drowned while in office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Holt_Memorial_Swimming_Centre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Holt_Memorial_Swimming_...
- ascorbic 11y agoPorto's main airport is named after a former prime minister who died in a plane crash while flying to that airport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_S%C3%A1_Carneiro_Airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_S%C3%A1_Carneiro_...
- exar0815 11y agoWell, they should have known better. When they were searching a name for a bridge close to the new Wembley Stadium, german fans hijacked the Poll and voted for "Dietmar Hamann Bridge", a german national soccer player. Also, in a small town in germany, people voted for a "Bud Spencer Tunnel". As a concession, the city council named the local swimming pool for him, after they found out he had been training there when a olympic swimmer prior to his acting career.
- mtgx 11y agoI dislike the NYT more and more these days. I knew as I read that the title the article was from NYT. They are becoming very predictable in their biases.
- kristianc 11y agoThis reads less like a thoughtful consideration of what happens when you let the Internet decide than a naked attempt by NYTimes to grab a quick hit of local search traffic around 'Boaty McBoatface.'
- J-dawg 11y agoRelated: [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/13j3hs/laughed_my_ass_off_when_i_saw_this_good_job/ https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/13j3hs/laughed_my_as... and [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10506482 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10506482
- kgabis 11y agoThere's a Obi-Wan Kenobi sreet in Poland [0]. [0] http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ulica_Obi-Wana_Kenobiego http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ulica_Obi-Wana_Kenobiego
- pnathan 11y agoTruly the wisdom of crowds. I am reminded once again of the perils of direct democracy.
- VLM 11y agoAh now that's an excellent topic, because the root of the problem is the participants don't think wisdom is the correct source for boat names. Some may not like it, but its still their culture.
- tremon 11y agoI love this kind of british humour, however crude. In my mind, it's similar to the campaigns (most years?) to have a non-christmas song be the #1 christmas single.
- monk_e_boy 11y agoBoaty McBoatface must be the least crude name someone could come up with ;)
- kagamine 11y agoExactly, if they (Gallup?) had decided that Rage Against the Machine's Killing IN the Name Of could not be UK Christmas Nr1 it would have been even sillier. As it was it was just the right amount of protest and respect from both sides.
- pimlottc 11y agoThere's nothing particular English about "Boaty McBoatface" to my mind, it's just standard internet humor.
- darkclarity 11y agoIt's absurd and mocks authority, which are staples in British (not just English) humour.
- golemotron 11y agoAlthough these pranks are funny they highlight a something very serious - the failure case of direct democracy. When minor issues come up for vote not everyone cares. The people who do care enough to vote can easily be trolls. As an example, imagine that a vote comes up for raising tolls from $1 to $2 on little used street. It's one of 1000 votes a month in a direct democracy. There's little chance of getting attention if you get a bunch of people together to vote "no" but what if you get a bunch of people together to vote "no" on all odd numbered streets? A large number of contests with low voter interest, plus the potential for publicity is fertile ground for trolling.
- slazaro 11y agoI always thought that a direct democracy where you can by default delegate your vote to one of the elected politicians, but you override whenever you want, would be the best of both worlds (representative democracy and direct democracy). That wouldn't necessarily work on this kind of votes (names for stuff), but I think it would work well on the regular issues that politicians make decisions about.
- faitswulff 11y agoGoogle has been testing just such a form of governing: http://www.tdcommons.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=dpubs_series http://www.tdcommons.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&co...
- SpeakMouthWords 11y agoI went to the Pirate Party conference in the UK a few years ago. This method of decision making was proposed, but issue that was recognised was that of absenteeism. What happens when Alice gives her vote to Bob, but then gets disillusioned with the entire system and disengages without de-registering her delegation. Any liquid democracy system needs a strong way of differentiating between genuine delegation and disinterest, in order to stop legacy power accruals.
- AlgorithmicTime 11y ago
- spaceheeder 11y agoWhy on earth does the naming of a boat need to be a solemn affair? Why is it a bad thing that "what we get" is lighthearted? Won't this make more people invested in and engaged with the research purpose of the boat? This excerpt from a speech John Cleese gave on creativity was the first thing to come to mind when I read this headline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7fyOLe-xn4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7fyOLe-xn4
- jjp 11y agoPan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan to all-Stations, all-Stations, all-Stations, this is RSS Boaty McBoatface. We are currently not sure where we are and are suffering from a social media crisis. Please advise whether we should follow the masses or maintain our stiff upper lip
- samfpetersen 11y agoWhat you get when you let the internet decide what words to put in a haiku: http://www.crowdhaiku.com http://www.crowdhaiku.com
- amyjess 11y agoA few years ago, there was an online poll to name the next Mountain Dew flavor, which was supposed to taste like granny smith apples. The winner was "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong". Other top contenders included "Gushing Granny" and "Fapple".
- arien 11y agoHere's a entertaining/embarrassing story from Spain, related to this. A few years ago (2008), the Spanish organisers of the Eurovision contest thought it would be a great idea to allow the public to decide who should represent the country in the Eurovision contest. Amongst all songs entered was this silly parody from a comedian, playing a fake musician called Chikilicuatre [0]. So well... After some heavy campaigning/trolling by the TV channel that 'created' this character and song, it came out as the winner. You can imagine the organisers' face after this! But they sullenly accepted it and let him join the contest [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodolfo_Chikilicuatre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodolfo_Chikilicuatre [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRQhZtbm97I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRQhZtbm97I P.S. They learned their lesson and changed the voting system so it could not be exploited again.
- dave2000 11y agoEurovision is supposed to be fun though. At least, that's the UK's perspective. Everyone else takes it more seriously and submit almost exclusively tedious rock ballads. They're been a few non-boring entries though, including a finish metal band and a pair of clowns from Ireland.
- arien 11y agoWell, it's fun nowadays... Before 2008 the fun entries were still novelty rather than the norm (it had pretty much been only Lordi until then - and I would consider them awesome rather than fun :)).
- jnky 11y agoThe ESC is definitely seen as a fun contest for longer than that, at least in Germany. Case in point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3q7Y3fgTIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3q7Y3fgTIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJgszpNj7dY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJgszpNj7dY
- icebraining 11y agoPortugal trolled it hard back in 2011, when we sent the "Men of Struggle": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDN53Rqh54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDN53Rqh54
- stevenh 11y agoI was unable to read the article at first due to a malfunctioning scroll hijacking script. http://livememe.com/nyt.webm http://livememe.com/nyt.webm Reloading the page fixed the issue. Bad ad network?
- hugozap 11y agoOne of the best "when you let internet decide" moments was the Eurovision 2008 contestant for Spain. Organizers tried online votation and this guy won: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A47UTfzoj-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A47UTfzoj-Q
- rwmj 11y agoSimilar to the famous Glasgow statue with the now traditional traffic cone: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-24907190 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-24907190
- ccvannorman 11y agoSo, basically what we're learning is that the internet as a whole will tend to act in trollish, hilarious ways for things that don't matter. I might be okay with that.
- Lasher 11y agoMeanwhile, someone has already registered BoatyMcBoatface.com