Rainverse Wiki:Deadnaming RfC
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Introduction
Deadnaming, both of real people and of fictional characters, should be avoided when possible. In the course of documenting the Rainverse, there are a few situations where using a fictional character's deadname may be necessary. There may be even rarer cases when using a real person's deadname is necessary, although no such situations have arisen as of October 2024. The purpose of this policy is to document when deadnaming is allowed.
Deadnaming fictional characters is less bad than deadnaming real people for several reasons, including
- Safety: A real person's deadname can put them at risk of harassment or violence. Even including a deadname as a redirect can put someone at risk. Fictional characters, by contrast, do not have to worry about violence from real people reading the wiki.
- Privacy: A real person may not want knowledge of their deadname to spread. Moreover, many readers may want to avoid learning anyone's deadname if they can avoid it. By contrast, how well-known a fictional character's deadname is is entirely controlled by the author. Everyone who has read Rain knows Rain's deadname, because Jocelyn tells us in the first chapter. Hence, we do not need to worry about readers inadvertently learning Rain's deadname. On the other hand, no one knows Jessica's deadname.
- Spoilers: Sometimes, a character's real name could be a spoiler. No such concern exists for real people's names.
Due to these distinctions, deadnaming of real people requires a much stricter standard than deadnaming of fictional characters.
Deadnaming Fictional Characters
A fictional character's deadname may be used on the wiki in the following circumstances:
- As a redirect: A user who searches for a character's deadname should be redirected to the character's article with their real name.
- On a disambiguation page if necessary: For example, if a character's deadname is also a different character's real name, a disambiguation page may be needed.
- In page transcripts: The transcripts of comic pages are generally kept "spoiler-free." Hence, they use the names the character was using on that page.
- In page synopses: Like transcripts, the page synopses are generally kept spoiler-free.
- Quotes from the author: Quotes from the author, either in the author comments or in in-story dialogue, may contain some character deadnames and will not be altered.
- Page history: If a character was first introduced using their deadname, their article might originally have been written with their deadname in it. When the character's real name is revealed in the story, their article should be rewritten to use their real name, but the page history does not need to be deleted.
Nothing in this policy shall be construed to mean that deadnaming is required. If the editors can work out a reasonable way to avoid using a particular character's deadname, even if technically allowed by this policy, then the editors should avoid using the character's deadname.
There may be other circumstances not listed here, which the authors of this policy hadn't thought of, in which deadnaming may be necessary. If such a circumstance arises, the editors should discuss it and carefully consider alternatives before adding a character's deadname to the wiki.
Support
Support as proposer 183231bcb (talk) 23:14, 30 October 2024 (UTC)
Support. Much needed. This policy should effectively keep us accountable with how we and future wiki contributors handle deadnames going forward. AvgHelper (talk) 01:04, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
Support as it is bad taste to deadname trans people (see sources here). That being said, as fictional characters can't exactly feel IRL dysphoria or be harassed, I am willing to allow for exemptions for historical references to things such as transcripts of past pages and direct author quotes. BlankEclair (talk, contribs, CA) 06:16, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
Oppose
Abstain
Comments
Deadnaming Real People
Currently, no real people's deadnames are used anywhere on the wiki. Possible situations where deadnaming might be permissible are:
- If the person in question specifically requests to have their deadname on the wiki.
- As a redirect only when necessary: If a person was better known under their deadname, it may be included as a redirect. Such a situation is likely to be very rare, since the real trans people involved in creating the Rainverse (such as Jocelyn and Larissa Frost) are better known under their real names, hence no redirect is necessary.
- Page history: If a real person was notable enough to have an article prior to coming out, their deadname may be included in their article's history. However, the Rainverse Wiki editors should consider whether it is technically feasible to delete their deadname from history without losing too much valuable information.
Nothing in this policy shall be construed to mean that deadnaming is required. If the editors can work out a reasonable way to avoid using a particular person's deadname, even if technically allowed by this policy, then the editors should avoid using the person's deadname.
There may be other circumstances not listed here, which the authors of this policy hadn't thought of, in which deadnaming may be necessary. If such a circumstance arises, the editors should discuss it and carefully consider alternatives before adding a person's deadname to the wiki.
Support
Support as proposer 183231bcb (talk) 23:14, 30 October 2024 (UTC)
Support. Same reason as for the previous section. AvgHelper (talk) 01:04, 31 October 2024 (UTC)
Support as it is bad taste to deadname trans people (GLAAD style guide on trans people, excerpt from the Gender Dysphoria Bible, Tilly's Trans Tuesdays on Names and Pronouns). Additionally, it is recommended to refer to trans people by their current name even when referring to them in the past ([1]), so we shouldn't need to deadname them in their articles either. As for redirects, I agree with them only when they are necessary (which is already defined in the RfC). BlankEclair (talk, contribs, CA) 06:12, 31 October 2024 (UTC)