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Firinn's Shortform

by Firinn
24th Sep 2023
1 min read
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This is a special post for quick takes by Firinn. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
Firinn's Shortform
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[-]Firinn2y*10

This is a very tiny thing, but I really don't like using "Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave/Dan, Eve/Erin, Frank" as the generic characters in parables/dialogues/problems. Why are we alternating binary genders?? Even leaving aside nonbinary inclusivity, it's literally just clearer and easier to write if I've got a he, a she, and a zie (rather than it being ambiguous whether "she" refers to Alice or Carol). I'm not always consistent with it, but generally my imaginary characters are more like Alice, Bob, Charlie, Delilah, Ethan, Fern, etc, and Charlie and Fern use gender-neutral pronouns like they/them or xe/xir. (Though I've also been contemplating the idea that it's better to cycle the names and use different ones per post, so you can refer back to the ideas using the names as a handle: Alice, Bob, Charlie, Delilah, Ethan, Fern, Georgia, Hassan, Indie, Julie, Kasimir, Lei...)

(edited for brevity)

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