Editing 1253: Exoplanet Names

The text above the image states the fact above and then notes that the IAU immediately regret this decision. As we can see from [[Cueball|Cueball's]] question, from [[Ponytail|Ponytail's]] facepalm, and the fact that even [[Megan]] is speechless, the suggestions are appalling. It becomes even worse when [[Hairbun]] tells them that an automatic filter has already been applied to the results, one designed to remove inappropriate entries that don't meet certain criteria. This implies that the list would have been even worse if presented in its unfiltered form (as seen below in the table).

The randomness and inappropriateness of the suggested names reflects the commonly expected response from anonymous submitters on the internet. Many forums and contests that call for online response and do not apply strict control over the responses receive similar collections of random, inappropriate and obscure submissions that are often only tangentially related to the original subject. For example, Greenpeace held a naming contest for one of the whales recently tagged in their research and preservation campaign and even after selecting the finalists the online voting resulted in naming the whale "Mr. Splashypants". PepsiCo had even less restrictive controls in their marketing campaign that asked the internet to name a new flavor of Mountain Dew. They had to shut down the contest in order to avoid naming the new beverage "Hitler did nothing wrong" which was the current leader at the time and only marginally the most inappropriate of the top ten voted suggestions. Even more recently is the case of {{w|Boaty McBoatface}}, in which the internet decided to dub a British research vessel "Boaty McBoatface". The boat was given the name {{w|RRS Sir David Attenborough}} in the end, with its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle being called "Boaty McBoatface."

| rowspan=7 | {{w|Gliese 667}} || {{w|Gliese 667 Cb|b}} || Space Planet || A very unoriginal name; every planet is in space.{{Citation needed}}

|{{w|Gliese 667 Cd|d}} || A Star || "A {{w|Star}}" is obviously a bad name for a planet. A* (pronounced "A star") is already used in astronomy, for example the Milky Way's black hole core is {{w|Sagittarius A*}}. "A star" is also the name for the character {{w|asterisk}} and the name of the popular {{w|A* search algorithm}} in computer science. It also suggests that the planet is a star.

|{{w|Gliese 667 Ce|e}} || e'); DROP TABLE PLANETS;-- || A reference to {{w|SQL injection}}, riffing off of [[327: Exploits of a Mom]], which featured a schoolboy named <code>[[Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;--]]</code>.  The idea here is that the IAU would enter the name into their system and promptly lose all of their data pertaining to planets.  Note that Planet e is located in the habitable zone of the star system.

|{{w|Tau Ceti f|f}} || Unicode Snowman || The Unicode character <span style="font-size: 200%">☃</span> may be a reference to the planet's estimated surface temperature of -40&nbsp;°C (-40&nbsp;°F). However, this name would be pronounced differently (being a symbol, not a word or name) in different languages. Planets in our solar system are assigned to {{w|Astronomical symbols|astronomical symbols}} like <span style="font-size:150%">&#x2641;</span> for Earth or <span style="font-size:150%">&#x2642;</span> for Mars. (A unicode snowman is also referenced in Randall's book ''What If'', where it is keymapped to a laptop.)

| rowspan=6 | {{w|Gliese 581}} || {{w|Gliese 581 b|b}} || Waist-deep Cats || Likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s, which  are a series of images of cats captioned with poorly-written and/or spelled English.  

| {{w|Gliese 581 f|f}} || Taupe Mars || {{w|Kim Stanley Robinson}}'s award-winning {{w|Mars trilogy}} (''Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars'' after various stages of {{w|terraformation}}). {{w|Taupe}} is a brownish-grey color.

| {{w|Epsilon Eridani c#Planet_c|c}} || Laser Noises || A {{w|Laser}} does not produce {{w|Noise (electronics)|noise}} in the signal sense; it only works at a well-defined frequency.  In science fiction films, however, laser weapon discharges are usually accompanied by sound ("pew pew" or the like). Sun-like Epsilon Eridani became a popular setting for science fiction after its publicity as a target of the {{w|Project Ozma}} experiment.

| [http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj_176_c/ c] || Pantera || Named for the {{w|Pantera|heavy metal band}}, which itself was named after an Italian sports car, the {{w|De Tomaso Pantera}}.

| rowspan=3 | {{w|Upsilon Andromedae}} || {{w|Upsilon Andromedae c|c}} || Stampy || Most likely a reference to [https://www.youtube.com/user/stampylonghead stampylonghead], although it could be a reference to the elephant from the {{w|Simpsons}} episode {{w|Bart Gets an Elephant}}.

|{{w|HD 40307 d|d}} || Slickle || This is a reference to "[http://zdarsky.tumblr.com/post/2837139960 The Petals Fall Twice]", which was made as a humorous example of bad fan-fiction. The word itself is a portmanteau of "slowly", "licked", and "tickled". This may also be a reference to the Harry Potter currency, a “Sickle.”

|{{w|Gliese|c}} || [email protected] || Similar to "How Do I Join the IAU", this implies that the user confused the "planet suggestion" text box for a new email they are trying to send.

| {{w|HD 189733}} || {{w|HD 189733 b|b}} || Permadeath || A well-characterized "{{w|Hot Jupiter}}" at a temperature range of 973 ± 33 K to 1,212 ± 11 K. The name refers to the feature of {{w|permanent death}} common in many RPGs and roguelikes. It is later mentioned in [[1276: Angular Size]].

[[Category:Comics featuring Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;--]]