Profiles - Gender

ren wrote: Ah personal attacks.

ren wrote: You used to be a decent guy, what happened?

???

ren wrote: No-one's forced to do anything. The option not to answer remains an option.

Gender is a metric that identifies significantly less people than Sex.

What if people want the option of putting something other than male/female? Doesn't this put us at the beginning of the thread? A text box seems the most straightforward if Gender is to remain an option. Indeed even if the option is sex (which was changed without Council notification) there are still non-binaries which would similarly be straightforwardly accommodated with a text box.

Another approach suggested would be to remove the option entirely, there is space for it in the "About Me" section of the profile. This option would also remove any issues with promoting one category over the other.

Edan suggested an additional option, martalina suggested "gender" was the wrong word. After a quick review of what would be needed I agreed with both, even though at first I didn't see much sense to edan's request.

A text box seems the most straightforward if Gender is to remain an option.

As I explained in the thread adding new options to the list is easy, but not replacing the field with a text box without screwing up years of profiles, which are known to be quirky. As there's a plethora of genders and only 3 possible answers for sex, it made perfect sense.

Some people want gender, some people don't. I never envisioned changing "gender:male/female" which only covers a small portion of human population to "sex: male/female/neither", which covers 100% of the human population for such a tiny nothing on a %&*&$$ profile page could trigger such bullying at totjo, which I now think has got to be the most bigoted place I have ever frequented.



As such I agree with your assessment that it should be removed. People here have shown they are absolutely incapable of having sex, gender or for others to have a different one. There is already an "about" box where people can put anything they want (I do), and that's what should be used until the people who find themselves obsessed with this rubbish can learn to control themselves. As clergy people were involved I would also like to note standards seem lower than ever in that area.

Once again. You don't get to personally make that decision for other people. And that fact that you haphazardly did so knowing how important of a subject this can be for some people is beyond concerning. I find it hard to believe that you didn't imagine taking away a form of self identification you have openly stated doesn't exist in place of a biological identification you know some don't agree is accurate would be received any other way than poorly.

If you're so concerned with "screwing up profiles" add it as a new text box. "Training master" and "apprentice" didn't exist as options when I joined three years ago; I believe they were added last summer. Adding a new profile option can obviously be done so don't tell me it can't be. Don't want to screw up live profiles? Do it locally to verify it works before uploading the changes live.

As it is, the call has been made for gender and for text box vs drop down by I believe three council members now. But don't push your personal agenda on people because you have the ability to do so.

Avalonslight wrote: Once again. You don't get to personally make that decision for other people.

Neither do you, bully.

Akkarin wrote:

ren wrote: No-one's forced to do anything. The option not to answer remains an option.

Gender is a metric that identifies significantly less people than Sex.

What if people want the option of putting something other than male/female? Doesn't this put us at the beginning of the thread? A text box seems the most straightforward if Gender is to remain an option. Indeed even if the option is sex (which was changed without Council notification) there are still non-binaries which would similarly be straightforwardly accommodated with a text box.

Another approach suggested would be to remove the option entirely, there is space for it in the "About Me" section of the profile. This option would also remove any issues with promoting one category over the other.

Akkarin, the other option which has been suggested (in the other thread I think) was the addition of the opposing category so that both are available and the user can utilize which they want. Given that profiles are quick snippets of information meant to be accessed easily so that people have a basic understanding of one another in communication, I would still say that if changing the form type of the current option is of too much difficulty, adding a second option entirely would be best because we have historical proof it can be done. The people who would be affected by this most would know what to do with the two options and the general population would still be able to easily access the profile and quickly gather something as basic as "I need to address this person as 'she'" which can mean the world to people who are most impacted by gender identity not matching biological sex.