5 ms·
Pro tip: Don't try to be "too smart" or clever when talking to your users. Being wrong here is so much more tacky than either asking for gender if you need it,
by davidu 13y ago
Pro tip: Don't try to be "too smart" or clever when talking to your users.
Being wrong here is so much more tacky than either asking for gender if you need it, or just writing in a gender neutral way.
"I'm sorry we were wrong, but our computer determined you have a girl's name. If you change your name, it'll work now."
- fournm 13y agoAnd in more cases than people seem to think, you really don't need it.
- twerquie 13y agoI suspect this is more for data analysis than it is for user-facing features. I hope.
- ddoolin 13y agoThis is far more useful for advertising, especially when trying to build user segments. If you have the gender from the user directly entering it somewhere along the line, great. If not, this comes in.
- tommorris 13y agoYes. Don't attempt to infer gender from names. Mostly, you don't need it. You'll often get it wrong. You may end up pissing off transgender people. Unless you are running a dating site (in which case, you should actually get people to specify which gender(s) they are—and, yes, people will want options beyond male and female) there is no need for it. If you want to know my gender, ask. Don't infer.