MSC4247: User Pronouns

proposals/4247-user-pronouns.md

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+# MSCXXXX: User Pronouns
+
+Many users of Matrix put pronouns in display names. However, that causes screen clutter. This proposal defines a standardized pronouns field on top of MSC4133.
+
+## Proposal
+
+Profiles may have optional `m.pronouns` and `m.pronouns.secondary` fields as a dictionary. These fields can be fetched through the [profile API endpoints](https://spec.matrix.org/unstable/client-server-api/#profiles). Clients should parse this and use these instead of they/them where possible.
+
+### Example
+
+```json
+{
+  "avatar_url": "…",
+  "displayname": "…",
+  "m.pronouns": {
+    "subject": "it",
+    "object": "it",
+    "possessive_determiner": "its",
+    "possessive_pronoun": "its",
+    "reflexive": "itself"
+  },
+  "m.pronouns.secondary": {
+    "subject": "she",
+    "object": "her",
+    "possessive_determiner": "her",
+    "possessive_pronoun": "hers",
+    "reflexive": "herself"
+  }
+}
+```
+
+## Potential issues
+
+Some users may not want to publish pronouns to others, although that is out of scope for this MSC. Some users may also complain about "woke", although pronouns are a basic part of langauge.
+
+## Security issues
+
+None.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+Clients and servers wishing to implement this early may use `io.fsky.nyx.pronouns` and `io.fsky.nyx.pronouns.secondary`.