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Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

nytimes.com

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Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#141

Post by icebraining »

dave2000 wrote: post #101
arien wrote: post #98

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…

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.

Portugal trolled it hard back in 2011, when we sent the "Men of Struggle": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDN53Rqh54

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#142

Post by darkclarity »

pimlottc wrote: post #117
tremon wrote: post #50

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.

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

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

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#144

Post by jerf »

Falcon9 wrote: post #139
jerf wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scott Adams has been musing on this theme lately: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/141428843311/social-media-is-th...

I wonder if he actively realizes that the persuaders on Social Media are inevitably for sale to the highest bidder (albiet with veto power over things they may actually care about)? [I know how much it costs for Martha Stewart to send a tweet about your business... I don't love this world we live in.]

I'm reading between the lines, but I don't think he's advocating for social media becoming the government. I think he thinks he's merely observing what's already happening.

He writes a lot about Trump, but he explicitly says that he could deal with any of the current candidates becoming President. I have wondered if his logic is basically "Social Media is becoming the President no matter what so what 'meat robot' slots to the seat behind the desk in the Oval Office in matters little by comparison".

If you mean that it could in fact be worse than what we have now, you could model what we have now as still being essentially "media" driven, but with no way for anybody to break in the way social media does let some people now. Whether that's really a serious change once corporations do their second-order adjustments... dunno. I expect to still be chewing on these ideas for another few weeks.

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#145

Post by mikeash »

noonespecial wrote: post #132
mikeash wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no interest in boating, but I dream of one day buying a boat just so I can name it Ultimate Ship II.

nice. I'm going to call mine "Real Hackers Ship" .

That's wonderful. I think you need two: Real Hackers Ship and Real Hackers' Ship.

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#146

Post by jacobush »

yongjik wrote: post #138
zodPod wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Allow me to hijack this thread to tell you about my favorite[1] word. A Korean word "inbun", when followed by a number, means "amount of serving". So "3 inbun" means "serves three", or "a dish for three". When NOT followed by a number, it is a different word (with exactly the same spelling and sound). It means "human feces". [1] LOL, not really.

And to this day (?) Korean farmers had pigs eat human feces. And the word for pig-sty and out-house are apparently of similar origin?

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#147

Post by yongjik »

jacobush wrote: post #146
yongjik wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to hijack this thread to tell you about my favorite[1] word. A Korean word "inbun", when followed by a number, means "amount of serving". So "3 inbun" means "serves three", or "a dish for three". When NOT followed by a number, it is a different word (with exactly the same spelling and sound). It means "human feces". [1] LOL, not really.

And to this day (?) Korean farmers had pigs eat human feces. And the word for pig-sty and out-house are apparently of similar origin?

Eh, that practice is gone for at least thirty years, probably more. Health concerns aside, you cannot run a for-profit pig farm with your family's "output"...

I have no idea what your second sentence is talking about. :/

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#148

Post by toyg »

mc808 wrote: post #53
noir_lord wrote: post #3

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.

Funny how everyone assumes this is a hoax, i.e. people didn't really want this name. I think it would be a fine name. And for the more traditional/ceremonious types, maybe it will inspire them to pay attention and get involved next time. That's IMHO a better outcome than soliciting participation from the public and then overriding the result by fiat.

The sad (?) reality is that "serious" people are always, always outnumbered by 4chan types. Which is why exclusivity "is a thing" in pretty much all fields of endeavours.

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#149

Post by uremog »

spacecowboy_lon wrote: post #13
rubyfan wrote: post #10

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.

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

Frankly, I think that makes it an even better name.

Re: Boaty McBoatface: What You Get When You Let the Internet Decide

#150

Post by jnky »

arien wrote: post #105
dave2000 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 :)).

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=pJgszpNj7dY

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