Re: [PATCH] ARM: dts: sun8i: h3: orangepi-plus: Fix Ethernet PHY mode

[B.R. Oake]

On Sat Feb 13 09:51:17 CET 2021, Jernej Škrabec wrote:
> Let me first explain that it was oversight on my side not noticing initials in 
> your SoB tag. But since the issue was raised by Maxime, I didn't follow up.
> [...]

Dear Jernej,

First of all, thank you very much for all your linux-sunxi work: I 
especially appreciate the video support you've provided.

Thank you for initially approving my patch. Although I first posted a 
patch to the linux-sunxi list about seven years ago, this patch was my 
first formal submission to LKML, so it meant a lot to me to see it 
accepted by a kernel developer, even if only briefly.

I'm sorry for taking a long time to reply. I wanted to wait for the 
maintainers to respond to my last mail because I thought it would be 
best for them to speak for themselves on this issue. Sadly I haven't 
yet received a response from them.


> I believe that real name means no initials, no matter what people are 
> accustomed to. From my point of view, CJ is pseudonym derived from real name.

I don't think that's a widely held belief though. For example, I think 
most people consider "J.R.R. Tolkien" to be a real name, even though it 
contains initials. Also, a first name like CJ isn't necessarily derived 
from some longer name like Cathy Jane, it can simply be the person's 
given name. I'm grateful to Vagrant Cascadian for drawing our attention 
to Patrick McKenzie's essay "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names". 
I believe we harm Linux development when we exclude people whose names 
don't fit our assumptions.

Another reason for signing with initials is to ensure that other people 
cannot infer anything about the author's gender. Women especially might 
choose to do this to avoid the harassment that a female name can attract, 
as shown in these studies for example:

https://ece.umd.edu/news/story/study-finds-femalename-chat-users-get-25-times-more-malicious-messages
https://www.reach3insights.com/women-gaming-study

If we forbid people from contributing in a gender-neutral way, many may 
feel they cannot contribute at all. Again, I think that when we exclude 
these people we are all worse off as a result.


> Speaking generally, not only for this case, prior art arguments rarely hold, 
> [...]
> This is not the first time that fix of SoB tag was requested, you can find such 
> requests in ML archives.

Isn't that a prior art argument? ;-)

Best wishes,
B.R.


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