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Thanks for pointing out where the name confusion may have come from. > I definitely do not have time to check every person's profile when I comment on HN. At

Thanks for pointing out where the name confusion may have come from. > I definitely do not have time to check every person's profile when I comment on HN. At least then we should not make explicit such gender assumptions, regardless. I have never heard the name "Shawnee" and generally do not assume usernames on web forums are indicative of real-life anything (e.g. you are 'striking', but apparently that is not your name). I agree 'they' is an awkward construction in English, but for many people the alternative using passive voice is a little more complex to use (cf. non-native English speakers).

striking 10y ago
As a Polish immigrant, I personally think "singular they" is worse, because it creates ambiguity where there doesn't need to be any... which makes things a bit more confusing. Meanwhile, I think my proposed alternative is native to most other languages, and should translate fairly easily. I'm not sure I see the point in thinking this long and hard about pronouns, but to each his own.
- klodolph 10y ago
  Yes indeed, to each their own. The singular "they" can be confusing in certain cases, but that's not really a problem unique to "they". "He", "she", "it", "we", and "you" can all be confusing in relatively common circumstances. But you're going to have to get used to the singular "they", because it seems to only be getting more common (historically, singular "they" was acceptable until the late 19th century, so the strictly plural "they" might be seen as a 20th century anomaly).