User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Help!/@comment-5532276-20140228232457/@comment-188432-20170422150704

User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Help!/@comment-5532276-20140228232457/@comment-188432-20170422150704 Closing this thread. This conversation died in 2014 until a spam bot posted here a day ago. I'll leave it to SOTO to re-edit this post if necessary, but the essential summation of the discussion is that we should use whatever pronouns are present in the particular narrative at hand. If no clear pronoun is provided in the narrative(s), or there are conflicting pronouns in the source(s) you're using, they/them pronouns are the default option. I absolutely protest the idea that we should try to skirt around the issue by simply not using pronouns, and referring to characters by name alone.

In summary: if the story gives you a specific pronoun to use, use that pronoun; otherwise, singular "they" is greatly preferred over all other options. If the story says he, or zhe, or she, or anything else, use that pronoun, but do not shy away from the gender-neutral option when that's the way to go instead. More complicated cases like Alpha Centauri can be dealt with on their talk pages.