Affirming gender through notification titles

[Quantumcat]

It can get kind of annoying when people call you the wrong thing. A lot of the GBATemp population have feminine avatars when they are male (probably some with masculine avatars that are female) and non-gender-specific names (or sometimes their name sounds like the opposite gender to what they are in their profile) so these mixups happen often. It results in people having to awkwardly use sentence structures that leave out the gender, or making a (sometimes incorrect) assumption.

So, this is a suggestion to subtly remind people what gender other users have labelled themselves in their profile, so such awkwardness can be reduced somewhat. Akin to having the social cues of voice and looks - nothing in your face but it just works at the back of their mind.

1. Change "[person's name] mentioned you in a post in [thread name]" to "[person's name] mentioned you in her or his post in [thread name]"
2. (In the case that the OP replies to their own thread) Change "[person's name] replied to the thread [thread name]" to "[person's name] replied to her or his thread [thread name]"

And when the person's gender is not specified in their profile, then leave it as it is now.

I can't think of any other sorts of notification titles where you could sneak a her or his in, but just these two circumstances would help.

 

[Sicklyboy]

My viewpoint, as it has been for a while: everyone on the internet is a dude, unless they're not.

That may not be "politically correct", but I'd argue that the gender of a user has little bearing on the content of their post and how your replies should be structured; the vast majority of the content on this website and the discussions that surround it generally has no relation to a particular user's gender whatsoever.

 

[Seriel]

I just call people by whatever their profile is set as, if it has it set to unknown then neutral pronouns, otherwise whatever matches.
It would be nice if notifications did this too, but I wouldn't exactly call it an important feature that needs to exist, just a novelty that would be nice to have but in the end doesn't really achieve much.
tldr I dont really care either way

 

[Deleted User]

If this feature were added, the forums would have to call upon a database entry for each relevant member anytime a notification is created which could be hundreds a minute. Is it really worth the server resources to make sure the forums get everyone's "proper" pronouns right?

To answer your question

No

 

[daxtsu]

Alternatively, change the notifications from "his/her" to "their", since that's an acceptable gender-neutral pronoun in English, and no database lookup is required.

I think this is mostly a non-issue as it is. If you have doubts, just call them "they"/"them" or "their" for the possessive.

 

[Deleted User]

This thread turned from a rant to a shitstorm.
Uhm, to @OP, you can preview profile, ya know. I'm not changing my waifu because somebody moaned about naming somebody "she" because his profile pic had anime grill on it.

 

[Quantumcat]

just think it looks more human, and would be such a discrete and subconscious hint of other's genders... Like subtle visual cues in real life.

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

[megabug7]

Being mis-gendered is pretty normal on social websites - I don't care if I'm mis-gendered

 

[evandixon]

Saying someone replied to "their" thread is grammatically incorrect. Avoiding that and gender is more challenging though.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Saying someone replied to "their" thread is grammatically incorrect. Avoiding that and gender is more challenging though.

Is it?
Isn't they the "genderless" for both singular and plural in English?

 

[Quantumcat]

Is it?
Isn't they the "genderless" for both singular and plural in English?

It is but that's awkward. Anytime using "their" for a single person is just making it glaringly obvious that you don't know anything about this person, and just sounds uncomfortable.

There is absolutely no reason to insert "their" or "they". That adds nothing, and if you don't want to add gender to notifications then it may as well be left as it is.

 

[Boogieboo6]

It is but that's awkward. Anytime using "their" for a single person is just making it glaringly obvious that you don't know anything about this person, and just sounds uncomfortable.

There is absolutely no reason to insert "their" or "they". That adds nothing, and if you don't want to add gender to notifications then it may as well be left as it is.

Adding he and she but not their could make somebody who uses they/them pronouns feel inferior. Not that I use those pronouns or anything, but I'm just echoing what I've read from time to time.

 

[Quantumcat]

Adding he and she but not their could make somebody who uses they/them pronouns feel inferior. Not that I use those pronouns or anything, but I'm just echoing what I've read from time to time.

But, they won't have they/their pronouns: the notifications would stay the same as they are (with no pronouns) in the case the person doesn't have a gender specified in their profile.

And in any case, they will never see it. Only other people will see notifications with their name in it.

 

[evandixon]

Is it?
Isn't they the "genderless" for both singular and plural in English?

It's only for plural, although people incorrectly use it for singular too.

 

[sarkwalvein]

It's only for plural, although people incorrectly use it for singular too.

I am not a native speaker, and it seems weird to me when used as singular.
But I've seen this is a tendency nowadays, and according to this article, it was used for singular in the past, then it stopped being used that way, and now it is starting to be used again for singular in a "process that seems irreversible" for the language.

 

[Kioku]

On the internet, everyone is a cat. Yes. Even YOU.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Meow?

 

[invaderyoyo]

It's a good idea. If you don't want to put your gender, then don't. I really don't see how you can argue against this. This has nothing to do with gender politics. It won't detract anything.

 

[BARNWEY]

Why not have an option that shows someone's basic information when you hover over their profile pic; such as status, gender, etc. It would be much cleaner, easier to implement, and much quicker than going up to your notifications and searching around to see what that person's gender is. Also, why not have an other option for gender, where you can type in what you are. That way, there isn't much revision, and it saves this website a lot of drama. Honestly though, I don't care too much. I'm just a content dude...

 

[Olmectron]

In the new temp style, you need to enter the actual profile page of the person for seeing if they have set a gender.

Before, it was shown on the popup that opens when clicking on the user name, without actually entering the profile page.

Is it really hard to show it along with the join date and location at the left side of each user's entry/comment/post? I've always wondered this.

 

[SG854]

On the internet, everyone is a cat. Yes. Even YOU.

You calling everyone a pussy? Sensitive people not being correctly gender identified.