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SUSE Documentation Style Guide
https://susedoc.github.io/doc-styleguide/main/html/style-guide/
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Example user names #158

Closed cwickert closed 8 months ago

cwickert commented 3 years ago

We currently use free-software mascots, such as Tux (kernel), Wilber (GIMP) or Geeko (SUSE) as example names.

This is what we have in doc-sle's entity-decl.ent right now:

<!ENTITY exampleuser_plain    "tux">
<!ENTITY exampleuser    "<systemitem xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook' class='username'>&exampleuser_plain;</systemitem>">

<!ENTITY exampleuserII_plain    "wilber">
<!ENTITY exampleuserII  "<systemitem xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook' class='username'>&exampleuserII_plain;</systemitem>">

<!ENTITY exampleuserIII_plain    "geeko">
<!ENTITY exampleuserIII "<systemitem xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook' class='username'>&exampleuserIII_plain;</systemitem>">

<!ENTITY exampleuserfull    "Tux Linux">
<!-- Do not use Gimp as the last name, what with negative connotations etc.
     Instead use "fox," even though Wilber is not a fox: http://gimp-savvy.com/ABOUT/index.html -->
<!ENTITY exampleuserIIfull  "Wilber Fox">
<!ENTITY exampleuserIIIfull "Suzanne Geeko">

PROBLEMS

  1. Inconsistent: For the last name, we distinguish between plain name and name with markup. Full name on the other hand is only plain.
  2. Inconsistent: If full name is only plain, it should be called exampleuserfull_plain, exampleuserIIfull_plain and exampleuserIIIfull.
  3. Inconsistent: While example users exampleuser and exampleuserII are first names, exampleuserIII is the last name.
  4. Not inclusive: Only one first name is female. As it's the last one and because of the aforementioned inconsistency, only a single out of all 213 occurrences in doc-sle is female.
  5. Not diverse: All names are English only.
  6. Incomplete: No entities for first names. Would be useful for stuff like LDAP (security guide).
  7. Trademarked: Linux is a trademark. Also, we sell solutions these days, not just Linux.
  8. Geeko is outdated: Even if it's the name of (open)SUSE's very own mascot, marketing decided to ditch this name in 2010. Nobody understands the "geek" reference these days, in fact we don't want our products to be for geeks only. Error-prone because it can be confused with "gecko" and contributes to the gecko vs. chameleon confusion.

SUGGESTION

While the inconsistencies are trivial, we should pay attention to inclusiveness and diversity (refer to #148).

I see two possible paths there:

  1. Unisex names like https://www.whattoexpect.com/baby-names/unisex-baby-names/
  2. Well-known placeholder names such as "Jane Doe" or "John Doe". Use the female by default. Can be localized for more diversity, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terms_related_to_an_average_person

STATS

number of occurrences in doc-sle: exampleuser: 30 occurrences exampleuser_plain: 106 exampleuserII: 29 exampleuserII_plain: 12 exampleuserIII: 11 exampleuserIII_plain: 23 exampleuserfull: 0 exampleuserIIfull: 1 exampleuserIIfull: 1

cwickert commented 3 years ago

Regarding "Geeko", here is a mail from 2016:

Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2016 17:01:01 +0000
From: "Scott Corfield"
To: "DL-SU-All"
Subject: Is He a Chameleon or Gecko?

All,

There has been some recent discussions and questions within the company about 
our SUSE mascot, which I would like to clear up today. Some have asked if our 
mascot is a chameleon or a gecko.

Our mascot is a chameleon.

The confusion probably started more than 10 years ago when we gave our mascot a 
name (Geeko) during an internal competition. Some must have assumed that since 
his name was Geeko, he must be a gecko-but he's not.

Six years ago we made the decision to retire the Geeko name in hopes it would 
prevent further confusion. So moving forward, please do not refer to our 
chameleon mascot as Geeko or as a gecko.

Contact me if you have any questions, thx!!

Even though Scott is probably not 100% correct about the date (6 years before 2016 means 2010, but "Geeko" was still used in 2011 for the "Geeko Gazette" newsletter), we really should not use the name any longer.

ghost commented 3 years ago
  1. Unisex names like https://www.whattoexpect.com/baby-names/unisex-baby-names/
  2. Well-known placeholder names such as "Jane Doe" or "John Doe". Use the female by default. Can be localized for more diversity, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terms_related_to_an_average_person

I like option (1) much more than preferring clearly female names which imo is just as bad as preferring male names. One the other hand, a lot of the supposedly gender-neutral names sound either clearly male or clearly female to me (= non-native speaker) anyway, so it comes out to about the same.

cwickert commented 3 years ago

Just as clarification: My idea was to make exampleuser female (Jane Doe) and exampleuserII male (John Doe). I doubt there are placeholder families (at least not in many languages), so for exampleuserIII we need something different anyway. We could then again take a female name or an unisex one – assuming there are well-known ones.

For exampleuserIII we would likely have to go for something else – I doubt there are placholder families in many languages

ghost commented 3 years ago

My idea was to make exampleuser female (Jane Doe) and exampleuserII male (John Doe).

lproven commented 3 years ago

I would favour a list of names which are both gender-neutral and international.

There are not many, but we do not need many, so coming up with a very short list should not be too hard.

I did some research, consulted multiple websites, and weeding out some names I consider confusing/inappropriate (for example, many people now use placenames as given names), here are my results.

Gender neutral given names in English (sorted alphabetically)

Some of the most common surnames

Conclusion

Jan, Kim, Lee and Park are all familiar and commonly-used names to several totally different cultural/language/national groups.

cwickert commented 8 months ago

I decided it's not worth opening yet another can of worms!