Talk:Julian LeFay

Proposal to change photo

Hi, I am Samantha Glocker, Julian's close friend and current employer (together with OnceLost Games). Julian has been our CTO since 2021 (https://licorice.io/articles/julian-lefay-jensen-appointed-as-licorice-cto/), and we became best friends.

As you likely know, Julian is not in the best of health. When the current page photo was taken, he had several serious health challenges, and it shows.

I, and I think others, would prefer to remember this amazing man at his healthiest.

I know there aren't many photos of Julian. I have a bunch from our team meetings when he was well, I can ask his daughters if we can use them.

I'm not a page editor, and can also see arguments to keep the current photo, so I haven't suggested an edit. It's just that – knowing him – this is not the Julian I will remember.

Best, SammiLucia (Samantha Glocker) SammiLucia (talk) 20:03, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

If someone owns an image they would be willing to license for Creative Commons, they can use the Wikipedia:File_upload_wizard to upload it. After it's uploaded with the appropriate licensing, we can replace the current image. It should be a good quality image that shows his face like the current one; it's OK if the photo is older from when he was in better health. My sympathies to Mr Lefay and his friends and family. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 20:12, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

thank you ❤️

thanks both. the ones i have are webcam (same as his interviews) so not really suitable. i'll discuss with his family. 68.206.151.29 (talk) 21:07, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

It seems you forgot to log back in before posting that message. No big deal, just something to keep in mind. I started working on this article a bit, and I invited some other editors to take a look as well - we'll see if we can expand this a bit. If you'd like to make the article even more "complete", there's also a spot for his signature and a voice recording which we could add to an infobox on the article like you see at Jimmy Wales for example. Those are all just little bonuses, depending on how far you'd like to go with it. If you know of any particularly good sources we could use for expanding the article, such as old newspaper articles which profile Mr. Lefay, that would also be helpful. All the best, MediaKyle (talk) 21:14, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

yes, sorry about that, i couldn't see a way to fix it. Wikipedia does not like my security layers _at all_ lol.

there's a lot i could add. Julian is very proud of his work at https://www.remine.com/ and https://licorice.io https://licorice.ai (disclaimer, i am CEO of Licorice). he's spent the last ~10 years building business software and is an absolute JavaScript/Node.js/Redis master. the servers he's built for Licorice are insanely fast and lightweight, and serve millions of requests a second without even spiking. also his work on Janea and. he is very proud of the quality of his work.

i consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked with him. i should probably tell the story of how we met... there were two software development companies who attempted to build our software before i met Julian, and both missed the mark. my husband was watching the interview with Julian about Daggerfall (this one i believe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLGi5RK8V8), and my husband said "you need Julian to build the software."

so, me being me, i found Julian's LinkedIn and messaged him, and we basically never stopped talking. he and i became friends... he was working for New York Police Department at the time on their on-body cam systems. he asked what i did, and was really interested... he asked how he could help, and after several months we started working together. he rewrote all of Licorice's server code, which is significant. (the reason my husband said "we need to hire Julian" specifically, is because the complexity and interconnectedness is on a similar level to Daggerfall.)

Julian is also intensely interested in physics (as am i), and music of course (same), so over time we became besties, and spent a lot of time arguing about both topics. i was the one who forced him to go to the doctor initially... he's been a big influence in my life, and to the ex-Bethesda people i've spoken to... well, let's just say we're all with him now ❤️.

i will ask his daughters about his signature and voice recordings at an appropriate time. those (and the photos) might take a little while because of everything that's going on at the moment. though Julian and i are close, i wouldn't want to assume his or his family's wishes. SammiLucia (talk) 23:21, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

this is the updated photo from his daughter, released under creative commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Julianlefay.jpg

Julian Le Fay on a flight to Denmark

i'm not quite sure how to update the wiki page, if anyone is able to help please? i don't want to break anything SammiLucia (talk) 01:51, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

I appreciate you uploading the photo, but unfortunately I don't believe the release you submitted will be sufficient. As copyright implicitly belongs to the photographer, the copyright to that photo would belong to Shae Jensen, meaning she will have to submit a Volunteer Response Team ticket confirming that she released the copyright in order for us to use it. See this page on the Commons. Let me know if you have any questions. MediaKyle (talk) 02:00, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

hi Kyle,

ty, already in process, though i have no idea when she will get to it... SammiLucia (talk) 03:02, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

i've added a small section on Julian's contributions to SaaS/business (i don't consider myself a wikipedia editor - please let me know if i've done things wrong). there's a lot more i'd say but i don't have sources for at this point, so i've tried to just stick to information that's fairly easy to find. SammiLucia (talk) 22:03, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

@SammiLucia: Please see WP:PICYOU. Regards, MediaKyle (talk) 20:20, 17 July 2025 (UTC)

Ted Peterson speaking. I have some pics of Julian as well. (I'm actually in the one being used, just cropped out) 75.110.127.168 (talk) 13:30, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi there - as detailed above, copyright on images implicitly belongs to the photographer, so if you have any pictures that you took you would be able to release those for use on the article. The image uploaded by SammiLucia may have to be deleted if a ticket isn't submitted, due to unclear copyright... Folks over at the Commons take that stuff pretty seriously. If you do have images that you took and you'd like to release them, the page to do so is located here. All the best, MediaKyle (talk) 18:43, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

hi Ted. i hope you're doing okay ❤️

looks like the current pic bugs all of us! 😂 Julian is really happy

i'm wondering if i can post the image of Julian to one of our sites and just link it, since i already personally have his daughters' release. maybe this would be easier than uploading to Wikipedia directly.

idk when Julian's daughter will email the release, and as traffic to this page increases i'm really keen to not see that old photo anymore — as is Julian. SammiLucia (talk) 20:40, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

edit: *Julian is really happy with the new pic above SammiLucia (talk) 20:40, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Hi @SammiLucia: I decided to just go ahead and swap the image for now... But there's a chance that if someone comes across the file on the commons and isn't satisfied with the copyright status, they may nominate it for deletion, and in that case we'd just have to switch back until she submits the ticket. I understand of course this wouldn't be too high on her to-do list right now... Alternatively, if Mr. Peterson has any photos that he took, he could publish them on the OnceLost Games website with a copyright release as described under "Your own website" at WP:PICYOU, and we could use that photo instead. All the best, MediaKyle (talk) 21:12, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

thanks so much @MediaKyle, I was just doing the same then saw your edit 😂. i don't think it will be a problem, but as you say, we can deal with it if it is. i will post it on our company site with a release shortly also, so that might make licensing easier if his daughter isn't able to get to it.

i also updated the source image description that it's a TRAIN not a plane.

ty so much for helping a noob with this one ❤️ SammiLucia (talk) 21:22, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Name spelling

In the video talking about his terminal illness from OnceLost Games, Julian's last name is spelled LeFay with a capital F. Yet the archived Bethesda page from 1997 uses "Lefay". Should the page name be changed? I'm leaning towards the more recent source being correct, given that both are as official as can be. Schiffy (Speak to me|What I've done) 00:18, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

I've been looking into this myself, even recent sources can't decide. It varies between Lefay, LeFay, and Le Fay (as it is on Danish Wikipedia). Complicating matters more, apparently he refers to himself as Julian Jenson now. Perhaps SammiLucia can shed some light on this when they return. -- MediaKyle (talk) 00:37, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

"le Fay" comes from Arthurian legend (Morgan le Fay - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_le_Fay). his real name is Julian Jensen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-jensen-36b5808/). i don't know why he chose this pseudonym 😊 SammiLucia (talk) 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

actually, for completeness, his has a few more pseudonyms, but i think he would prefer to be remembered as Julian Le Fay (note the cap), or Julian Jensen. Ted might have more to say on it, i can ask him. SammiLucia (talk) 00:49, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

That's actually quite fascinating, I've dug pretty deep looking for sources and I've never seen any mention of Le Fay being a pseudonym - this is information which should be in the article, but do you know of anywhere this has been published? While of course I take your word for it, everything we add to the article needs to have a citation to a reliable source. A Linkedin profile isn't really appropriate for this purpose. I've found a few articles about him written in Danish, but unfortunately I'm unable to read them, and I haven't yet found a biographical piece written in English. MediaKyle (talk) 01:03, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

no i don't know any citations unfortunately. i know Jensen is factual because of employee records, however of course i'm unable to share those.

for the Danish articles, is it appropriate to link via Google or DeepL translate? SammiLucia (talk) 01:13, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

I don't know how I didn't think of trying to run them through translate, I guess I assumed the text wouldn't be machine readable - turns out it was (the article I added is in German, not Danish... embarrassing mistake) based on what I'm seeing, I'd say the appropriate title for the article would be Julian LeFay, as this is the most common spelling and also how its spelled in the credits for the games he worked on... we can include "Also spelled as Le Fay" in a footnote. If we find a source for his real name other than the Linkedin profile, then that can be included. I wasn't sure how I felt about the Indigo Games interview as a source at first but I think I'm going to make the call that it's acceptable as a primary source, and sit down to listen to it. Cheers, MediaKyle (talk) 01:49, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

it's definitely LeFay or Le Fay. (not lowercase 'fay')

if it helps, he's also listed as Julian Jensen here on UESP: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/General:Julian_LeFay SammiLucia (talk) 01:53, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

I can confirm that his birth name was not Julian LeFay Lefay Le Fay or any of that. I actually have him in contacts on my phone as Julian Jensen for some reason. I'll text him now and see if he took the name in his Russia Heat era, but I've been calling him Julian since 1993 75.110.127.168 (talk) 13:37, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Confirming his birth name is Jensen, which is why his CallerID reports that SammiLucia (talk) 21:23, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Followup

@SammiLucia: I'm sorry, but I had to undo the "Contributions to business" section you added, as it was effectively unsourced, and came across as a bit promotional. In general, Wikipedia discourages direct editing of articles on which you have a connection for this reason - it can be difficult to maintain neutrality. We also don't add external links to the body text - I've been trying to find a source to talk about his more recent work, such as at your company, but haven't came up with much yet to be able to cite that information. Do you know if he talks about it at all in the Indigo Games interview? I've been listening through it, but it's quite long and I might have missed something. MediaKyle (talk) 22:19, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

i don't believe he talks about it in interviews – it's not something people ever ask him about – so unfortunately that information will be erased to history, though it's a big part of his life's work (he hasn't just been dormant since 2013).

anyway, my main goal was to change the photo. i was asked to fill out the business section, which I did, using only links I can confirm directly, and nothing I can't confirm (many of the startups he was a part of did not succeed). i have nothing further to add.

thank you for your help with the photo. SammiLucia (talk) 02:18, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

thank you also for taking the time to look into this so much @MediaKyle. SammiLucia (talk) 02:33, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

Sorru, Ted again. I’ve nevet called him this but his birth name wasn’t Julian Jensen. It was Benni Jensen. 75.110.127.168 (talk) 03:05, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

true, but i left this info out as it's Julian's own private business... SammiLucia (talk) 04:11, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

Btw why was the Blockbuster reference removed? He definitely worked there for years (sorry, Ted again) ActualTed (talk) 03:22, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

It's still there, see the second to last paragraph - I've been trying to find a way to present all the information in a way that flows nicely, so this is still a work in progress. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find specific years for much of his other work to really present a cohesive timeline. If you folks do want to help, the main thing we need here is sources: on Wikipedia, if information can't be attributed to a source, it might as well not exist... verifiability trumps accuracy here. MediaKyle (talk) 11:44, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

i did search YT transcripts for any mention of his SaaS work (you can search bulk YT transcripts here: filmot.com). there is some mention of his time at Blockbuster here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLGi5RK8V8

For Julian's role at Licorice, he was responsible for building our servers and infrastructure (https://licorice.io/articles/julian-lefay-jensen-appointed-as-licorice-cto/) ... this is a coding role and different from an infrastructure engineer (which is how the sounds on the page now).

my mention of my company was not to profit from my friends hospice care, it's simply that it's some of the only citable body of work that's still on the Internet today, and I know he's tremendously proud of his contribution to SaaS. unfortunately we can't publish much on it until the patent is finalized. what he's built is truly remarkable, his code is like poetry.

we could also search web.archive.org, some of the remnant startup sites might .

the YT video above also briefly mentions Julian's work as a translator of ancient Greek. he worked translating ancient biblical texts. I believe he also knows Latin but can't verify this right now (if so, he is a polyglot). SammiLucia (talk) 15:15, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying - I revisited the sources and adjusted the part about Licorice to better reflect the work he did, and expanded on his work at Blockbuster and the Ancient Greek parser.

I would never suggest you're seeking to profit off the article, and I deeply apologize if that's how my prior message came across - what I really meant was when I said that your edit came across as "a bit promotional" was if you were an disinterested editor who didn't see this whole conversation, and didn't know who Mr. LeFay is or what The Elder Scrolls is, seeing all those external links in the body text of an article is usually done with the intent of directing traffic to those websites so that would be the natural assumption. We want to avoid subjective phrasing such as "he is a master of this", unless a secondary source uses that kind of language themselves. I suppose I could have explained this better.

I do really appreciate all your help and engagement on this... I'll do my best to make the article as complete as I can. Let me know if you have any more questions or concerns along the way. Cheers, MediaKyle (talk) 16:04, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

I understand now, I thought it was normal to inline the links, and possibly should have put them in the References section? that certainly wasn't my intent. thanks also for sticking with this, Julian said he is thrilled with the new photo! SammiLucia (talk) 19:49, 19 July 2025 (UTC)

Danish IPA

@Sigehelmus: I noticed you tagged this article with "Needs Danish IPA" - his birth name has never been spoken aloud on any of his interviews, because he's always gone by Julian LeFay, so I don't really know how I would be able to confirm a pronunciation to add this. Can you please clarify? MediaKyle (talk) 16:09, 28 July 2025 (UTC)