Added guideline for using real name

[ghost]

I thought it might be a nice add, let me know if you'd agree, if not I can close the PR :)

[zeorin]

Personally I strongly disagree with this idea. There are many people who are part of marginalized groups that may be harmed by having to use their real name.

In ZATech's case I suspect that will just lead to those people choosing not to be a part of our community.

https://geekfeminism.wikia.org/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F

[ChristianWitts]

I agree with @zeorin that real name policies are not great.

[ghost]

via rmaclean

Reading that PR, it is not a real name policy. It is a a guideline & thus I am :heavy_plus_sign: on it.Personally I may reframe it as this because it does feel heavier than a guideline. My attempt is to be more about saying we value real names over anonymous, and we understand that isn’t always possible. That doesn’t change the value, we still value one over the other but we do not enforce it or anything like that.

ZATech is intended to be an overlapping series of professional groups and it is we value the benefits come from that everyone uses the name they go by in everyday life. Always knowing who you’re connecting with helps keep you and the rest of our community safe from impersonation, scams and phishing and also allows you to be more approachable when building your online reputation. We understand this is not possible for everyone and you should put your safety and security first.

[zkrige]

I'm with @elixir-zatech on this. Having real names will help prevent trolls. Plus it is meant to be a professional group, so it makes sense to have real names

[iaremarkus]

What about a scenario of someone who knows their employer is in the group, and they want to use #jobseekers, or #freelance-discuss for eg, without being 'bust'.

Or to moan about employer anonymously in #random without being outed...

Do we want to cater for this kind of user?

[zkrige]

Its not forced - merely encouraged, so in that scenario you are welcome to remain anonymous

[datashaman]

We're also helping recruiters to fill in their database, a thought.

[datashaman]

If it's encouraged not forced then is this an issue?

[zkrige]

We're also helping recruiters to fill in their database, a thought.

your personal info is available in many other places anyways. eg I can look up yours via your GitHub profile link :)

[datashaman]

I hope so! Brand management! :P

[ghost]

These are all valid points, however I can't think of a single person I've encountered on ZA Tech who doesn't currently have their real name, not to say they're not out there, I just haven't encountered them yet.

[mobiRic]

What's the point if it is just a bit of "oh please use your real name unless you don't want to"?

I mean, either it is a requirement, or it is not. If not, then just let ppl do what ppl will do.

---

(update) as per @elixir-zatech:

The CoC acts as a guide for new users as well as a contract for the community. Being clear about things helps grow things in an agreed direction.

If that's what this is about, then I'm behind it.

[JohnRoux]

These are all valid points, however I can't think of a single person I've encountered on ZA Tech who doesn't currently have their real name, not to say they're not out there, I just haven't encountered them yet.

I've met a couple, they're cool people who I wouldn't want to exclude. That being said I don't think that having this as a suggested default is by any means exclusionary.

I'm behind this PR 👍🏻

[n1c]

This is quite a complex issue, as the comments have already shown here there's good and bad on both sides.

I'm behind the idea that a guideline for real names is nice; but it shouldn't be enforced or a policy in any way.

I think the wording as it is currently might be too strong and not really make the point as well as it could so gonna leave this open for changes/discussion for a while longer.

[JohnRoux]

How do you feel that it's too strong? Currently the wording here goes along the lines of:

it is encouraged that everyone uses the name they go by in everyday life

And

Pretending to be anything or anyone is discouraged.

I think we could remove that last line. Don't think it really adds anything to the sentiment and having positive language is always preferred for these types of requests

[zeorin]

You could say something along the lines of

We welcome real names, but pseudonyms are also fine

I really, really wouldn't want to give anyone that is scared of using their real name the impression that they would be in any way looked down upon, less welcome, that their voice would speak less loudly in our community than any others.

[mobiRic]

Maybe it would be useful to require ppl to submit copies of their ID documents when joining?

And that the person is given their SA ID recognised name as their user ID. It wouldn't change my life but if we are planning on enforcing it, let's enforce it properly.

[JohnRoux]

Regardless of the privacy side of that, it's a whole lot of admin to verify identities for each new person that joins. We have ~170 new people joining per month.

[PiDelport]

However, reading this made me realise that there's currently no explicit prohibition against impersonation or identity fraud: that might be worth adding to the CoC as an explicit rule?

Speaking of the devil, there was just an incident in #codeofconduct where someone created and joined with an account named "Pie" (apparently in order to harass me).

Evidence of people actually engaging in impersonation / identity-based harassment probably speaks to adding this?

[ghost]

One thing I never added when I originally opened this ticket, and I think all the points above are good, is that this spawned from a discussion where I was asked to add my real name. I'm not trying to be divisive here, but looking back, we could maybe look at that incident and the reasons that led to it. Not as a blame game or to dredge up the past, but I think admin team probably had a good reason. I just honestly can't remember what it was anymore...

[n1c]

Looks like this issue has stalled out and isn't going to be merged so I'm going to close the PR unless there's impetus to revive it.