Eugine_Nier comments on Official Less Wrong Redesign: Call for Suggestions - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Louie 20 April 2011 05:56PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 20 April 2011 08:24:10PM *  2 points [-]

How about something for those of us who prefer anonymity..

Edit: I meant those of us who prefer anonymity but still want to post some personal information.

Comment author: Alicorn 20 April 2011 08:37:42PM 1 point [-]

Don't fill in the field?

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 20 April 2011 09:27:06PM 7 points [-]

*nods*

The field should be a text box, not a radio button or a dropdown list.

Ideally, I'd like it to be labeled 'pronouns' rather than 'gender', but that might be non-preferred for signaling reasons.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 20 April 2011 09:32:57PM *  2 points [-]

The field should be a text box, not a radio button or a dropdown list.

Ideally, I'd like it to be labeled 'pronouns' rather than 'gender', but that might be non-preferred for signaling reasons.

Agree strongly with the signaling concern. Also, it helps prevent smartalecks filling in something like "second person" or worse "first person plural".

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 20 April 2011 09:44:28PM 1 point [-]

'Gender' isn't much better at dealing with smart-alecks or outliers, actually. If I'm in an odd enough mood on the day that's implemented, I might fill in the box with 'yes'. Or 'no'. Or 'blue'. 'Female' doesn't always suit me, and unlike with pronouns there's no obvious non-male non-female answer to that one.

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 21 April 2011 09:25:29AM 0 points [-]

Are there important options beyond beyond male, female and an explicit n/a for the variable, not applicable, not your business etc cases?

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 21 April 2011 02:38:29PM 3 points [-]

I'd add "both", "fluid" or "variable", and "other" for a better shot at completeness, mostly because there are people whose non-binary gender is an important enough part of their identity that "n/a" seems likely to feel dismissive to them.

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 21 April 2011 03:32:21PM *  0 points [-]

Better go with the text field then if there's really demand for all those. The base three would pretty much solve the actually manifesting problem of people not knowing which pronoun to use of other people though.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 20 April 2011 09:36:14PM 1 point [-]

If the field isn't filled in, then posters are still stuck with a situation where what's wanted isn't obvious.

Tentative suggestion: a text field in profiles for preferred pronouns.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 21 April 2011 07:33:53AM 0 points [-]

It might be possible to automate this-- if you're commenting to someone, pronouns which don't match their preferences are marked as spelling errors or (if wanted) autocorrected.

I don't know whether this is worth the trouble to program, but it' would be kind of cool.

Comment author: Sniffnoy 21 April 2011 08:41:07AM 2 points [-]

That seems much too hard - pronouns are used in all sorts of contexts; how would it determine who (whether the author of the parent, the OP, or - more likely - nobody who wrote a comment here at all, in which case it has no reference) is being referred to?

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 21 April 2011 08:57:26AM 1 point [-]

You're right.