Crossposting from Dreamwidth for the foreseeable future...
So apparently, in the next week or two, Livejournal will be requiring users to choose a gender ("Male" or "Female") when they create an account. (At present, you also have the option "Unspecified".) (ETA: But see the bottom of this post, also.)
There are many people who choose not to select a gender for all kinds of reasons. There are people who simply find it intrusive and not anyone else's business. (I usually decline to choose gender on forms that don't make it mandatory or directly pertain to my health, for this reason.) Some people aren't covered by the male/female gender binary -- it's not a yes or no question. Some people, especially women and young people, very wisely choose not to give their gender to avoid stalkers, predators and trolls.
I don't think it's even remotely appropriate for Livejournal to require this information from its users, especially since some people cannot answer the question truthfully with the options presented, and will be forced to lie.
You can go here to send feedback. I'd suggest being polite and brief.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
synecdochic, whose post is linked above, also has an ETA post with the email address of the US manager of LJ operations: anjelika@livejournalinc.com. I left my message in both the feedback form and via email. The message that I sent is under the cut. (I'm not saying it's necessarily the best way to word the issue or that it's particularly well-written, but this is what I came up with, if you want to see what I wrote to them.)
As a longtime user of LJ, I am very unhappy to hear that you intend to do away with the "Unspecified" option for gender. There are many people who choose not to register their gender for safety reasons (usually women) or do not fit into binary gender options. By forcing these users to select an option, you make your service actively unfriendly to the queer and transgender community, and force many women to choose between lying about their gender or rendering themselves vulnerable to stalkers and predators.
You'll gain no useful demographic information by making this mandatory; you'll simply end up with users answering untruthfully or taking their business to other social media.
Please reconsider your decision.
Also, I've always had "Female" on my profile page, but I've gone to the edit page and changed the drop-down to "Unspecified". Frankly, it really is none of their damned business, and if they see a lot of people using this option, perhaps it'll help send a message that it needs to stay.
ETA: There's an ETA on the above-linked post (this one) that she heard back from the US LJ manager -- who says that the switch to mandatory gender on the form is "accidental" and won't be going live. Call me cynical here, but I strongly suspect that this is Backpedal City and their "accidental" code upgrade would have cheerfully gone live if the users hadn't flipped the fuck out about it. I feel vaguely alarmist leaving this post up, but you know what? It's better to be alarmist than to be stomped on, and it's probably still a good idea to send a politely worded statement supporting the current Gender: Unspecified option if we want to keep it. (And I'm keeping it selected in my profile.)
There are many people who choose not to select a gender for all kinds of reasons. There are people who simply find it intrusive and not anyone else's business. (I usually decline to choose gender on forms that don't make it mandatory or directly pertain to my health, for this reason.) Some people aren't covered by the male/female gender binary -- it's not a yes or no question. Some people, especially women and young people, very wisely choose not to give their gender to avoid stalkers, predators and trolls.
I don't think it's even remotely appropriate for Livejournal to require this information from its users, especially since some people cannot answer the question truthfully with the options presented, and will be forced to lie.
You can go here to send feedback. I'd suggest being polite and brief.
synecdochic, whose post is linked above, also has an ETA post with the email address of the US manager of LJ operations: anjelika@livejournalinc.com. I left my message in both the feedback form and via email. The message that I sent is under the cut. (I'm not saying it's necessarily the best way to word the issue or that it's particularly well-written, but this is what I came up with, if you want to see what I wrote to them.)As a longtime user of LJ, I am very unhappy to hear that you intend to do away with the "Unspecified" option for gender. There are many people who choose not to register their gender for safety reasons (usually women) or do not fit into binary gender options. By forcing these users to select an option, you make your service actively unfriendly to the queer and transgender community, and force many women to choose between lying about their gender or rendering themselves vulnerable to stalkers and predators.
You'll gain no useful demographic information by making this mandatory; you'll simply end up with users answering untruthfully or taking their business to other social media.
Please reconsider your decision.
Also, I've always had "Female" on my profile page, but I've gone to the edit page and changed the drop-down to "Unspecified". Frankly, it really is none of their damned business, and if they see a lot of people using this option, perhaps it'll help send a message that it needs to stay.
ETA: There's an ETA on the above-linked post (this one) that she heard back from the US LJ manager -- who says that the switch to mandatory gender on the form is "accidental" and won't be going live. Call me cynical here, but I strongly suspect that this is Backpedal City and their "accidental" code upgrade would have cheerfully gone live if the users hadn't flipped the fuck out about it. I feel vaguely alarmist leaving this post up, but you know what? It's better to be alarmist than to be stomped on, and it's probably still a good idea to send a politely worded statement supporting the current Gender: Unspecified option if we want to keep it. (And I'm keeping it selected in my profile.)