On Saturday, 10 April 2021, 09:10:24 GMT+10, John C Klensin <john-ietf@xxxxxxx> wrote: [..] Two simple examples: if "we" decide that the solution for "he" and "she" is "them", then, if the author wrote "he or she" you would not want to end up with "them or them", which is what that sort of mechanism substitution would give you. In addition, someone needs to decide whether, if "them" is substituted for "he" as the subject of a sentence, it takes a plural or singular verb. I stopped caring about the choice long ago but it should be made in a way that is consistent, and consistently applied, across the RFC Series or at least within individual documents. [..] This exact problem is why the 'RFC Editor Considerations' section of the 'modest proposal' draft: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-wood-term-modest-proposal/?include_text=1 calls out 'themself'. L. is speaking, of course, for themself. Lloyd Wood lloyd.wood@xxxxxxxxxxx
