Why "gender" should be a text field

Presented at BarCamp Geelong 2011.

Transcript

1. why GENDER
   should be a TEXT FIELD
   Brianna
   identi.ca/pfctdayelise
   

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6. Pros:
   ●
   Using the wrong pronoun is very jarring
   ●
   Helps translators
   ●
   Helps statistics/metrics
   ●
   Helps advertisers
   ●
   How dare you disrupt my neat view of the world!
   My perspective will rule!
   

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7. Cons:
   ●
   Can alienate potential users
   

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8. Sarah Dopp:
   I’ll give you a hint: If you’re still asking about race
   in a required drop-down menu, you’re way behind.
   Because doing it that way says to a user:
   ●
   You have a race.
   ●
   It’s really important to me.
   ●
   It’s one (and only one) of these listed here.
   

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9. What do you really want to know?
   

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12. More reading
    ●
    Facebook's decision on gender:
    http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2108918713
    ●
    Sarah Mei on Diaspora:
    http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2010/11/26/disalienatio
    ●
    Gina Trapani:
    http://smarterware.org/7388/the-case-against-drop-do
    ●
    Bagcheck asks for pronouns:
    http://bagcheck.com/blog/01-the-gender-question
    ●
    Metafilter on analysing their open field:
    http://metatalk.metafilter.com/20050/Gender-Go-nuts-
    

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