Gender option on LJ
So I was going to go to bed but then LJ decided to be a douche (again).
LJ is considering making gender a mandatory field when signing up. Not only that, but they would be removing the "unspecified" option, too. The log about this is here, but you can read more about this here.
I won't go into why this is offensive, discriminatory, enraging, appalling, I think you all know why. So please - send a signal to LJ that this is not acceptable. Send them feedback, comment on that log post (do both, it doesn't hurt), and change your gender to "unspecified" in your profile.
Your feedback doesn't have to be long. tempore's "I find being forced to choose a gender to be offensive and discriminatory. Please reconsider an open option." is short and to the point. But please GIVE LJ FEEDBACK. They need to know that people do not agree with this change, and the only way they will know that is if we let them know.
Thanks achtung_meggie for bringing this to my attention.
EDIT: As many of you know, LJ has clearly backed down from this decision, and sent this to everyone who contacted them with their concerns:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.
At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.
The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.
Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.
Regards,
LiveJournal Community Care Team
That this suggestion got this far without anyone from LJ itself going, "um, WTF, NO" is the part that still pisses me off, but I'm glad they're not going there. And I'm glad we raised our concerns, because maybe they'll be a little more careful in the future, and maybe, just MAYBE they could think about doing some diversity training with their programmers.
LJ is considering making gender a mandatory field when signing up. Not only that, but they would be removing the "unspecified" option, too. The log about this is here, but you can read more about this here.
I won't go into why this is offensive, discriminatory, enraging, appalling, I think you all know why. So please - send a signal to LJ that this is not acceptable. Send them feedback, comment on that log post (do both, it doesn't hurt), and change your gender to "unspecified" in your profile.
Your feedback doesn't have to be long. tempore's "I find being forced to choose a gender to be offensive and discriminatory. Please reconsider an open option." is short and to the point. But please GIVE LJ FEEDBACK. They need to know that people do not agree with this change, and the only way they will know that is if we let them know.
Thanks achtung_meggie for bringing this to my attention.
EDIT: As many of you know, LJ has clearly backed down from this decision, and sent this to everyone who contacted them with their concerns:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. We understand that gender is not binary, and intend to respect that understanding for our users.
At this time, the code you reference is not live on the site, and will not become so in the future. We know that you, and many other users, have serious concerns about any requirement to specify gender, so we'd like to take a moment to explain events and our position further.
The intention of this code was to change the sign-up process to include a field for the selection of gender; that the code would completely disable the "Unspecified" option at the same time was deemed unacceptable. While the code in question had gone to our beta (testing) server, it had not gone to our production server, and will not do so due to this problem. Furthermore, we'd like to clarify that code posted to the changelog community is not always final, as such code must then go through the beta testing process and can often be changed before actual implementation.
Additionally, some erroneous information has been spread regarding the potential public display of the gender field. We would like to clarify that gender is not currently publicly displayed on the profile, nor anywhere else on the site, and there are no plans to change this behavior.
Regards,
LiveJournal Community Care Team
That this suggestion got this far without anyone from LJ itself going, "um, WTF, NO" is the part that still pisses me off, but I'm glad they're not going there. And I'm glad we raised our concerns, because maybe they'll be a little more careful in the future, and maybe, just MAYBE they could think about doing some diversity training with their programmers.