[tz] Kyiv not Kiev

Ian Abbott abbotti at mev.co.uk
Tue Jun 28 10:46:08 UTC 2022


On 27/06/2022 21:32, Petro Ord wrote:
> Theory and pragmatics of the tz code and data says to "Use mainstream
> English spelling", popular is not quite a synonym to mainstream.
> With that being said, Kyiv became mainstream in 1991.

You may have considered it mainstream in 1991, but the English language 
media took its time catching up.

I think the first mention on the mailing list that Europe/Kyiv might be 
preferable (but not a request for change) was this post:

https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2007-May/014365.html

Then we have to wait nearly another 7 years for a post from an actual 
Ukrainian (I presume their nationality from context) requesting a name 
change:

https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2014-April/020837.html

There has been a steady stream of requests on the list since then, but 
the position has always been that the most prevalent spelling in the 
English language should be used.  That has been reviewed by the TZ 
Coordinator (a.k.a. the maintainer, Paul Eggert) and others several 
times over the intervening years and was finally deemed to have flipped 
over in favour of the Kyiv spelling earlier this year.  It was always 
likely to happen sometime as the Kyiv spelling gradually gained in 
popularity.

> How can you evaluate significance of the existing zone names, if the
> requests and messages are neglected?
> Look at the answer I've got from Paul Eggart:
> "The list is being moderated to suppress spam by people who are
> repeatedly lobbying for the spelling change. I forgot that, and cc'ed
> to the list. I should have just replied to you privately."
> That is quite intolerable to all Ukrainians and Ukraine-related issues.

I'm sure it saves a lot of bandwidth discussing a barrage of requests 
for a change already that was already under consideration as part of an 
ongoing review process.  I'm sure most of those posters did not take the 
time to search through the archives of the mailing list for similar 
discussions.  The ones that did, and had something new to add would have 
been let through.

> And again, who is in charge to define the change to be important? If
> it is one person - what is the meaning of such discussions, if it is
> the community - then why is the "repeated' request ignored?

The answers to "who is in charge?" and general procedure questions is in 
RFC 6557 <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6557.html>.

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