D&D General Jaquaying the dungeon - a term to avoid

[Ancalagon]

EDIT: the term to use is not "xandering", it's JaquaySing. This is a post by her wife, and I consider it authoritative. I'm editing my first post for people who don't feel like reading the entire thread.



Edit part deux: as noted by others, this story keeps changing and evolving, and I think it's important enough that the details don't get lost on page 24 of the thread or somesuch so:

An Update on Jaquaysing

Since I wrote my previous post , my friend Ava Islam reached out to Justin Alexander and engaged him in a productive conversation. Once th...

diyanddragons.blogspot.com

A Second Historical Note on Xandering the Dungeon

In 2023, after discussions with Jennell Jaquays, the title of Jaquaying the Dungeon was changed to Xandering the Dungeon, as I’ve previously described in A Historical Note on Xandering. At the begin

thealexandrian.net

Thank you @Yalım for these links!

ORIGINAL POST starts here:
This is a rather interesting read

A Historical Note on Xandering

In the summer of 2010, I wrote the article now titled Xandering the Dungeon.That wasn’t the original title of the article, nor the original term I coined to describe both the process of creating

thealexandrian.net

This blog invented the term. Now, he doesn't want us to use it anymore. Some of you might say "who is he to police my language!?!", and I would concede that what he wants may not be a sufficient reason to change the terminology.

however

The term is based on a real person (Jennell Jaquays), and she wanted the term to be changed. And I while I thought it was a cool honor, to reflect her significant contributions to the game, if she wants it changed and he wants it changed... we probably should. (His new term is xandering which... it will do I guess?)

(Lastly, Justin linked to the campaign to help her pay medical bills, which I think was a nice touch of him).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't like that he chose to name it after himself, but I get the overall thrust of the reasoning.

 

[overgeeked]

This is a rather interesting read

A Historical Note on Xandering

In the summer of 2010, I wrote the article now titled Xandering the Dungeon.That wasn’t the original title of the article, nor the original term I coined to describe both the process of creating

thealexandrian.net

This blog invented the term. Now, he doesn't want us to use it anymore. Some of you might say "who is he to police my language!?!", and I would concede that what he wants may not be a sufficient reason to change the terminology.

however

The term is based on a real person (Jennell Jaquays), and she wanted the term to be changed. And I while I thought it was a cool honor, to reflect her significant contributions to the game, if she wants it changed and he wants it changed... we probably should. (His new term is xandering which... it will do I guess?)

(Lastly, Justin linked to the campaign to help her pay medical bills, which I think was a nice touch of him).

Thanks for the heads-up. Hope him putting the GoFundMe on blast will help Jennell with her medical bills.

 

[Ancalagon]

I don't like that he chose to name it after himself, but I get the overall thrust of the reasoning.

It's not ideal, but as a second choice, well it's good as any. I once wrote an article on Wikipedia about a certain battle where canadian forces were involved and ... well I named the battle because it didn't have one! Someone has to come up with a name, and he has more of a "right" to it as the original author.

 

[LordEntrails]

I'm not a fan of retcons. Sure, change the term going forward. but trying to scrub the word from the internet is... well, it will only cause confusion for the next decade or so. Maybe forever. But then again, I am a firm believer in the organic growth and changes of language, so yea. I guess when I'm sitting in a retirement home I will try to think about looking up what became of this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not a fan of retcons. Sure, change the term going forward. but trying to scrub the word from the internet is... well, it will only cause confusion for the next decade or so. Maybe forever. But then again, I am a firm believer in the organic growth and changes of language, so yea. I guess when I'm sitting in a retirement home I will try to think about looking up what became of this.

A name change is not a retcon.

Unless Xander has access to a time machine, he cannot change what it has been historically. There is no "retroactive continuity" in place here.

Stuff gets renamed all the time. The largest ornithological organization in the United States is in the process of changing the name of all native birds named after people, because those people keep turning out to be terrible. This follows the US military finally going around and changing the names of bases that were named after people who went to war with the United States and killed US citizens. Everyone will be fine.

I personally wouldn't be bothered by having this approach to dungeon mapping named after me, but Jennell is well within her rights to say it makes her uncomfortable.

 

[Gradine]

I personally wouldn't be bothered by having this approach to dungeon mapping named after me, but Jennell is well within her rights to say it makes her uncomfortable.

Reading the article, it really seems that the main issue was the way the term would be used as a bludgeon towards her, people like her, and people who still support her. Often for exactly the reason you would expect.

If it were me I'd say that transphobes can die mad about it, but I can understand why one would want people to be able to talk about those contributions and ideas without getting derailed by hatred.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I personally wouldn't be bothered by having this approach to dungeon mapping named after me, but Jennell is well within her rights to say it makes her uncomfortable.

It says that she objected to the lack of an "S" - so I'd think that it would be better simply changed to "Jaquaysing" a dungeon. But I assume that she said something along the lines of "I don't like the missing S, but better yet, please take my name off of it". (Plus the legal advice will have made a difference, I assume).

 

[Transformer]

I don't like that he chose to name it after himself, but I get the overall thrust of the reasoning.

Yeah, what the heck? The actual OG designer who invented that style of dungeon design wants the name changed, so Justin Alexander decided to declare that it's now named after him? What the heck?

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, what the heck? The actual OG designer who invented that style of dungeon design wants the name changed, so Justin Alexander decided to declare that it's now named after him? What the heck?

I do not remember ever reading a more self indulgent blog post. Wow.