Wikipedia talk:Requests for mediation/Danah Boyd

Comment by Steve

1. It's not obvious to me that the question is not political.  Why
   are you singling out danah boyd for refusal to render her name in
   the correct case?  Why is this not a no-brainer?  Do you really
   think that some newspaper article is more authoritative than her
   university diploma and bylines on publications, confirmed by
   danah's statement on her web page?
2. How you brought up pink ink is irrelevant.  You also stated that
   style guides exist, which is irrelevant, since the style I am
   talking about is exemplified in WP as I cited.  You also stated
   that no one is telling danah how to write her name, which is
   irrelevant--I am talking about how Wikipedia writes her name.
   And you brought up all these trademarks and pink ink, which
   is precisely what I am not talking about.  You even said that
   everyone has to draw the line somewhere, after I told you where
   WP drew the line for k.d. lang and bell hooks and cat yronwode.
   All this is mud in the water, and I'm really having a hard time
   trusting it's not on purpose.
3. And, yes, I visited the pages, though that question sounds like
   more mud.  But I did visit the pages, and I know they are titled
   with names of people in lower case.  But why do you ask?  What
   I asked, when Carl said "Danah" is the same name as "danah", is
   Where are the articles entitled "K. D. Lang" and "Bell Hooks"
   and "Catherine Yronwode"?

The answer is that calling it "the same name" is belied by the
tenacity with which you cling to the mythical style guide except for
anyone with enough fame that everyone would know WP is wrong.  These
distinctions have significance for the people who are named that way
and to the people who want to know about them.  So what is it about
Wikipedia editors that they get to decide who can have a lower-case
name and who can't?  What hoops would danah boyd have to jump through
to convince you that her name is spelled in the same case as cat and
emma and bell?  And why should she have to, when the information is
right there on the web already?

Perhaps my take on the politics of this is to ask why WP is trying to
convince everyone on the Internet that WP can't figure out how to
write "danah boyd"?  That's a political question, and WP is showing
everyone just how incompetent it is at getting the facts straight.
-Dan Hoey 03:30, 16 August 2007 (UTC)