Butterstick!

August 25, 2005 10:11 AM

Blogger claims to hack National Zoo panda name vote. The National Zoo has opened its poll on the name for the new baby panda. Readers of DCist, Wonkette, and other Washington blogs quickly developed the nickname "Butterstick" for the infant panda, based on the oft-quoted description of the panda's birth weight. "Butterstick" was of course not among the name choices on the Zoo's website. So bloggers went ahead and altered the voting form, allowing you to select that name.
posted by XQUZYPHYR (31 comments total)

Doesn't seem to work. It just re-directs back to the Zoo voting page.
posted by SweetJesus at 10:13 AM on August 25, 2005

let's not hack the poor baby panda. that's meanie.
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:14 AM on August 25, 2005

My two favorite names offered up as suggestions by the WaPo:

1. The Ronald Regan National Panda
2. Bling-Bling
posted by krtzmrk at 10:21 AM on August 25, 2005

It definitely doesn't work. It not only redirects to the zoo voting page, but the page has an error message, indicating that I did not choose a name option.
posted by Plutor at 10:22 AM on August 25, 2005

This is really, really unfortunate. The baby panda is much too cute to fuck with. additionally, the world is so much bigger than a small group of blog suckers, yet they insist on flashing their ghastly genitalia at every passer by.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 10:24 AM on August 25, 2005

Yeah it doesn't seem to work. Also I'd rather the Panda got a Chinese name.
posted by riffola at 10:24 AM on August 25, 2005

I just mixed that metaphor on your face.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 10:25 AM on August 25, 2005

A good looking transgendered Panda?
posted by nervousfritz at 10:32 AM on August 25, 2005

But ... Butterstick is a totally great name! Can you imagine how much "Butterstick" merch the zoo would sell? The most ridiculous names are the most memorable. And kids would think it was a Cute Name.

Butterstick ... I think I'm naming my next dog Butterstick ... even though I still haven't gotten a new dog for the "Smarty Jones" name.
posted by kenlayne at 10:42 AM on August 25, 2005

I think hacking the voting site is a no-no, especially since they didn't offer a Chinese name either. By the way, I recommend we name the panda Lin Biao.
posted by davy at 10:49 AM on August 25, 2005

it worked up until this morning, when the zoo apparently altered their script.
posted by pablohoney at 10:54 AM on August 25, 2005

And really, it's not even hacking. Dude just modified the HTTP GET (POST? I forget, whichever doesn't appends the data to the end of the URL) to add another voting "string", which looks like this in the HTML

[input name="Panda" radio value="Butterstick"]

I doubt the butterstick votes were ever counted in the first place, as you would have to be really stupid to allow any data to come into your database (in the method being used). More than likely it appeared to work, but actually didn't do anything. Now the Zoo has just changed it so it doesn't appear to work.
posted by SweetJesus at 10:58 AM on August 25, 2005

Now the Zoo has just changed it

No, Butterstick fixed it. Sad panda is a smart panda.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:04 AM on August 25, 2005

I recommend we name the panda Lin Biao.

I recommend we name the panda Scott Baio.
posted by mkultra at 11:08 AM on August 25, 2005

They should have had a write in campaign for the names that they added to the possible choices. Then Butterstick would have a legitimate chance of winning. Cheating to get the name in isn't going to make them all of a sudden realize what an awesome name it is, they'll just discard the cheat entries and go about their business.

They could have gotten alot more good press by allowing anyone to suggest names and narrowing down the selection from there.

davy, how are the names not Chinese?
The choices are:
Hua Sheng (hwah-SHUNG), means China Washington, magnificent
Sheng Hua (SHUNG-hwah), means Washington China, magnificent
Tai Shan (tie-SHON), means peaceful mountain
Long Shan (lohng-SHON), means dragon mountain
Qiang Qiang (chee-ONG chee-ONG), means strong, powerful

They seem pretty Chinese to me.
posted by fenriq at 11:36 AM on August 25, 2005

the intent wasn't to cheat, or to actually get the votes counted. i don't think the script even did that, though i'd have to ask my boyfriend, who was the one who created it. it was just a fun joke that took on a bizarre life of its own. people in d.c. really like the butterstick moniker for some reason.
posted by pablohoney at 11:44 AM on August 25, 2005

They could have gotten alot more good press by allowing anyone to suggest names and narrowing down the selection from there.

Butterstick does not belong to the zoo or even the US, the Chinese gave us a list of approved names to choose from for their panda.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:52 AM on August 25, 2005

I recommend we name the panda Scott Baio.

WIN!
posted by antifuse at 12:50 PM on August 25, 2005

I recommend we name the panda Char Siu Baio.
posted by luriete at 1:03 PM on August 25, 2005

(YUM!)
posted by luriete at 1:03 PM on August 25, 2005

Butterstick does not belong to the zoo or even the US, the Chinese gave us a list of approved names to choose from for their panda.

Otherwise, the panda would already have been named Freedom.
posted by mendel at 1:27 PM on August 25, 2005

You know, I think my colleague at DCist actually came up with that name. Wonkette may be the best-known DC blog, but she's not the only game in town...
posted by chinese_fashion at 1:47 PM on August 25, 2005

I hate pandas. They are listless and vapid. I hate the endless coverage of them in the DC media... and the fact that China leases them to U.S. zoos. That is all.
posted by killdevil at 3:53 PM on August 25, 2005

I doubt the butterstick votes were ever counted in the first place, as you would have to be really stupid to allow any data to come into your database (in the method being used).

You're obviously not a software developer. :) There's ALOT of bad code out there.
posted by Bort at 4:15 PM on August 25, 2005

We should just kidnap the bear. What are the Chinese going to do if we name the Panda "Butterstick"? stop shipping cheap crap to our Walmarts? We have cheap labor available all over the world, they can only sell super soakers knockoffs in one place America.
posted by Megafly at 6:24 PM on August 25, 2005

What are the Chinese going to do if we name the Panda "Butterstick"? stop shipping cheap crap to our Walmarts?

Stop buying the bonds that pay for it?
posted by pompomtom at 7:44 PM on August 25, 2005

yeah, they really did fix it :( i thought maybe they were just checking for the referrer or w/e

i have this gm script that allows you to edit the markup of any page you're looking at. I changed the radio values right there on their page... still didn't take it.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 7:49 PM on August 25, 2005

"What are the Chinese going to do if we name the Panda "Butterstick"? stop shipping cheap crap to our Walmarts?"

china pwnz the US. If they weren't floating crazy amounts of our debt, we'd be up shit creek. It just so happens that they need our consumer markets... god help us when Europe and Asian begin comsuming enough that our markets become irrelevant.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 8:45 PM on August 25, 2005

Alright fenriq, I must've misread or skipped something. So Lin Biao would fit right in! Or maybe Chou En-Lai. Or Bob Avakian.
posted by davy at 9:49 PM on August 25, 2005

The Jesse Helms : "The baby panda is much too cute to fuck with."

I seriously doubt it cares.
posted by Bugbread at 10:52 PM on August 25, 2005

Can't we compromise? How do you say "butterstick" in Chinese?
posted by ereshkigal45 at 8:47 AM on August 26, 2005