Seriously, LJ?
Dec. 15th, 2009 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firefly124So, for reasons that I can only imagine are advertiser-driven, LJ is apparently going to make gender a mandatory field with only "male" and "female" as options. If the mess of code at that link makes your eyes cross, synecdochic has a breakdown of it here on DW.
WTF??
Here's the thing: some people don't identify as just one or the other or even either at all. And that aside? Plenty of people prefer not to identify their gender, period.
I spent quite a few of my first years on the 'net going by a very deliberately gender-neutral handle: Dax. And when asked (by those who recognized the Trekkie origin) whether I was a Jadzia or a Curzon, my answer was "neither." Why? Because in my very earliest time online, I managed to acquire a cyber-stalker, and thus for quite awhile I did not feel safe identifying as female.
Way to alienate your customers even more, LJ. It'd been awhile since the last round of stupid.
ETA: And it seems concerns have been heard and noted. They're saying it was a first draft of code and that particular change a) was never implemented and b) has since been rejected. So that's good. Text of the reply one user received is here. Thanks tosylvanawood for the link.
ETA2:jenett has put up a post that discusses why even this response is fairly problematic, including some background on how the changelog and code pushes work.
synecdochic has a breakdown of it here on DW.WTF??
Here's the thing: some people don't identify as just one or the other or even either at all. And that aside? Plenty of people prefer not to identify their gender, period.
I spent quite a few of my first years on the 'net going by a very deliberately gender-neutral handle: Dax. And when asked (by those who recognized the Trekkie origin) whether I was a Jadzia or a Curzon, my answer was "neither." Why? Because in my very earliest time online, I managed to acquire a cyber-stalker, and thus for quite awhile I did not feel safe identifying as female.
Way to alienate your customers even more, LJ. It'd been awhile since the last round of stupid.
ETA: And it seems concerns have been heard and noted. They're saying it was a first draft of code and that particular change a) was never implemented and b) has since been rejected. So that's good. Text of the reply one user received is here. Thanks to
sylvanawood for the link.ETA2:
jenett has put up a post that discusses why even this response is fairly problematic, including some background on how the changelog and code pushes work.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 08:27 pm (UTC)