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:
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
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:
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:
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:
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)
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)
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!
