Re: Wildcards in mailmap to hide transgender people's deadnames

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 21, 2022, 16:42 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqh71065mw.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <220920.86edw65ngv.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> I think it would be irresponsible of us to provide a feature that looks
> as though it can in any way mitigate those concerns.
>
> If you're someone that's worried about being harassed if someone makes
> the link from your previous identity Y to your current identity X where
> you already have Y as part of a public git history. The right answer is
> to not submit a change to the .mailmap to explicitly connect the two.

While I agree with the sentiment "You are in control if your three names appear to refer to the same person" (and "On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog"), I wish the world were so black and white.

Many people change their names over the course of their life, and some do not want the linkage to their past revealed. Many of them have nothing to be ashamed of themselves but do so due to risk of discrimination, while some of them may do so to hide inconvenient facts about their past. While I have no sympathy to the latter, I do not think it is unreasonable for the folks in the former camp to also want recognition for the achievement made under their old as well as their current identity. And "pretend you have nothing to do with that identity you used in the past life" goes directly against the idea of taking credit for what you did in the past.

As the expertise you demonstrated under your old name will not help others find you as an expert in an area, until your new name starts being associated with your newly earned recognition, it is also a loss for the development community.

I dunno.