Reveal Gender Under Avatars/Usernames
 

I assume, since this forum has been around since 2003(?) that i'm spinning my wheels but....Can we have a gender indication under everyones avatar?

...sometimes it's a must-know when leaving a comment for someone in a thread. I don't always respond to females the same way I respond to males. Or, i.e., sometimes i'll jokingly tease a male when it would be inappropriate to tease a female.

...i know you might say "it's a matter a privacy" but c'mon...everyone in real life knows if you're male or female (with some exceptions). Is it because one might fear being hit on? Well, that happens in real life all the time and you just deal with it. We do have a report button and moderators/admin everywhere

...and I know you might say to "just go to their profile" but that's an extra step when you're just wanting to leave a quick comment and you're never guaranteed that the answer will be there as it's optional information.

...if "No", then can we compromise and at least reveal the gender of willing participants under their avatars?

I second the idea. It doesn't seem like a real breach of privacy to me. Most people wouldn't mind revealing their gender if asked, so there's no reason not to just display it for simplicity. Would love to know anyone's argument if they had a serious objection to it.

Assuming people fill out the correct part of their profile, you can see a member's gender under the 'About Me' section.

It takes a couple of extra clicks, but I personally prefer it stashed away. Putting everyone's name/age/gender/postcount/astrological sign on every post just adds needless clutter.

...as mentioned in the OP, it's an extra step when you might be in a hurry and the info is not guaranteed to be there. If you're worried about "clutter" then i'd rather lose the "location" as that's not as necessary to know when leaving a comment as gender is.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but I am not for it either.

On reading the title, I was opposed to the idea, but after reading the discussion so far, I'm leaning towards being in favor. A person can always choose not to fill in an answer for Gender. Also (not sure if this is good or bad), there's a fill-in-the-blank option for Gender.

That's pretty much how I feel too. I don't really see a need for it, but if that's what everyone wants, it's fairly easy to do, although if someone doesn't put it in their profile, you're still guessing. I'd say only about half the profiles that I see have it in there.

I like the idea of leaving it alone. There are folks who enjoy the ambiguity of their user name and avatar. I'm willing to bet that these same folks don't want to have to actually declare "not interested in sharing" when it comes to gender self-identification (for whatever reasons there may be for such a choice). Eventually the gender of the poster becomes clear if you are around TFP long enough and follow the boards with any sort of regularity.

If your response is gender specific then put that little addendum in the front of your post saying so. It may even make a post more interesting if a person puts in a response for each of the two major gender identifications we use. That could generate some interesting dialogue, methinks.

Personally I would like to think my manly essence permeates my posts ;) But that doesn't mean I want to hang it out there for all to see. As someone already said, there is enough odds and ends about the user sitting there already.

I AM MALE!!

Wait what are we talking about? Ohh yeah right ... Kramus has it correct. There are those that don't want to have to declare their gender ... TFP is all about being comfortable and many things come into play whilst writing an entirely personal post, not to mention sexual orientation amongst other things.

Perhaps a thread without this info in the OP may want unbiased opinions in the matter irregardless of the situation. I would prefer it to be left out.

One of the reasons the postbit (area with the name and avatar) is so sparse is that one should be focused on the discussion and treat the opinion of the poster with the same respect regardless of gender, age, tenure on the board, total amount of posts...

personally not for it. and I get people mixing me up as a female all the time thinking that I'm Cyndi or something

I thought you were a girl for a really long time Cyn...

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I've never taken issue with this before. I know the genders of most of the people on this board, and if I don't, and it's needed knowledge for my response, I just ask.

Seems fairly pointless to me....

...you're a male???

...i should have known with that

MACHO putty-tat doing push-ups

for your avatar... :p

(why not Synthetiq?)

,

I agree. I don't feel that it is necessary for us to even have are location under our avatar. I would rather know what gender the person is. But I don't think it would really change are thoughts on whatever we are thinking to post, if so we should remember where we are, who gives a fuck, say what you want we are not easily offended, us women. It would be a helpful addition to know if you are talking to a man or women, just for conversational purposes.:hyper:

I don't know, knowing the location of people has come in handy way more than I've had to question anybody's gender....

I don't have genitalia.

Doesn't the TFP charter explicitly require you to gender identify, and with the correct gender, to boot? It's been a while since I read the rules, I could be wrong. I see having this indication as merely an extension of that.

edit: I guess not, maybe I imagined it, or it was in the rules of another board...I thought there was a 'your persona and actual gender must match' rule upon signup.

I like gender neutral usernames and avatars the most.

I thought youy were cynthia!!

The location has proven even more useless information than the gender thing, I agree. It helps for the folk who are into the TFP meetups and things like that but I personally have never thought twice about it unless I have a specific question for someone from a specific region or basically anyone who knows.

I'd be for making it an option. That way, people who have their genders mistaken and DON'T like it can explicitly include it.

And I agree that having location there is farcical. It provides far less useful information than gender.

Yes, yes, we all are well aware that you are completely lacking in any ability to excrete except through your mouth and key-boarding fingers. It explains most of your posts, anyway.

badumpbump.

and knowing is half the battle.

G.I. JOE!

Yeah, you mods are SOOOOO busy.

I'm indifferent....but then, my username makes it pretty evident.



I like the location, though. Lets me get one more Buffy reference in :)

I'm indifferent about it, mystery's always nice, but if people want to know, I don't mind it.

I like it the way it is........cause no one knows that actually I am a 14 yr old girl from Madagascar preparing to take over the world...

[QUOTE=Punk.of.Ages;2664405]I thought you were a girl for a really long time Cyn...

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Same here! And then I decided I didn't care since I didn't really know & THAT WAS HALF THE FUN!!! :rolleyes:

I KNEW IT!

I assume that members wishing to post in the Ladies Lounge are required to identify themselves as female?

it's what is a fair assumption that by posting there they are revealing themselves as female. it will be come apparent later if they switch sexes.

The avatar-side of TFP is a cluster of many things:

- Avatars and not
- Custom user titles
- Join date (nixed)
- Cute merit badges for some
- "Donor" for others
- Location is useful
- Blog entries # (crucial how?)

There's a system, I'm sure.

I'm also pretty sure a gender wangle would be superfluous.

(looks down pants)
yup - Male. And no, I didn't name it.
What was that from how to lose a guy in 10 days? - Krull the Barbarian? or something to that effect.

I figure the only reason for revealing "sex" in the profile was for when the board had a women only section. (been awhile, and too lazy to stop posting to check if it's still there).

you're either male, female, or you have tentacles...

it would be nice, but people usually give it away one way or another either when they sign up or within a few weeks of posting.

as far having it displayed..im not really in favour of it. i do recall back in the 1940's the jews had to display their jewishness. ive never been a fond forceful identification ever since

Nearly 7 months before this thread got Goodwin'ed...that has to be approaching a new record.

"I don't care" requires far less key presses.

I think it's a good idea. Every time somebody tries to be anonymous in the most ridiculous fashion (not wanting people to know whether you're male or female? Come on...) on a discussion forum, my eyes roll so hard into the back of my head, I know how many crevices my brain has.

a lot of crevices i believe..have you counted each one?

There is a difference between anonymous and having preconceived notions about the author/reader based on what you read within the post bit. If it wasn't confusing to the community at large, it would make sense to even remove the staff titles because people respond to posts with a different answer based on their belief of certain attributes to the OP like gender, age, tenure on the board etc.

One of the tenets of the TFP is to try to limit that preconception so that discussion can be facilitated in a manner that allows everyone a fair shake at being heard and point of view digested.

Then why bother with any information at all? Unless they are new, people already reply with preconceived notions based on screen name alone.

Might as well make everyone Anonymous to everyone but the admins. It would actually facilitate what you're trying to do in a realistic way. As it has been mentioned before, if a person wanted to reply with a gender in mind, he or she can just look at the user profile and check the gender half the time.

That's true, but again, it's to LIMIT or MINIMIZE it not remove it completely. There still has to be something to help weave a sense of identity and a community.

One can go check, but that takes additional steps and time. Again, the point is to minimize it not remove the ability all together.

I always thought that my avatar and name were pretty obvious. But thinking about it... a Dragonlich is undead. I'm pretty sure their naughty bits fall off eventually. :(
For the record, in real life I'm not undead (yet). And my naughty bits (male) are still attached. (Checks and double-checks just to be sure. Yep.)

...and I'm neither for nor against showing gender information.

You guys place much emphases on mature discussion and adult membership. I don't see a reason why you can't leave it up to the individual to decide whether he or she wants to display his or her gender information.

Make it an option. Those who want to do it will and those who don't won't.