Boaty McBoatface To Go On Its First Antarctic Mission (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A small yellow robot submarine, called Boaty McBoatface after a competition to name a new polar research ship backfired, is being sent on its first Antarctic mission. Boaty, which has arguably one of the most famous names in recent maritime history, is a new type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which will be able to travel under ice, reach depths of 6,000 meters, and transmit the data it collects to researchers via a radio link. Its mission will be to investigate water flow and turbulence in the dark depths of the Orkney Passage, a 3.5km deep region of the Southern Ocean. The data it collects will help scientists understand how the ocean is responding to global warming. Boaty will travel with the DynOPO (Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow) expedition on the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) research ship James Clark Ross, departing from Punta Arenas in Chile on 17 March. The craft will be sent back and forth through a cold abyssal current that forms an important part of the global circulation of ocean water. In 2019 Boaty McBoatface will be fitted with acoustic and chemical sensors and sent into the North Sea to "sniff out" signals associated with the artificial release of gas beneath the seabed. A future aim for Boaty will be to attempt the first-ever crossing of the Arctic Ocean under ice, which has the potential to deliver a significant change in scientists' ability to observe change in this vital region.

Comments

Boaty McBoatface: people power

[rmdingler]

Another recent example of a democratic election gone horribly wrong.

Re:Boaty McBoatface: people power

[NicknameUnavailable]

Another recent example of a democratic election gone horribly wrong.

No kidding. If they respected democracy they would have named the actual ship that instead of a robot launched from the ship.

Re:Boaty McBoatface: people power

[vux984]

Frankly, I think it went right.

Seriusly... think about it. The gaurdian doesn't even bother to mention the Attenborough (the host ship) until 6 paragraphs in. But Boaty McBoatface is on the HEADLINE.

Nobody but an enthusiast gives a shit about the ship named RRS Sir David Attenborough. But regular people genuinely want to hear about and to read about the adventures of Boaty McBoatface adventures. They want to tell their children stories about Boaty McBoatface.

The NERC had a real chance to grab the public's interest, and they almost completely blew it, and the burned a lot of goodwill with what they did, but letting the absurdity of Boaty McBoatface stay with the project even to the limited extent that they did all but guarantees them headlines for years to come, and people will click on them to hear what 'Boaty' is up to.

How is this backfiring?

[aicrules]

It's a name that was picked by the process they used. It isn't derogatory or offensive. Silly yes, but it's not a substantive part of the mission, just the moniker. It garnered a lot of attention when it was being voted and now people know what it is. That PR is great for such an expedition. Don't get your panties all twisted because something silly won. Embrace it.

Re:Competition Backfired?

[Daetrin]

How did the competition backfire?

They wanted a "good" name for the ship when they put the poll up. They got a name they didn't like as the result and refused to use it for the ship. When there was a popular backlash about that decision they tried to mollify people by using the rejected name for one of submersibles that the ship would carry.

Now here's an article talking entirely about the submersible without mentioning the ship at all. I think there are reasonable odds that happened because the submersible ended up with the "cool" name, while the ship got the "good" name. In fact i think if they hadn't at least named the submersible Boaty McBoatface there's at least a 50% chance this article never would have gotten posted to Slashdot at all.

So they held a contest without foreseeing the possible consequences, and when they lucked out and got a name that might be considered silly but at least wasn't obscene they refused to use it and gave the ship a "proper" name that most people probably don't even remember. And now no one is talking about the ship itself, they're only talking about the other thing with the popular name. Sounds like a backfire to me.