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

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

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

> 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.