Initiative: Naming

Actually, I now like Ravensfire's proposal... I'll attempt a draft initiative of it... Cos I haven't done that yet and meh... here goes:

The Naming Initiative
I. Preamble
As our civilisation grows we will, hopefully, found new cities and discover geographical features. Especially in the case of cities, custom names would help add an atmospheric touch to our civilisation.

II. Procedure for Naming a New City
On founding, a city will be given the temporary placeholder name: "City#1" (In the event that there is already a city holding that name, the new city will be named "City#2" and so on in numerical order as required). A thread will then be opened by the Cheftain, to accept nominations from the public for the new city's name.

All nominated names which have been seconded after four days will then be polled. If there is no majority decision, then the top three options, including ties, will be polled again. In the event of no majority in the second poll, the top two options will be polled again.

Should no nomination be seconded, all nominated names will be entered in the initial poll.

III. Loss of city
Should a city be conquered or otherwise lost to another civilisation, before the naming process is completed, the process will be continued and the city given the eventually chosen name in the event of its recovery. Should the city be razed or otherwise destroyed before the naming process is complete, however, the naming process will be aborted.

IV. Renaming an Existing City
Renaming a city should occur only in special cases, and as such would be organised by the Cheiftain, in consultation with the city in question's Elder

V. Other features
Other geographical features, including, but not limited to: continents, mountain ranges, oceans, forests, and plains may also be named. Nomination threads for such features may be posted by any interested individual, and would follow the same procedure as in III.

It is advised that a thread be maintained noting names of such geographical features to allow for easy referral.

VI. Limitations
Names must not violate CFC forum rules



Change log

19/2- Made IV. clearer in its forbiddance of more than one attempted renaming per city per term
20/2- Made IV. clearer again... "no one may..."
3/2- IV. Renaming rights handed over to the cheiftain
3/2- II. Added clause that top two options should be polled again if no majority is reached.. as per Donsig's suggestion

Poll posted: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=210093

Split and .

Thank you DaveShack!

Furius said:

II. Procedure for Naming a New City

All nominated names which have been seconded after four days will then be polled. If there is no majority decision, then the top three options, including ties, will be polled again.

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In the poll amongst the top three options, does the option with the most votes win, or is a majority required?

Gaidynne said:

In the poll amongst the top three options, does the option with the most votes win, or is a majority required?

Click to expand...

I suggest we repoll again using top two names. What about the status of abstain and other options, especially regarding the calculation of a majority?

I think section IV needs to be tweaked. Do you mean only one renaming poll per term period or one renaming poll per person per term? I also think we should spell out the form of the renaming poll. Will it be a yes/no poll for a specifc rename? What about abstain?

I did indeed mean for it to be one renaming per city total for any term... I'll tweak IV now...

"A poll requesting that a city be renamed may be posted by any member of the public. In the event that said poll succeeds, a nomination thread must be opened following the same procedure outlined in part III above. In the event that said poll fails, another request to rename that city may not be posted until the next term."

As for repolling, I am worried about the clutter that such posts could generate... I mean if there were four cities, say, being renamed... I think a majority should be required for city names... But a plurality might be enough for geographical features?
I think we're definitly going to need a proper poll to decide the status of abstain at some stage (One wonders what will happen if everyone were to vote for abstain in that)... For the moment, I'm really not sure whether it should be counted or not...

So, I'll make the change to IV, and I won't qualify polling rules just yet, because I want to hear what general opinion is on this matter.
And actually, I think I'll make that poll on abstanation while I'm at it...

Furius said:

I think we're definitly going to need a proper poll to decide the status of abstain at some stage (One wonders what will happen if everyone were to vote for abstain in that)...

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Funny - I just posted in that poll asking if abstain counted.

Back on topic, I see what you're getting at now with the renaming poll. I thought someone would just post a poll asking Rename [current city name] to [proposed city name] with y/n/a options. Didn't realize you meant a poll asking if we should rename a city then have more polls to pick a name if yes wins. WOuldn't it just be easier to allow anyone to post a renaming poll anytime as long as it used the format I described? Seems to make things simpler. If a majority did not want to rename the city they would just vote no (or abstain if we're sensible enough to count those votes).

The idea of the system was to avoid the 6 different polls business... But if you want renaming to be a proposing a name business and just polling that, that could work too...

I just don't want it to be that someone wants a city named after herself, so she turns up on the first day of the term and posts "Should we rename blahblah-city to [username]" polls for every city, in the hope that one of them will pass...

That would screw things up mightly for people who'd had better reasons for renaming cities... At the same time I think a city's name shouldn't change too often or people won't connect with it... Which is the whole purpose of custom names... Hence the "once per term" limit...

If you make changes to the proposal, it's a good idea to include a change log.

Change log added...
we could merge the 'do we want to rename city xyz' poll with the nomination thread, which might streamline the process greatly. I suspect, in general, there wont be too much interest in most renamings, unless it's been a really slow week...

I'm also considering whether naming/renaming threads should go in the normal fora P), or into the RPG forum... (Assuming we get one)

Please, did I understand right?

Do you want to create the rule each citizen can propose the change of the name of each place once per month?

That can create one hundred,two hundred (I don't know) simultaneous polls.
And, as one poll supersedes the previous, one city can change its name every
day.

A little confusing to play any game, mostly a democracy game,IMHO.
When the citizens/players/partners decide a name, why and what for to
change it?

Best regards,

I want to limit it to one name change per city, each month... So the city can only attempt to have its name changed once per month, total... I tried to make it clear, but for some reason it is rather difficult...

In other words:

If someone posts a poll to rename 'city xyz' then no one can post another poll to rename that city for the rest of the month/term...

The reasons for renaming a city could be many- if we were to conquer or otherwise aqquire a new city for instance, or if we wished to, for example, honour a citizen for exceptional work for the community

I like the idea of being able to change a city's name, but I think simply an open "anyone can propose" system doesn't work. For instance, let's say at the beginning of the month some citizen wants to rename a city to "qqqq" or something dumb. Obviously this won't pass, but it will prevent renaming that city for the rest of the term. I guess it's not a huge problem as it can just be renamed the next term, but just something to think about.

Let's stick to the simplest thing that works.

For all those new to democracy games, it can be very difficult to change a city name. Sometimes we have a persistent city thread, with a Mayor leading role play for the city. The people who have invested their time in stories and other material relating to the city will resist any changes.

Here's my suggestion:
I. The chieftan shall organize in-game naming.
II. In-game names may not violate forum rules.

I have to agree with Daveshack.... I can not think of a single case where we've needed to... or really wanted to rename a city...

And the effect on Role Play... could make things confusing...

AluminumKnight said:

I like the idea of being able to change a city's name, but I think simply an open "anyone can propose" system doesn't work. For instance, let's say at the beginning of the month some citizen wants to rename a city to "qqqq" or something dumb. Obviously this won't pass, but it will prevent renaming that city for the rest of the term. I guess it's not a huge problem as it can just be renamed the next term, but just something to think about.

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Well, the idea was that you post a thread asking do we want to rename 'city
x' which is followed by a thread where people suggest names, but if the consensus is that renaming is uncommon then I could remove that section

I also agree with DaveShack. Renaming is something that should only be done in special cases, and as such should be organized by the Chieftan.

ok... Fair enough... I think that the elder ought to be consulted too, though?

Furius said:

ok... Fair enough... I think that the elder ought to be consulted too, though?

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Indeed yes, having a specified official organize something doesn't mean other officials and citizens wouldn't be consulted. The Chieftain could even create a naming office and put a citizen in charge of the organization.