
Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide - pldpld
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html
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noir_lord
They 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.

~~~
Agentlien
I'm from Gothenburg, Sweden, which is a city known for its bad puns and where
most larger buildings are usually referred to by silly nicknames. Last year,
there was a competition to name the new swimming pool by the harbor which they
put there to keep people from swimming in the rather filthy water of the
nearby river.

As expected, most of the names which received a lot of votes were silly puns
and, you know what? They did accept the winning entry. Which means the pool is
officially named "Pöl Harbor" ("Pöl" meaning puddle in Swedish). I myself was
very pleased with this, though I was unsure whether I preferred this name or
the rather gruesome runner-up: "Inälvsbadet". This literally means "the
entrails bath", though the word for entrails could also be interpreted as "in-
river", hence the pun.

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zodPod
I'm probably going to have my foot in my mouth pretty quickly about this but
how bizarre is the Swedish language that "entrails" and "in-river" could be
the same word? lol

Is it a slang term of some kind?

~~~
xingxiong
No more bizarre than Ent Rails (you know, railways for Tolkien Ents) is the
same as entrails in English.

Just as you can't actually say inriver and pretend it means something in the
river in English, you can't say inälv and mean something in an älv in Swedish.
But as a pun it is okay, everyone gets the word play.

~~~
XaspR8d
> Just as you can't actually say inriver and pretend it means something in the
> river in English

I think "in-river" is pretty acceptable in speech, and mildly so in writing.
If you said there was an "in-river pool", I wouldn't bat an eyelash.

That said, the relation between the adjectivizing(?) morphemes "in-" and "at-"
(e.g. "at-home bar") and their corresponding prepositions is weird and makes
my brain hurt.

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KineticLensman
To 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/)

~~~
masklinn
> Although personally I liked 'what iceberg' as a name

That's a very Culture ship name.

~~~
scarygliders
I was musing on a Culture-type name last night, and came up with;

Anticipation Of A New Iceberg's Arrival, The

~~~
jaxb
They See Me Trawling...

~~~
genericpseudo
Ice, Ice Baby

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golemotron
Although 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
I 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.

~~~
SpeakMouthWords
I 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.

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AlgorithmicTime
Couldn't the delegation have a time-out, such that Alice must renew her
commitment to delegate her vote to Bob every 6 months or whatever we decide
the optimal period is?

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gruturo
Similar 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-
con...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/31/icelands-crowdsourced-constitution-
submitted-for-approval-nyan/)

~~~
Graham24
More Volcanoes? That's just greedy...

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rubyfan
What 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
Well 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

~~~
boothead
Well you could hardly call it Shippy McShipface could you? (Try saying it 5
time fast)

~~~
zanny
I for one would immediately vote for calling a ship The Shipfaced.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
How about "Royal Research Ship Happens"?

~~~
u02sgb
Sounds like an Iain M Banks ship name.

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arien
Here'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
Eurovision 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
Well, 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
The 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)

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jjp
Pan-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

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spaceheeder
Why 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)

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tremon
I 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.

~~~
pimlottc
There's nothing particular English about "Boaty McBoatface" to my mind, it's
just standard internet humor.

~~~
darkclarity
It's absurd and mocks authority, which are staples in British (not just
English) humour.

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kristianc
This 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.'

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arethuza
Possibly a bit late, but I'd love to suggest:

"Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall"

~~~
NoGravitas
Going to have to agree here.

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exar0815
Well, 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
In 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_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Holt_Memorial_Swimming_Centre)

~~~
ascorbic
Porto'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_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_S%C3%A1_Carneiro_Airport)

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userbinator
Better 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.

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rglovejoy
Back 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
That 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.

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kgabis
There'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)

~~~
kagamine
There's an Incognito St. in Oslo, Norway.

~~~
to3m
Letsby Avenue -
[http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/feb/12/martinwainwright](http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/feb/12/martinwainwright)

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eps
Remember 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)

------
pnathan
Truly the wisdom of crowds. I am reminded once again of the perils of direct
democracy.

~~~
VLM
Ah 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.

------
samfpetersen
What you get when you let the internet decide what words to put in a haiku:
[http://www.crowdhaiku.com](http://www.crowdhaiku.com)

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J-dawg
Related:

[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/13j3hs/laughed_my_as...](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/13j3hs/laughed_my_ass_off_when_i_saw_this_good_job/)

and

[1] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10506482](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10506482)

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hugozap
One 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)

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rwmj
Similar 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)

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amyjess
A 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".

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stevenh
I 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?

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ccvannorman
So, 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.

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bitwize
This is 2016's "Mr. Splashy Pants".

~~~
Pxtl
Which 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.

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yread
Well they asked internet for suggestions and got some good ones and some bad
ones. Plus some extra publicity. So it worked

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Lasher
Meanwhile, someone has already registered BoatyMcBoatface.com

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mtgx
I 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.

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ck2
Well 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.

~~~
Nutmog
How 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
I can't imagine Google would have done so well if they'd stuck with BackRub.

~~~
syntheticnature
"I BackRubbed for car dealers." Nope.

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coderdude
They 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
It didn't work well enough if you think it's a boat-line doing this.

