is that relative or comitative?
May. 1st, 2009 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkI'm pauraque on DW, though I'm not doing anything with it right now. So far no one whose entries I want to read has actually moved there exclusively and claimed they won't crosspost, so I don't have much motivation to move either.
I wish DW all the best, but there is no way they can maintain the current level of touchy-feely hands-on management -- which seems to be what everyone likes about it -- if it becomes very popular.
Actually, my experience of the touchy-feely was not that satisfactory.
I want either a free text box for gender, or preferably no gender field.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_hannelore and I wrote with this suggestion, which elicited emails from Denise that claim a) the gender field has no purpose so it kinda doesn't matter, and, contradictorily, b) the gender field is for information about their user base, like if their user base is mostly older women they don't want to add stuff that would appeal to a 15 year old boy (approximate quote, I'm too lazy to find the email right now). I'm curious, what exactly does she think appeals to women in a journaling service that wouldn't appeal to men? News updates about crochet instead of football? Looking at broad gender stats seems like an incredibly ineffective way of making decisions of any kind, especially when supposedly they are so responsive to individual complaints and suggestions.
Instead of just ditching a useless question, they provided "Other", which to me has the opposite of its intended inclusive effect. If they insist on counting everybody by gender, then I want to stand and be counted as a transgendered person. But dude, my gender isn't "other". Leaving me with only that choice or the standard "male" is actually very insensitive towards the issue of trans people disappearing into mainstream society. Every time I check male on a form, I have to think about that, I have to think about how my identity and experience is invisible to the rest of the world.
Anyway, I know the gender field exists because people are culturally acclimated to think it should -- we just can't have a form without male and female checkboxes, regardless of whether it has ANY relevance to what you're signing up for! The only reason I complain is that I think it's a funny juxtaposition, the insistence on being so very inclusive and responsive and blah blah, yet failing in this particular area. Usually I don't expect better, but it's frustrating to constantly hear how DW is soooooooo good -- but not good enough for this.
eta: On second thought, here's what I'll do. If DW adds a free text box or gets rid of the gender field, I'll move there. I'll even buy a paid account. Until then, I reserve the right to be annoyed about the whole thing.
+
RT @jonathancoulton First of May, first of May, jonathancoulton.com server not responding starts today.
I wish DW all the best, but there is no way they can maintain the current level of touchy-feely hands-on management -- which seems to be what everyone likes about it -- if it becomes very popular.
Actually, my experience of the touchy-feely was not that satisfactory.
I want either a free text box for gender, or preferably no gender field.
_hannelore and I wrote with this suggestion, which elicited emails from Denise that claim a) the gender field has no purpose so it kinda doesn't matter, and, contradictorily, b) the gender field is for information about their user base, like if their user base is mostly older women they don't want to add stuff that would appeal to a 15 year old boy (approximate quote, I'm too lazy to find the email right now). I'm curious, what exactly does she think appeals to women in a journaling service that wouldn't appeal to men? News updates about crochet instead of football? Looking at broad gender stats seems like an incredibly ineffective way of making decisions of any kind, especially when supposedly they are so responsive to individual complaints and suggestions.Instead of just ditching a useless question, they provided "Other", which to me has the opposite of its intended inclusive effect. If they insist on counting everybody by gender, then I want to stand and be counted as a transgendered person. But dude, my gender isn't "other". Leaving me with only that choice or the standard "male" is actually very insensitive towards the issue of trans people disappearing into mainstream society. Every time I check male on a form, I have to think about that, I have to think about how my identity and experience is invisible to the rest of the world.
Anyway, I know the gender field exists because people are culturally acclimated to think it should -- we just can't have a form without male and female checkboxes, regardless of whether it has ANY relevance to what you're signing up for! The only reason I complain is that I think it's a funny juxtaposition, the insistence on being so very inclusive and responsive and blah blah, yet failing in this particular area. Usually I don't expect better, but it's frustrating to constantly hear how DW is soooooooo good -- but not good enough for this.
eta: On second thought, here's what I'll do. If DW adds a free text box or gets rid of the gender field, I'll move there. I'll even buy a paid account. Until then, I reserve the right to be annoyed about the whole thing.
+
RT @jonathancoulton First of May, first of May, jonathancoulton.com server not responding starts today.
