Hi,
I noticed that in some other forums using Discourse there is an option to specify pronouns in profile settings, but not in this one. Is this omission intentional?
Thanks,
Skyler
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I couldn’t find an explicit setting for that. @skyvine if interested you could search what people are using to do that on meta.discourse.org.
If it’s an extra plugin, then I’d say it’s unlikely we enable it.
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My understansing is that no plugin is needed. The pronouns field is a custom field:
I got there via:
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How would this make the Forum better?
Will the chosen pronouns be presented in every Forum post? Will they be
added to emails?
It would be better to promote gender neutral language in the Forum, as
in the documentation.
That is easier and more inclusive for users who use ungendered
languages.
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@unman I believe my post in the staff category already answers your questions. The two links shared above to the Meta Discouse forum should provide more context if needed.
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I didnt hear anything there to answer my questions.
My understanding is that this will create some field in the “User
profile”, and this will add to the “user card”- I dont know what this
is.
So I repeat, how will this affect posts to the Forum and emails?
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AFAIU no.
Edit: I meant shouldn’t affect the emails.
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Then what’s the point?
As I said, better to promote use of gender neutral language.
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Well, let me explain it.
I know that you use the forum via email primarily (or only), but a number of other folks use its web incarnation.
Those users usually know what a user profile is and can take advantage of user cards (a summary of the aforementioned user profile) when they interact with the usernames that are displayed near people’s posts.
The information in the user profile is used by a number of people to make it easier for others to interact with them, which tends to contribute to healthy community. And it is used by some people to check in which ways others may (or may not) want to be contacted or referred to. That, by the way, is not specific to the Qubes OS forum. Some people use that information, others don’t, like some people interact primarily by email and others don’t.
I’m not going to explain why pronouns in particular are a piece of information that—when available— is generally understood to contribute to welcoming and inclusive communities, because that is not specific to Qubes OS either and information is not hard to come by (starting by links shared in this thread).
It seems to me that the OP asked if it was possible to set pronouns on user profiles. The question of promoting or not gender neutral language seems to me a distinct one. Since addressing the OP’s question does not preclude addressing the second question in any way, I’d suggest we start adressing the OP’s question that’s narrower in scope and would affect smaller areas of the forum (e.g. not the mail version).
Side note: Regarding the idea of promoting the use of gender neutral language, I personally would be happy to offer some thoughts for consideration in a dedicated topic.
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You should rein back on the patronising tone.
I’m not asking about gendering of pronouns, (although that doesn’t come
easily to me). I understand the issues for people using languages that
use grammatical gender.
I am asking about the practical use in the Forum.
I find it unlikely that users will take the time to check out these
user cards when responding to a post, and email users wont see them at
all.
It’s different where people include their pronouns in a sig. That
makes sense to me, since the preference is clearly stated in the
communication.
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That’s only my experience, but I often check user profiles to look for a pronoun the first time I need to use it.
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Thanks for that input.
I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum I speak for myself.
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Providing Pronouns field might be absolutely necessary for non-English languages. Even gender neutral languages might have formal/informal pronouns and using appropriate one to address your audience might be necessary. For example German has “Per Sie oder per Du” which might be still a cultural necessity in some parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In French we have " Tu ou vous". Not sure about the Chinese but I believe that they might have something very similar. So if the forum is going to have non-English portions, it would be wise to add a preferred pronoun field.
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I do not think that the Pronoun field is to be used for such “familiar”
addressing. Or perhaps it is?
How would that work - Kindly address me as “Madam” from now on?
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Oh yeah like Spanish too! True true
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I personally don’t care, and some on this Forum have already imagined I am a guy LMAO when I am clearly not but I don’t correct anyone because I don’t care
Others do care, and I imagine it is likely more important when foreign languages have gender speech stuff assigned to phrases
I have seen other tech forums as of lately enable this, it does give an inviting inclusive feeling to seem like a place for all types of people from all kinds of cultures and walks of life — at least that is usually the vibe but I recently was on another forum where it was just there as a cheap “social signaling” tokenization tool for pretending to care about diversity but did not actually lol.
Personally, and this is just me, when I am online pseudo-anonymously and try to sound like a guy I get way farther than if I outted myself as a woman who is non-binary; but some people just want to be free to be themselves so there is that despite the possible setbacks from bigotry and bias. Of course there are always trolls and LARPers but that’s with anything online so meh it is what it is 
With that said I really should start looking at “cards” or ask, because I found out eventually I had misgendered @solene due to the avatar used 
oops (like for a while when I first got here I thought Solene was a sister in tech and was like wow a lady dev in Qubes wow she is so cool lololol oh well)
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my pronouns are she/her
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She is a lady, Solene is so cool 
I think this also demonstrates that pronouns for people would be useful if yall could please add it to the “cards”. So we don’t have to ask each other in-thread
Please allow people to abstain too btw, on my account I plan to leave it blank. If I was able to be on here with my known handle(s) and/or IRL name I would use it though.
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This is now a thing.
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