4 ms·
I think it bears repeating that allowing people to show a preferred pronoun is a great way to keep everybody happy while keeping politics out of the conference.
by skrebbel 8y ago
I think it bears repeating that allowing people to show a preferred pronoun is a great way to keep everybody happy while keeping politics out of the conference. It allows both people who prefer a different pronoun than their name or appearance might suggest, plus the people who want to show their support, for an opportunity to communicate this. But also it lets people people who are offended by this or who simply do not care about the entire debate off the hook.
- ghaff 8y agoStickers are a good way to do this. It rather surprises me the number of conferences (including tech ones) that have mandatory dropdowns with traditional Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms/maybe Dr type titles (or M/F). Whatever your personal take, it just seems like an all downside and no upside for conferences to continue doing this. Of course, some get downright silly. Look at some European conferences (e.g The Economist) and you get about a 25 title dropdown with all sorts of aristocratic titles (Earl, Duke, Your Holiness, etc.)
- zeveb 8y ago> Whatever your personal take, it just seems like an all downside and no upside for conferences to continue doing this. I prefer to be addressed as 'Mr. Lastname,' not as 'Yo, Firstname!'; a mechanism for me to indicate that preference makes sense. > Of course, some get downright silly. I don't see how 'His Grace' is any sillier than 'xir.' At the very least, it has many, many years of tradition behind it.