

IMO Should Stop Deadnaming Participants on Their Website


IMO Should Stop Deadnaming Participants on Their Website
The Issue
IMO Board has a secret policy to refer to former participants by the name they used at the time of their contest, rather than their current name. This policy is not part of IMO Regulations, and it is not mentioned anywhere on imo-official.org. People only learn about when they request their name to be updated on the website. Here are some relevant quotes from my email correspondence with Kirsten Rosenkilde, Secretary General of the IMO Board:
In addition to the usual reasons why deadnaming is bad (I'm not going to repeat them because I'm not going change anyone's mind about this topic), this also makes it harder for people who've changed their names to put their IMO achievements on their college application or resume. The person reading their application would search for their name on imo-official, find no results because information on imo-official is intentionally kept out of date, and assume that the applicant is lying about their achievements.
EDIT: I have been told that IMO Board's policy violates Article 16 of GDPR (Right to Rectification). However I have not talked to a lawyer about this yet, so I don't know if it's actually true.
Here's what you can do:
- Sign this petition.
- Fill out this form because I'm curious about what kind of people are signing my petition. You can also sign up for a mailing list there.
- If it has been at least 2 years since your last IMO participation, you can protest this policy by invoking paragraph 5.10 of IMO regulations and removing your name from imo-official. Once done, your page will look like this. This process is reversible, so you can put your name back if IMO changes their policy or if you change your mind.
- If you know any IMO sponsors/donors, talk to them. Money speaks louder than internet petitions.
- Participate in IMO in two different years under two different names. This probably won't achieve anything, but I'm a hacker and I like throwing weird edge cases at systems just to see what happens :D. In this case IMO Board's policy likely conflicts with imo-official's database schema (afaict the name is the property of a participant, not a participation). Contact me if you want to try this and need help with legal name change (including financial help).
- Contact me if you want to take over this petition from me (or start a new one). I'm not an activist, I suck at it, and I don't enjoy it. I'm only going to Bath and handing out flyers because I want to put my fucking name on the fucking website, and I couldn't find anyone else who would do it for me.
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The Issue
IMO Board has a secret policy to refer to former participants by the name they used at the time of their contest, rather than their current name. This policy is not part of IMO Regulations, and it is not mentioned anywhere on imo-official.org. People only learn about when they request their name to be updated on the website. Here are some relevant quotes from my email correspondence with Kirsten Rosenkilde, Secretary General of the IMO Board:
In addition to the usual reasons why deadnaming is bad (I'm not going to repeat them because I'm not going change anyone's mind about this topic), this also makes it harder for people who've changed their names to put their IMO achievements on their college application or resume. The person reading their application would search for their name on imo-official, find no results because information on imo-official is intentionally kept out of date, and assume that the applicant is lying about their achievements.
EDIT: I have been told that IMO Board's policy violates Article 16 of GDPR (Right to Rectification). However I have not talked to a lawyer about this yet, so I don't know if it's actually true.
Here's what you can do:
- Sign this petition.
- Fill out this form because I'm curious about what kind of people are signing my petition. You can also sign up for a mailing list there.
- If it has been at least 2 years since your last IMO participation, you can protest this policy by invoking paragraph 5.10 of IMO regulations and removing your name from imo-official. Once done, your page will look like this. This process is reversible, so you can put your name back if IMO changes their policy or if you change your mind.
- If you know any IMO sponsors/donors, talk to them. Money speaks louder than internet petitions.
- Participate in IMO in two different years under two different names. This probably won't achieve anything, but I'm a hacker and I like throwing weird edge cases at systems just to see what happens :D. In this case IMO Board's policy likely conflicts with imo-official's database schema (afaict the name is the property of a participant, not a participation). Contact me if you want to try this and need help with legal name change (including financial help).
- Contact me if you want to take over this petition from me (or start a new one). I'm not an activist, I suck at it, and I don't enjoy it. I'm only going to Bath and handing out flyers because I want to put my fucking name on the fucking website, and I couldn't find anyone else who would do it for me.
112
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on July 12, 2024