Suggestions

[quote]I'd prefer if the staff kept naming things according to what makes the most sense to them instead of avoiding specific letters of the alphabet.[/quote] What does that even mean? I'm not certain they are naming things according to what makes "the most sense" to them right now... Like Savannah and Safari? Pretty sure that for basically any gene (except [i]maybe[/i] Stripes), it could have any number of names that make just as much sense... or even more sense. How, exactly, does the name [i]Safari[/i] make sense as a pattern, anyway? And [i]Savanna[/i] doesn't look like the pattern a savanna has, to me. Take [i]Seraph[/i]. What does that mean? It could have been called [i]Feathered[/i] or [i]Pinion[/i]. [i]Winged[/i] (or something like, anyway) would have, in my opinion, made some more sense, more so than [i]Seraph[/i]. Although, if you really want to have the "guardian angel" reference, then why not just name it [i]Angel[/i]? Too on the nose, maybe? [i]Luster[/i] or [i]Gloss[/i] would have worked just fine for [i]Shimmer[/i], would have made just as much sense, and (hindsight being 20/20) wouldn't interfere with Spinner (which, in my opinion, also doesn't "make sense" as a gene name, though I'm not up on my lizard-vocabulary). [i]Speckle[/i] could just as easily be called [i]Flecked[/i] and it would make perfect sense (Flecked and Freckled? Opportunities lost...). [i]Spines[/i] could have been called [i]Barbed[/i]. There are tons of options out there. As far as things "making sense," I'd rather names that [i]did[/i] make sense than have alliterative pairs just for the sake of it, like Savannah and Safari. Because those don't make sense.

This has got to be the single weirdest suggestion ever.

I don't really support it? I mean, I see where you're coming from, but if an s-word makes sense then it makes sense. Deliberately avoiding s-words because it's a commonly used letter is a little absurd.

@raydelblau

Aha! They said consonant though! Of which S is one of the most common. And even if it doesn't make the top 5, it almost does.

'The Most Common Consonants, In Any Order. Three of the most common consonants of the English language are R, S and T. Every answer today is a word, name or phrase that contains each of the letters R, S and T exactly once, along with any number of vowels'
I just copied that from google, but there you go.

But yeah, no support. I'd rather they focus on naming things in a way which makes sense as opposed to avoiding a certain letter just because it's very common. And I say very common. Type out a few sentences, then count the frequency of s compared to any other letter. Quite high, isn't it?

@Almedga

They make perfect sense if you take a good look. Savannah and Safari: Two 'biomes' on afric (safari less so, although when someone says safari they still think africa) and the genes both look to be inspired by african animals. Makes sense to me. And seraph makes sense seeing as most depictions of a seraph come with several wings, and seraph slightly replicates. I think it's silly to try and be literal with these things every single time. It's good to leave some things up to imagination!

No support. Some letters are just common.

[quote=@DragonDraws] They make perfect sense if you take a good look. Savannah and Safari: Two 'biomes' on afric (safari less so, although when someone says safari they still think africa) and the genes both look to be inspired by african animals. Makes sense to me. And seraph makes sense seeing as most depictions of a seraph come with several wings, and seraph slightly replicates. I think it's silly to try and be literal with these things every single time. It's good to leave some things up to imagination![/quote] Well, yeah... I wouldn't say you even have to look for that "this is supposed to look like some kind of African animal" vibe, from the names of Savannah and Safari. The argument is that "pick something that makes sense for a pattern name," and if Savannah and Safari fit that, then I think pretty much anything can be the name of a pattern and "make sense." Depending on what the pattern is, naturally. Even a little imagination goes a long way, as you pointed out. I'm just slightly miffed at the sheer number of secondary genes with an S initial, and I always select Spinner or Shimmer when I mean to select the other. It's not like this is a huge deal. But it's not like we could only call Savannah "Savannah." More than one name will work is pretty much any situation and make just as much (or more) sense. That was my point. It seems like if you keep trying to name things with the same initial letter... you might just be going to your personal favorite letter over and over again without realizing it. For example, for me, it's J. Whenever I have to name a character or... well, anything, really, I go right to the Js. Not on purpose or anything, it's just the first name that occurs to me usually starts with a J. I have a friend that every third character has a name beginning with E. It's weird, and my noticing it made us do a quick character-audit to see if it was true of other letters and/or if I was doing the same thing. That's how I learned I have an overabundance of Js. It's not [i]bad[/i], per se. It just starts to get weird after a while. People start to notice. And, personally, the fact that I have about thirty characters whose names begin with J isn't the thing I want people to notice. (Also, if you try to ping me again, it's Almed[i]h[/i]a, not Almed[i]g[/i]a. :) Probably a typo, but I thought I'd just make sure.)

It's sorta like vowels. You hardly come across a word that doesn't have a vowel in it. I know it's not usually the start of a word but just avoiding a letter entirely would be impossible. Also, dragons are pretty much big snakes. With wings. And arms.