Process Update Reviewing Names Submissions

Deck Knight

Blast Off At The Speed Of Light! That's Right!
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We received a lot of feedback on Names Submissions. While CAP Staff can edit or alter the content of OPs without necessarily running it through the PRC, in this instance we wanted feedback before finalizing a new implementation. Here's the work we've done so far:
This last round of Name Submissions was particularly contentious because of the number of rejected submissions and what people thought were unclear rules.

We have created a sample rules rewrite to address this, however we would like PRC input before implementation to weed out any other concerns and get a good handle on the flow of the rules and their clarity.

The reason we have very strenuous policy on names is that name submissions are a high volume, low effort way to submit to the project. Even with the high specificity and strict enforcement of the rules we still receive well over 30 legal submissions each CAP. There does come a point where the sheer number of names can overwhelm anyone voting, which is why such a strict adherence to those rules is our names policy and doesn’t apply to nearly the same extent in other phases of CAP.

While we can as staff edit Ops to the threads for clarity, we want to bounce this particular change off the PRC for additional feedback.

Reference: The current OP:

TITLE: CAP X - Name Submissions

-----

--Introduction--

If you are inspired by the winning art design and have come up with a good and unique name you'd like the CAP to be known by, please submit your idea here and we will put it up for a vote against all other users' ideas. Final submissions must conform to the submission rules, so please read them carefully. Breaking the posting rules can also result in disqualification.

RULES:

Legal name submissions must meet the following standards

  • Names must start with a capital letter.
  • Names cannot be longer than 12 letters.
  • Names can only contain the following characters:
    • Letters A-Z
    • Numbers 1-9
    • Dash (-)
    • Apostrophe (')
    • Period (.)
    • Colon (:)
    • Space
  • No more than two capital letters can be included in the name, and capital letters cannot be consecutive.
  • A maximum of two non-letters can be included in the name, and a maximum of one non-letter of each type can be included (ie. You can't have two numbers, or two apostrophes, but you could have one number and one apostrophe)
Names will not be slated if they are completely unrelated to the design, silly names (puns are fine), names based primarily on memes, or names meant to inflame, intimidate, or cause controversy.

WIPs

Work In Progress (WIP) Names can be posted at any time for comments from the community.

No more than three WIP Names can be posted by any individual person through the entire course of the submission thread. This limit applies to ALL posts made by a single person, even if previous posts are edited or deleted. This limit is intended to curb the tendency for some submitters to spam the thread repeatedly with lists of Names. This detracts from other submissions and makes it difficult for commenters to survey the submission thread.

Do not bump your WIP names by posting them repeatedly, or making minor spelling changes of a letter or two. Bumping will result in the disqualification of all names by the offender. Editing or deleting bump posts will not prevent disqualification.

Final Submissions

Only ONE Final Submission can be made per person. Any Final Submission that does not follow the proper format will be disqualified.

Name Final Submissions can only be posted after a CAP Moderator posts in the thread announcing that final submissions are open. Any Final Submission posted prior to the Moderator announcement post will disqualify the submitter from the poll entirely. Even if the offending post is edited later or deleted, the submitter will still be disqualified for the remainder of the thread. This ensures that there is some time for discussion and that all submitters have equal opportunity to post Final Submissions without anyone unfairly "jumping the gun".

Please make a new post after the CAP moderator announcement for Final Submissions. Do not edit a previous post prior to the announcement to make it a Final Submission. All posts prior to the announcement post will be ignored for purposes of making the Name Poll.

Final submissions must provide one sentence (25 words maximum) explaining the etymology of the name.

Final submissions must provide a common English pronunciation. The common pronunciation can be made in whatever format you feel best conveys the pronunciation to most English speakers. (You may optionally also provide an IPA pronunciation. For information about IPA and processing words into IPA read this guide: IPA For English. There are also numerous phonetic translation tools online that can help.)

Format

Name Final Submissions must be posted exactly in the following format and in the following exact order:

  • The first line of the post must have the words "Final Submission" in bold on its own line. No other text may be included before the bold heading.
  • A blank line
  • The Name submission in bold.
  • A blank line
  • A one line description of the etymology of the name or why it is appropriate for our Pokemon. (25 words maximum)
  • A blank line
  • "Pronounced: <common English pronunciation>"
  • "IPA: <IPA pronunciation>" (optional)
Below the Final Submission you can post other comments, explanations, etc.

Example final submission:

Final Submission

Syclant

A combination of "Icicle" + "Ant".

Pronounced: "SICKLE-ant"

IPA: sɪkəlænt

This name was originally submitted by Lawman on the very first CAP project. It is simple, elegant, and easy to pronounce (even if you are pronouncing it wrong), which is why it was chosen as the official name for CAP1!
I think the issue we have in this OP isn't really that anything is extraneous, it's that the order doesn't put the expectations front and center.

Here's a rewrite that re-orders things a bit:

TITLE: CAP X - Name Submissions

-----

--Introduction--

If you are inspired by the winning art design and have come up with a good and unique name you'd like the CAP to be known by, please submit your idea here and we will put it up for a vote against all other users' ideas. Final submissions must conform to the submission rules, so please read them carefully. Breaking the posting rules can also result in disqualification.

GENERAL RULES:

Legal name submissions must meet the following standards

  • Names must start with a capital letter.
  • Names cannot be longer than 12 letters.
  • Names can only contain the following characters:
    • Letters A-Z
    • Numbers 1-9
    • Dash (-)
    • Apostrophe (')
    • Period (.)
    • Colon (:)
    • Space
  • No more than two capital letters can be included in the name, and capital letters cannot be consecutive.
  • A maximum of two non-letters can be included in the name, and a maximum of one non-letter of each type can be included (ie. You can't have two numbers, or two apostrophes, but you could have one number and one apostrophe)
Names will not be slated if they are completely unrelated to the design, silly names (puns are fine), names based primarily on memes, or names meant to inflame, intimidate, or cause controversy.

WIP RULES:

Work In Progress (WIP) Names can be posted at any time for comments from the community.

No more than three WIP Names can be posted by any individual person through the entire course of the submission thread. This limit applies to ALL posts made by a single person, even if previous posts are edited or deleted. This limit is intended to curb the tendency for some submitters to spam the thread repeatedly with lists of Names. This detracts from other submissions and makes it difficult for commenters to survey the submission thread.

Do not bump your WIP names by posting them repeatedly, or making minor spelling changes of a letter or two. Bumping will result in the disqualification of all names by the offender. Editing or deleting bump posts will not prevent disqualification.

DO NOT POST FINAL SUBMISSIONS EARLY. POST WIPS FIRST.

FORMATTING RULES:

Name submissions (for both WIPS and Final Subs) must be posted exactly in the following format and in the following exact order:

  • The first line of the post must have the words "WIP" or "Final Submission" in bold on its own line. No other text may be included before the bold heading.
  • A blank line
  • The Name submission in bold.
  • A blank line
  • A one line description of the etymology of the name or why it is appropriate for our Pokemon. (25 words maximum)
  • A blank line
  • "Pronounced: <common English pronunciation>"
  • "IPA: <IPA pronunciation>" (optional)
Below any submission following this format you can post other comments, explanations, etc.

FINAL SUBMISSION RULES:

Only ONE Final Submission can be made per person. Any Final Submission that does not follow the proper format will be disqualified.

Name Final Submissions can only be posted after a CAP Moderator posts in the thread announcing that final submissions are open.

Any Final Submission posted prior to the Moderator announcement post will disqualify the submitter from the poll entirely. Even if the offending post is edited later or deleted, the submitter will still be disqualified for the remainder of the thread. This ensures that there is some time for discussion and that all submitters have equal opportunity to post Final Submissions without anyone unfairly "jumping the gun".

Please make a new post after the CAP moderator announcement for Final Submissions. Do not edit a previous post prior to the announcement to make it a Final Submission. All posts prior to the announcement post will be ignored for purposes of making the Name Poll.

Final submissions must provide one sentence (25 words maximum) explaining the etymology of the name.

Final submissions must provide a common English pronunciation. The common pronunciation can be made in whatever format you feel best conveys the pronunciation to most English speakers. (You may optionally also provide an IPA pronunciation. For information about IPA and processing words into IPA read this guide: IPA For English. There are also numerous phonetic translation tools online that can help.)

Final Submissions must bold "Final Submission" as their first line.

Example legal Final submission:

Code:
[B]Final Submission[/B]

[B]Syclant[/B]

A combination of "Icicle" + "Ant".

Pronounced: "SICKLE-ant"

IPA: sɪkəlænt

This name was originally submitted by Lawman on the very first CAP project. It is simple, elegant, and easy to pronounce (even if you are pronouncing it wrong), which is why it was chosen as the official name for CAP1!
 

Bughouse

Like ships in the night, you're passing me by
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There's a huge problem with the current restrictions if even the CAP Head Mod is making illegal submissions:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/cap-23-part-9-name-submissions.3618175/page-4#post-7553119

To me the simplest solution is to make the format as follows:
  • The first line of the post must have the words "WIP" or "Final Submission" in bold on its own line. No other text may be included before the bold heading.
  • A blank line
  • The Name submission in bold.
  • A blank line
  • "Pronounced: <common English pronunciation>"
  • "IPA: <IPA pronunciation>" (optional)
  • A blank line
  • A one line description of the etymology of the name or why it is appropriate for our Pokemon. (25 words maximum)
This moves the actually essential parts of a name - the spelling and pronunciation up front, moves the description to the end, and loosens the requirements of the description by removing the unnecessary one line requirement. The 25 word cap already ensures brevity. If someone wants to write their description in two sentences... is that one line or two? Apparently right now, it's one line if there is no hard return between the sentences... that's silly. Just keep it at 25 words.
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
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Orange Islands
I definitely agree with adding the etymology section to the bottom of the post. A lot of fandangling was going on with people using the first line for a short description, finishing their submission and then posting a whole bunch more text afterwards. This is how we ended up with a few names being DSQ'd while other very similarly formatted posts were legal.

I believe that any additional text after that last line (25 words maximum) that is related to the users name submission would be a DSQ, but if they are commenting on others (in a hide box or something similar) it would be fine. I see no reason why users cannot be clear and concise.
 

Quanyails

On sabbatical!
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A description limit of 25 words works for me.

We should accommodate our Pokedex entry max word limit since Sun/Moon entries are longer, and we had lots of entries brush up against 25 words for Pajantom. I downloaded the Pastebins for S/M/US/UM entries and found that the longest entry is at 32 words, from Mimikyu-Busted's Ultra Sun entry.

I think we should more formally go over what word origins are considered acceptable for Pokemon. I was concerned over "Lucidfer" during Pajantom name submissions because it dabbled into a real-world religion more than the generic religious imagery Pokemon uses. There are Pokemon inspired by mythology and religion, but none directly reference a religious figure--and an evil archetype, at that.
 
In response to Quany, I second that there needs to be some thought put in on what origin terms qualify. Perhaps recommendation/ideas could be added in a short list along with restrictions. However, there's some dicey territory wherever we tread here.

Inspiration Ideas: Words in different languages, creative adjectives, based off things the Pokemon does, etc, etc.
Prohibited Origins: Use of names involving specific religions and religious figures. Use of terms that are definite slurs or demeaning terms towards a particular people group. Use of cusses or inappropriate language as inspiration, regardless of language used.

Neither of the above lists are complete versions obviously; they just serve as a potential examples. The goal is to keep the CAP naming process in a much more friendly territory, per say, and to avoid names that are disrespectful or offensive to certain demographs.

However, then we end up with the "dicey territory" I mentioned earlier. In the case of something like "God," in the past, there has been no problems with this. Take a look at "Ohmagod." But then if you switch it to Arabic, suddenly the word "God" becomes "Allah;" a term that most would correctly identify as being used by the Muslim faith. On one hand, it's become very connected to a specific religion and could be seen as offensive. On the other hand, it's just an unbanned English word translated into another language, which is purely acceptable as of right now. So where does the line get drawn?

Essentially it'd be pretty hard to define a way that we can protect every group from offense. So perhaps we should just keep the origins as general guidelines like "No use of religious icons in the name," or something like that, and then add a little note that says it's up to the moderator's discretion.

Other than that interesting discussion, I'd say the description length was good, and we just need to make the instructions about formatting much more clear. I mean, my entry was disqualified because I misspelled "Pronounced," and I personally wouldn't consider that grounds for disqualification, but I don't consider it big enough of an issue to be worth changing anything. I do think that spelling (to an extent) shouldn't have a bearing on legality of submissions, though.
 

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