[ANSTHRLD] Requests for Authenticity

Tim McDaniel tmcd at jump.net
Mon Dec 10 22:06:46 PST 2001


On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, doug bell <magnus77840 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On name submissions if the submitter is happy with the name being
> submitted please do not mark any requests for changes for
> authenticity or culture.

I would say, rather: On name submissions, if the submitter really
prefers the name being submitted, please do not mark any requests for
changes for authenticity or culture.  The difference: if they're happy
with the name as submitted but would be happier or just as happy with
a more authentic name, then it would be a kindness to request it.

Please be aware, however, that a request for authenticity IS A REQUEST
FOR CHANGE, that you get what you ask for, and you may get Toyoda-ed
("you asked for it, you got it").

Some people seem to think that "make my name authentic" means "please
wave a magic wand and change the rules of period naming and grammar to
make this made-up name authentic in its current spelling".  Um, no.
Unless your name is hopelessly inauthentic, it WILL BE CHANGED.

For example, someone recently submitted the Irish form of "Michael son
of Andrew" and requested authenticity for Irish Gaelic culture.  The
problem is that, in Gaelic cultures in period, saints' names were
considered too holy for people to use.  They used Gille X ('servant of
X'), Mael X, or Coile X.  He got the Irish form of "Gille Michael son
of Gille Andrew".  His appeal is now at Laurel.  From the commentary,
it's looking likely that it will be changed back to the original (the
original is registerable) and that such radical changes will not be
done in the future, but you can't bet on anything Laurel-related.

I am not a decision maker, so I think I can opine: as I get more
experience in forms processing, I'm getting fonder of "scriptum est"
and "you asked for it, you got it".  We're not mind readers, so it's a
losing battle to try to intuit what the submitter wants.  You request
a name change for whatever reason, you get a name change.  You don't
like it?  Well, you got what you asked for; if you don't like it,
cough up $9 to change it.

(Have I made the point clear enough?  I can do necroequiflagellation
some more if people want.)


A second note: if the submitter has constraints or opinions that can't
be expressed via boxes, they can write them in the documentation
space.  Might want to highlight it and add "Please put on ILoI and
LoI:", to make sure commenters see it (so they can comment on the
alternatives) and so Laurel staff notices (though we usually go by
LoIs rather than forms for much information).  It might be things like
"I really like spellings with 'y'", or "Please preserve the spelling
of the first name, but I don't really care about the last", or "You
can drop 'of York' if that's more authentic and doesn't cause
conflict", or "You can add 'of York' to clear conflict", or anything
else.

Daniel, Laurel Clerk
--
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at jump.net;
if that fail, my work address is tmcd at us.ibm.com.
 "To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting every-
 thing up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)




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