Let's Play Name That Ship!

[LongBlade]

When the Natural Environment Research Council in the UK put the naming of its $300 million Antarctic survey vessel to a public vote online, well, the Internet had a little fun.

NERC asked for "an inspirational name that exemplifies the work" the ship will do, and suggestions ranged from the, yes, inspirational ("Henry Worsley," the former British Army officer and explorer who died in January trying to cross Antarctica without aid) to the literal ("It's bloody cold out here") and the snarky ("Notthetitanic").

But the current front-runner is "Boaty McBoatface," reports the Independent. The name has garnered 21,000-plus votes, nearly 10 times as many as the second highest "Henry Worsley." The NERC has set April 16 as a deadline and noted that it will choose the name.

Meanwhile, the communications manager who submitted Boaty McBoatface has since apologized, though it's not likely to disappear—it's even got its own Twitter hashtag. Still, in the realm of Internet silliness and snark, things could be worse.

source: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/03/21/uk-asks-internet-to-name-vessel-gets-boaty-mcboatface.html?intcmp=hplnws

[bayonetbrant]

Sooner or later people will learn not to run internet polls with write-in options for names.

[besilarius]

Sailors have always had nicknames for their own ships that usually don't get out.  Lately it's become pretty common, like the carrier Theodore Roosevelt is The Big Stick.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who travelled far and wide during the war, once was taken aback when she discovered that the crew's nickname for the carrier Bonhomme Richard was The Biggest Dick in the Pacific.  She had a ladylike chuckle.

[undercovergeek]

I think the poll leader is hilarious but there's no way it'll be the name - they've already said its been highly entertaining but the winner won't necessarily be the chosen name - cop out if you ask me

[Sir Slash]

I suppose my choice, "Shipey Mc Shipface" has no chance.  :'(

[Arctic Blast]

I nominate Boatsy Shippleton!

[Nefaro]

Evidently the poll ended, and everyone's just waiting for the winning result to be tossed out.

But there are even more hilarious examples of such online naming polls in the following article:

Forget the EU referendum. The major test of modern democracy has fallen into the hands of the Natural Environment Research Council – over the naming of a boat.

As the polls finally closed for the naming of its new polar research ship, the NERC confirmed that the votes were overwhelmingly in favour of RRS Boaty McBoatface.

The suggestion, which sent the competition viral last month, received 124,109 votes, four times more than RRS Poppy-Mai – named after a 16-month-old girl with incurable cancer – which came in second place.

The chief executive of the NERC, Duncan Wingham, with whom the final decision lies, now faces the dilemma of choosing between the credibility of his organisation – and its £200m arctic explorer – and the overwhelming burden of public opinion.

If Wingham does bow to the Boaty McBoatface campaign, it will mark something of a departure from previous royal research ships named in honour of arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton and naval officer James Clark Ross.

The name was first put forward by former BBC radio presenter James Hand, who expressed surprise at the furore Boaty McBoatface has caused.

"This is actually nothing to do with me," he said. "I made the suggestion but the storm that's been created – it's got legs of its own. I just feel it's a very British thing, which a lot of people have pointed out."

Hand added that while he stands by Boaty McBoatface as a "brilliant name" for the research ship, he actually voted for RRS David Attenborough, which came in fifth with 10,284 votes overall.

Tweeting after the poll closed on Saturday, Hand said it had been "a crazy few weeks".

The NERC thanked everyone for their suggestions on its website, posting: "We are no longer accepting suggestions to name our ship as we have now reached the closing date of 16 April.

"We've had an extremely high volume of suggestions and will now review all of the suggested names. The final decision will be announced in due course."

The research council received more than 7,000 entries during the month-long competition period, including RRS Onion Knight, RRS I Like Big Boats & I Cannot Lie, and RRS Capt'n Birdseye Get Off My Cod.

The Boaty McBoatface saga is not the first time online polls have gone awry. Greenpeace launched a campaign to name a humpback whale in the South pacific in an attempt to keep them from being poached by the Japanese. The poll prompted a voting frenzy after Mr Splashy Pants was put forward – and ended up winning 78% of the vote.

Similarly in 2012, soft drinks brand Mountain Dew was forced to abandon a poll to name its new apple-flavoured drink after it was hijacked by message board 4chan who ensured that "Hitler did nothing wrong" won the vote.

The city of Austin, Texas, also learned the perils of public voting after a poll to rename the Solid Waste Services Department ended up with an overwhelming number of votes to call it The Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts as an ode to the Limp Bizkit singer.

Despite an endorsement from Durst himself, the city shunned democracy in favour of Austin Resource Recovery.

The top five suggestions are:

RRS Boaty McBoatface – 124,109
RRS Poppy-Mai – 34,371
RRS Henry Worsley – 15,231
RRS It's bloody cold here – 10,679
RRS David Attenborough – 10,284

• This article was amended on 17 April 2016. Fred Durst is the lead singer of Limp Bizkit, not Linkin Park as originally stated.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/17/boaty-mcboatface-wins-poll-to-name-polar-research-vessel


LOL!

;D
;D
;D

[steve58]

So the "Boaty McBoatface" name will live on, not on the polar research vessel (to be christened the RSS Sir David Attenborough), but on the Attenborough's drone submarine.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/05/06/meet-boaty-mcboatface-drone-submarine.html?intcmp=hpff

Meet Boaty McBoatface

[bob48]

Sir David is awesome - I'm really pleased about the naming decision.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I hope they use Boaty McBoatface to track down Mr. Splashypants.

[steve58]

Boaty McBoatface is making its maiden voyage

[undercovergeek]

did they actually name it that? thats brilliant

[bayonetbrant]

did they actually name it that? thats brilliant

they named the remote launch Boaty McBoatface

[undercovergeek]

dammit - i was hoping it was the ship