|
|
When you add an alternate name to a person, the first name on the page is labeled "Preferred name". Please change this to "Primary name" as a better description. The Glossary has already been updated, and other Help pages will be updated in 2017. Thanks--DataAnalyst 18:09, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
- I am not in favor of this change. There was a lot of discussion about this in the past which resulted in the term Preferred being chosen specifically to provide for a means to render a preferred name on the page display (e.g. Cary Grant, etc.). It is a separate function having to do with controlling page display and providing additional name data for identification after the birth name (i.e. page title) has already been established. That is why it doesn't appear until after Add alternate name is selected. As long as we clearly distinguish between entering a name during page addition (birth names only) and entering alternate names during page editing, I think the concerns can be addressed (what are they, btw?).
- Current Type of name choices are: Preferred/Alt/Baptismal/Immigrant/Married/Religious. I think we used to have Birth Name also as a choice which was nice and clear. I don't know why it was removed. I would strongly support the reinstatement of Birth Name as a type. --cos1776 13:12, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
- I want to separate functionality from convention. The glossary term simply defines the role that this field plays within WeRelate. Primary is accurate, because this is the name that shows up everywhere - it is the name that shows up in searches, on the family page, in the pedigree, in FTE, etc. - it is the person's primary name within WeRelete. Convention is different - this tells us what to put into the primary name field.
- The reason I don't want to use the term preferred for the field is that this term crosses over the line into convention - that is, it suggests what to put into the field. And, unfortunately, the term preferred connotes different things to different people - it can mean anything from a stage name (which might or might not be what the person was called by friends and family) to a nickname (e.g., "Bill") to a name that someone assigned long after the person was dead (in the case of medieval persons). I think it makes more sense to set out the convention in the Help:Conventions page, where more detailed guidelines can be provided, and leave the glossary to simply define the term. That is why I want it called primary in the glossary. I believe it is a more neutral term than preferred. (And I would be happy to remove the glossary reference to preferred name once WeRelate is changed to rename Preferred Name to Primary Name.)
- And as far as the conventions go, I was just looking at the discussion on the Naming Conventions talk page, and as far as I can see, there was no consensus. The naming conventions themselves still say to use the name at birth ("the name the person was born with"). As far as I can tell, only you and Jrm03063 thought it was a good idea to use a stage name as the primary name. Dallan only thought it was okay to use a stage name if it was also the name used on most genealogical records (which would be unlikely to be the case unless there was a legal name change). Personally, I disagree with using a stage name as the primary name because I don't think it conforms with a genealogical view of the world. However, I am willing to continue that conversation with the WeRelate community, and was, in fact, planning to do that soon.
- I'm sure there will be other things we disagree on - I trust we can keep the discussion going. After all, it is through conversation with people we disagree with that we evolve our understanding of things and come up with better ideas. :) Take care.--DataAnalyst 15:49, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
- I would also support the reinstatement of birth name - I think it probably got removed when the question was raised about what would go there - some people clearly thought that the primary name should always be the birth name. I would also like to see nickname to identify a name a person commonly used during their lifetime (there have been many times I would have wanted to select that as a type), and the software package I use also has alternate spelling which might be useful to have a separate type for.--DataAnalyst 18:55, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
- I will always welcome respectful discussion, so no worries there. I can understand your dislike of the term Preferred Name as you have explained it above. Would you object to Rendered Name or Displayed Name? Either of those would stick with functionality and could cover the concerns that have been expressed on both sides. --cos1776 19:44, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
- I don't think that rendered is a good choice - I think people might respond with "huh?"
- Displayed name I could live with - all the names are displayed on the person page, but this is the one that displays in other contexts. If we were to go that way, I would prefer Display name. Maybe better would be Primary display name - it uses the word primary in the context of displaying the name in WeRelate, which might avoid the connotation of the person's primary name (however that gets interpreted). I think it sits better with me that just Display name because I think if something is called the Display name then I might have to enter the name again for the purposes of the actual genealogy - just my gut reaction.
- Honestly, I'd almost prefer to avoid naming it anything, except that we have to describe it somehow in the Help documentation. If you look at a page with multiple names, the label for the first name is simply Name. The term Preferred name only comes up in edit mode. Rather than changing it (in edit mode) to Primary name or Display name or Primary display name, we can just leave that space blank. I really think people won't notice. Then in the Help, maybe we just talk about the name that you enter when you add the page. (Calling it the "first" name is, of course, not very helpful, so we'd have to avoid that - maybe that is why it was felt a term was needed.) -- DataAnalyst
- I think we are getting somewhere. I could agree with explaining the concept in Help and referring to the first row name as the Primary Display Name there, as needed, to distinguish it from more common birth name entries in that row. Also, I don't object to leaving Type blank for the first row during Edit mode. Were you proposing to have it be blank when the page is closed as well or to leave it simply as Name? --cos1776 22:06, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
- Leave it as Name in display mode. It is the label on a piece of data.--DataAnalyst 23:31, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
|
|
