Please stop using joke pronouns

[Butterfree]

Okay, look, guys.

The pronoun field in your profile is not for you to make jokes in. The gender field was changed into a pronoun field with a manual input option not because we wanted to let you fool around and get smart with it, but because we have a substantial population on the forums whose ability to specify a pronoun that doesn't make them cringe is actually important to them.

Using the pronoun field to put in some witty made-up word in reference to yourself is not only irritating to everyone who actually wants to refer to you in the third person, but is also trivializing an issue that actually matters to some people. When droves of members who are actually perfectly happy with standard pronouns type quirky witticisms into the pronoun field on a whim, individuals with a genuine wish to go by a nonstandard pronoun will just feel mocked and marginalized.

Keep the pronoun field serious. If you want to make a silly joke to be displayed in your postbit, just put it in your signature. Or pollute the Location field if you absolutely must.

[Zero Moment]

God, FINALLY this is officially adressed. It annoys me so much when I can't adress someone as he/she/whatever because the person put something random in the Gender field.

[Mewtwo]

Would "She-cat" be acceptable? It clearly states that I am a her, and it refers to the Warriors cat series.

[Adriane]

Originally Posted by Mewtwo

Would "She-cat" be acceptable? It clearly states that I am a her, and it refers to the Warriors cat series.

Preferably not. Unless you actually want people going she-cat, her-cat, and hers-cat at you. Otherwise, it's misusing the pronoun field.

[Butterfree]

Is there a good reason you want to be making references in the pronoun field to begin with? (hint: the answer is only yes if you feel that you are in fact not a "her" but a "her-cat".)

[Superbird]

Relatedly, is it okay to make jokes in the pronoun field as long as it's clear what your gender is?

[Butterfree]

For God's sake, why do you have some uncontrollable compulsion to put a joke in it at all? Just put the actual pronoun you actually want people to use for you. This is not supposed to be hard.

People who actually need to specify a real nonstandard pronoun shouldn't have to suffer through people not taking them seriously because everybody else is putting random crap in the pronoun field just because they think it's funny.

[Karkat Vantas]

What if I'm making it perfectly clear what gender I am without being funny or anything but also specifying that I don't particularly care how I'm referred to?

This does seem like a valid use for the system

[Adriane]

Originally Posted by Karkat Vantas

What if I'm making it perfectly clear what gender I am without being funny or anything but also specifying that I don't particularly care how I'm referred to?

This does seem like a valid use for the system

There is an "any" option. It is a pronoun field, not a gender field. Incidentally, male/female are sexes, not genders.

[Espeon]

I don't really quite understand why people feel the need to attempt to push the boundaries when it comes to correct usage of the pronoun field? Certainly people have the common courtesy and consideration to realise that the box should contain their desired gender pronouns and nothing else. Or is there some phenomenon where people absolutely must insist upon abusing the newer features?

It's already been stated that people take this seriously and can take offense at misuse of the pronoun field and Butterfree has already said to put your desired pronoun in the field ONLY. If you're uncertain then ask yourself firstly, "is this actually a pronoun?" and secondly "is this appropritate to me/do I want to be referred to by this pronoun?". If you genuinely still find yourself in a predicament, then feel free to ask but otherwise you're really making a fool of yourself.

Apologies to those of you who are using the field correctly.

[surskitty]

I very much appreciate this announcement!

[Ether's Bane]

Originally Posted by Espeon

I don't really quite understand why people feel the need to attempt to push the boundaries when it comes to correct usage of the pronoun field? Certainly people have the common courtesy and consideration to realise that the box should contain their desired gender pronouns and nothing else. Or is there some phenomenon where people absolutely must insist upon abusing the newer features?

It's already been stated that people take this seriously and can take offense at misuse of the pronoun field and Butterfree has already said to put your desired pronoun in the field ONLY. If you're uncertain then ask yourself firstly, "is this actually a pronoun?" and secondly "is this appropritate to me/do I want to be referred to by this pronoun?". If you genuinely still find yourself in a predicament, then feel free to ask but otherwise you're really making a fool of yourself.

Apologies to those of you who are using the field correctly.

Is putting "irrelevant" misusing the pronoun field, and if so, why?

[Adriane]

Originally Posted by Effercon

Is putting "irrelevant" misusing the pronoun field, and if so, why?

Not particularly. Again, there is a default "any" option, though.

[Lord of the Fireflies]

That's why we should have kept the old method; three choices: He / She / It, period.

[Not Meowth]

Originally Posted by Lord of the Fireflies

That's why we should have kept the old method; three choices: He / She / It, period.

Except not everyone is happy being classified as an "it" if they don't feel they fit under either "he" or "she".

[Adriane]

Originally Posted by Lord of the Fireflies

That's why we should have kept the old method; three choices: He / She / It, period.

"Old method" was a gender field, not a pronoun field. Also, I really dislike being called "it" so.

[surskitty]

I would venture to guess that most people don't want to be 'it'. o_o

I am not amused.

[ultraviolet]

Originally Posted by Lord of the Fireflies

That's why we should have kept the old method; three choices: He / She / It, period.

way to miss the entire point of changing it in the first place!

[Hiikaru]

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Lord of the Fireflies

That's why we should have kept the old method; three choices: He / She / It, period.

No.

I'm not a girl or a boy, so I'm not about to put that (I don't even sign up for sites that require me to choose one of the two). But I am not an it! I'm not that and I don't want to say I am, but having only three options kind of forces my hand!

Also, there are lots of non-he/she/it pronouns! Some people are most comfortable being referred to by they/their/them, or ey/eir/eim, or ve/ver/vem, or are comfortable with any pronoun!

Girl and boy are not the only genders, and there are enough people in the world (plenty on this forum!) that feel really, really, really awful when you try to force them to be one of those. Non-standard pronouns aren't a way to say "oh no thank you I'll keep my gender to myself for now I'm afraid of someone trying to find me," they're actual important things to people that make them way more comfortable.

It's not the fault of anyone but the joking people that people are trying to make something serious into a joke. It's not the fault of the people who legitimately want to use pronouns that aren't "it"! So why do you want to punish them for it? They didn't do anything.

It's understandable if different pronouns are a little difficult for you (although they're really, really not as difficult to get used to as they look like they'd be!), but taking from non-binary-gendered people the option to put something besides "it" when it's clear they're extremely uncomfortable is mean.

Butterfree is great and has put something in place for this, and you want her to get rid of it now? People like it and enough people use it appropriately! The people who don't shouldn't dictate whether or not it exists.

[Zhu Que]

Here's a thought: take the option away entirely and let's stop getting so caught up in what is nowadays a lesser detail.