Gender Option?

[Former Member]

Hello! Sorry to bother you at such a late hour (at least, it's late here in America!) but I have had a question on my mind for some time.

When selecting a gender on a profile, the only options are male and female. Is there any possibility that you are considering adding an option for "other"? I identify as gender neutral, which is clearly outside of the gender binary. I'm certain that there are other non-binary ProBoards users out there as well. It would make me feel a lot more comfortable if I could do something more than just picking one of the two at random and then choosing to hide gender in the Privacy tab.

I realize that this is a minor complaint and I'm uncertain whether anyone has commented on the subject previously, but I would certainly appreciate it immensely if someone would address this.

[Craig]

Hi,

I have labelled this as a feature request. An admin should reply within 24 hours

[RedBassett]

As Craig stated, this thread is now a feature request, however I should warn you that before V5 was released I put together a request for gender neutral/non-binary options (the binary options were making some of my forum members uncomfortable), however the feature was turned down. Hopefully this request can be reconsidered!

While the non-binary community is a very small percentage of the general ProBoards user base, the addition of a simple "other" option would make a big difference to these members. (And I do understand that the system currently stores and processes this data as a binary option.)

[Former Member]

Many thanks to both of you!

Do you know of any reason that your previous request would have been turned down, RedBassett?

If you had asked for a variety of other options (gender fluid, gender neutral, transgendered, etc.) I would understand that, as they wouldn't be used a lot of the time and might appear to clutter up the personal info editing page. It's likely that some would have been left out as well. Of course, I have no idea what your actual request stated, but this is just a hypothesis - I can't think of any major reason that it would have been rejected.

With any luck, it won't be too much to ask for a third option! The way I see it, users can select that bubble and then elaborate somewhere else in the profile, or just leave it at that. The vast array of non-binary identities can be safely included with the addition of "other".

[Michael]

RedBassets request was not "rejected" it was simply shelved for the time being. This is still on our list of features to bring to customers in the future. Hopefully v5.x!

[Former Member]

Excellent to hear. I appreciate it very much, and I'm looking forward to potentially seeing it added soon!

[RedBassett]

Aug 20, 2013 11:23:47 GMT -8 Michael said:

RedBassets request was not "rejected" it was simply shelved for the time being. This is still on our list of features to bring to customers in the future. Hopefully v5.x!

I misheard or something, thought it was turned down!

Glad to hear this is shelved at least

[Teka Lynn]

Please count me in as another ProBoard user who would like the option for "other" or "neutral". Thank you.

[fearlesslyonwards]

Another user here, voicing support for a gender neutral/other option. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Boy_Wonder]

Another user who would prefer gender neutral/other

[disappointed]

Couldn't it be simply "not specified"? Taking apart political correctness connotations there's nothing like "neutral gender" for human species...
"not specified" clearly states that the person doesn't want to declare the gender, what has wider purpose than specifying "neutral gender".

[David Clark]

Because it's not currently possible to select a "neutral/unspecified" option, we ask that anyone who would be inclined to choose this option instead just pick whichever they most closely identify with (even if only by a little bit) and then configure their profile to hide the gender. On the admin side of things, it's pretty easily possible to modify your layout templates to display an "unspecified/other" symbol/text in profiles and mini-profiles in place of the  and  if a user has elected to hide their gender.

[funny joke,]

yes, if you added a questionmark option, or questionmark/exclaimation point combo, that would be awesome.

[Ian Phanes]

My gender is neither neutral nor unspecified, but it is definitely Other than the two options currently available. If you want an appropriate glyph for third-gender individuals that is parallel to the pink Venus glyph and the blue Mars glyph, I would suggest a yellow Mercury glyph.

Thank you for considering this.