[Geysers] Re: Place Names---latest USBGN procedures---from Lee Whittlesey

[TSBryan at aol.com]

Lee Whittlesey recently produced an NPS document bearing on the naming of 
thermal features, and gaining "official" status for names. In this document, 
GOSA, some of GOSA's individual "members" and my book are noted as authoritative 
names reference sources. This led me to query Lee about the status of names 
that have already appeared in my book, and in the upcoming new edition. Here is 
my latest offering on the matter.

 In a message dated 9/16/2004 2:30:54 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
Lee_Whittlesey at nps.gov writes:
The harder question, as
always, is: when does a name leave the quotation-mark stage and enter the
"accepted" category? This has never been an easy question to answer, but my
answer is---whenever the name is adequately "entrenched" in literature and
usage (it is my opinion that you need BOTH to move the name into the
"accepted" category).

Lee:

I wish you could give a distinct definition to "entrenched," but I must take 
it that if it has appeared on any reasonably consistent basis __ including as 
published in places such as my book and/or The GOSA Transactions and/or in any 
USGS-NPS document __ and certainly if it has gotten a reasonable useage 
verbally and/or in Internet e-mail postings, then it is entrenched.

You adequately state that a simple numerical designation is a poor substitute 
for a valid name. My UNNG designations are really just "fanciful" numbers, 
and I feel my book would be better by eliminating as many as possible.

So, Lee, what do you think of the following? Later -- when the rewritten 
draft is done, which will not be until some time after my return to California -- 
I'll go through the book, extracting _every_ UNNG that is accompanied by a 
name and, for those where I think it reasonable, I will make a personal decision a
nd eliminate the UNNG (perhaps by using red strikethrough font) while leaving 
the name within quote marks. I will also include those geysers where I have 
already (previously or now) already eliminated the UNNG but have left the name 
within quote marks.

And then, Lee, perhaps you could further indicate which of those 
within-quotes names could have the quote marks removed.

Doing all this will be quite a job-extra, but I do want things to be "right."

Scott Bryan
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