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Why "gender" should be a text field

Why "gender" should be a text field

Presented at BarCamp Geelong 2011.

Brianna Laugher

July 09, 2011
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  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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