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Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

theatlantic.com

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Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#181

Post by Grishnakh »

chollida1 wrote: post #111
mrob wrote: post #2

The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. They can choose what's painted on the side, but the name depends only on what people call it. If enough people call it Boaty McBoatface its name really is Boaty McBoatface. If your job depends on calling it the government's preferred name then subtly alter the timing of your speech to make it…

> The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. This is good advice. In Toronto we have a baseball stadium called the Rogers Center ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre ). It was originally called the SkyDome but it was bought by a company called Rogers and renamed. Everyone still refers to it as the Skydome. Corporate branding b…

I have a counterexample for this one: in Phoenix, there's an outdoor arena/pavilion that used to be called "Desert Sky Pavilion", a nice non-corporate name referring to the local geography. Well it went through that whole corporate branding crap, and while I was there at least, it seemed like people were calling it "Cricket Pavilion" (which was the current name at the time). Here's what Wikipedia says about the naming:

"Ak-Chin Pavilion (formerly known as the Desert Sky Pavilion, Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion, Cricket Pavilion, Cricket Wireless Pavilion and Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion) is an amphitheater located in Phoenix, Arizona, which seats 8,000 under a pavilion roof and an additional 12,000 on a hillside behind the main stands."

That much renaming is really ridiculous IMO.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#182

Post by jrcii »

jernfrost wrote: post #22

I don't agree with a lot of the conclusions of this article. E.g. they propose that voting "probably" works the same way in all other countries as the US. There are plenty of objections to be made against that. E.g. 1) the US being a two party state means that getting representatives which represents the great variety of voter opinions is exceedingly difficult. 2) US elections are so dominated by advertisement, expen…

> There has been studies that show American politicians are mainly aligned with the wishes of the rich rather than people who vote on them.

http://i.imgur.com/e3jOsWR.jpg

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#183

Post by tosseraccount »

scurvy wrote: post #158
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of airports, I know of several people who outright refuse to refer to Washington National Airport by its current name, "Ronald Regan Washington National Airport". They will go so far as to correct someone who says "Regan National" and insist, "Washington National."

Would these people happen to be air traffic controllers? Also, most people in DC just call it National. Probably because the other airport also has a one word name (Dulles).

Some people call it just "Reagan".

Which airport, "Reagan", "Dulles" or "BWI" ?

They don't say "Marshall" for BWI, though.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#184

Post by WorldMaker »

gryphonshafer wrote: post #135
chollida1 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. This is good advice. In Toronto we have a baseball stadium called the Rogers Center ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre ). It was originally called the SkyDome but it was bought by a company called Rogers and renamed. Everyone still refers to it as the Skydome. Corporate branding b…

This happens with airports a lot. Some really wonderful and generous old pilot or aviation engineer dies, so the field gets renamed in honor of the person. But aviators still refer to the field by it's traditional name. It's not a slight against the honored dead; rather, it's just out of habit and the fact that it's tremendously easier to remember "$CITY_NAME Airport" than it is "$GUY_WHO_DIED Field".

Another fun example is the Louisville International Airport which was originally named Standiford Field, thus the airport code SDF and even locals still sometimes refer to it as Standiford, but in this case was renamed to the more obvious choice (Louisville International Airport) to confuse people less.

A further tangent, but the more obvious airport code LOU is still in active use across town at Bowman Field, the city's original air field (definitely not an airport) and these days the oldest remaining continually operating air field in the country.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#185

Post by pavel_lishin »

DanielStraight wrote: post #125
noir_lord wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If spun right the PR benefits of calling the thing Boaty McBoatface are huge. You could do merchandise, books, characters, You could have Boaty McBoatface sale up to the ice caps to look at why they are melting. It's not like this is unusual we had a Childrens TV series here that was massively popular about talking trains and talking helicopters. I think they squandered a massive opportunity because they don't unders…

The most popular talking vehicle, in the US at least, is named Thomas. This isn't a particularly convincing argument for a silly name. If kids will accept Thomas, surely they'll accept a more serious name than Boaty McBoatface.

I assumed it was Lightning McQueen.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#186

Post by mediocrejoker »

chollida1 wrote: post #111
mrob wrote: post #2

The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. They can choose what's painted on the side, but the name depends only on what people call it. If enough people call it Boaty McBoatface its name really is Boaty McBoatface. If your job depends on calling it the government's preferred name then subtly alter the timing of your speech to make it…

> The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. This is good advice. In Toronto we have a baseball stadium called the Rogers Center ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre ). It was originally called the SkyDome but it was bought by a company called Rogers and renamed. Everyone still refers to it as the Skydome. Corporate branding b…

See also: Science World in Vancouver being rebranded as TELUS World of Science.

Nobody calls it anything but Science World.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#187

Post by pavel_lishin »

narag wrote: post #89
gpvos wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Wikipedia, several Spanish ships have been named after him.

Has been. Try it now and see what happens.

Is "2004" considered close enough to "now"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_de_Baz%C3%A1n-clas...

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#188

Post by szerated »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #173
szerated wrote: post #129

Really, really over the top with the drama here... This is a crowd sourced name where people didn't take it seriously. This has happened countless other times with Internet polls. Not everything is a statement about democracy...

I'd say it's the executive who doesn't take the vote seriously.

It's a bad name. If it were a funny name, or creative, I think there would be a point to make here. But its neither.

The only reason to vote for this name is because it would be funny to make them name it something stupid. The humor is only in the anarchy. A mindset that juvenile doesn't deserve to be taken seriously.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#190

Post by nateweiss »

The Boaty McBoatface incident reminds me, with a smile, of a similar incident when Kraft (Australia) turned to the public to name a new variant of Vegemite. The winning name was "iSnack 2.0" which sure seems (at least to me) to have been intended as satire/commentary. Anyway the product launched under that name to much ridicule, before being later renamed Cheesybite.

Interestingly, the name Vegemite itself was also originally "crowdsourced" back in the 1920s [1], so the effort had some tradition behind it. Perhaps "Vegemite" also sounded really silly back then.

I think (but not sure) that it's still for sale in Australia... in any case it is/was delicious, regardless of the name.

[1] http://adage.com/article/global-news/crowdsourcing-wrong-veg...

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