About using the Display Name field:
1. The end result is the same: the profile's visible name contains narrow-scoped information, which defeats Geni's universal mission. For example, the name of:
Marguerite Abraham, Fille du Roy
looks the same, whether « Fille du Roy » is inserted in the suffix or the display field.
2. Geni does offer options to change one's preferences on how names are displayed. At first, it would seem that this is the solution: one could just set preferences so that names are shown as wanted. However, I tried every permutations of the name display preference options. At the end, this proved ineffective. I was getting some weird results. I had to revert back to display everything. This is because the name fields are not used the same consistently among all profiles. This was a deadend.
3. I would like to think that the Display Name field ought to be limited to information of near universal meaningfulness. For example:
Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta
Saint Francis Xavier, SJ
is commonly known as
Saint Francis Xavier, S.J. (English)
and we can use the Display Name field to show in other languages, like:
Saint François Xavier, SJ (French)
San Francisco Javier, S.J. (Spanish)
San Frantzisko Xabierkoa (Basque) ... etc.
4. Remember that (nearly) everyone sees the Display Name field. If we use the Display Name field for information only meaningful to a smaller subgroup of users (e.g. users interested in a region, a group, an evenement, a project etc.) then where is the limit? How big should the subgroup be so that it is OK to push the custom information on everyone else? When is the subgroup too small so that it is not OK anymore? For example:
Is "Saint Francis Xavier" really acceptable? (the "Saint" is meaningful to catholic users)
Is "Hillary Rodham Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, Presidential Candidate" acceptable? (Who is interested to "former" positions in the profile name by the way? How many "former" positions is acceptable? Why not "former First Lady"? "Presidential Candidate" is not a title meaningful to genealogy, why is it there?)
We used to have "Marguerite Abraham, Fille du Roy". It was meaningful to French Canadians, but we decided to remove the tag and not impose it on the rest of the community.
Would "Joseph Morel, Pionnier du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean" be acceptable? It would be meaningful to the million inhabitants of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.
https://www.geni.com/projects/Pionniers-du-Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean/...
Would "Hilda Ollikainen, victim of The Italian Hall Disaster" be acceptable? It would be meaningful to the family of those victims.
https://www.geni.com/projects/La-trag%25C3%25A9die-du-Italian-Hall-...
Would "Louis Hébert, first Pharmacist in Canada" be acceptable? It would be meaningful to those interested in the healtcare profession.
https://www.geni.com/projects/Famous-First/24998
Would "Johnny Morel, Pionnier de Saint-Henri-de-Taillon" be acceptable? It would be meaningful to the hundreds of residents of Saint-Henri-de-Taillon.
https://www.geni.com/projects/Saint-Henri-de-Taillon-Qu%C3%A9bec-Ca...
Would "Guillaume Morel, Ancestor-Immigrant of Mario Morel" be acceptable? It would be meaningful to me:
https://www.geni.com/projects/Mes-Pionniers-%25C3%2589dition-Mario-...
Where is the line?
After all, why use name fields for posting contextually-limited data? Why? Geni offers pictures, documents, events, "About", projects, and curator notes to post unlimited information about a profile. Why not use these resources? Why insist in stuffing "stuff" in name fields?
I'm just asking...