livejournal saw there was genderfail and wanted in on the action

[prof_pangaea]

livejournal decided it was time to add to the genderfail rolling around right now and so it's about to make gender a required field upon account creation (not sure about existing accounts), plus it's going to take away the "unspecified" option and force users to choose whether they are "male" or "female". which is obviously a big deal to the large number of users and potential users who do not identify within the gender binary for whatever reason. while you won't have to make the information public, you will still be forced to choose.

this is pretty obviously being done so lj can offer more targeted personal info to advertisers -- which of course means that anyone listing "female" is likely to be getting ads about dieting, and those listing "male" will probably be getting even more of those "get ripped in four weeks without exercising!" ads i keep seeing everywhere.

synecdochic has a good post on the whole thing over on dreamwidth: http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/366609.html

meanwhile, the code change is likely to go into effect very soon (thursday or maybe thursday next, i think?), so spread the word and send livejournal (polite!) feedback here.

meanwhile, this all reminds me i actually have a journal at dreamwidth. which i should probably start using. hmmmmm.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Between this and londonkds's recent post about the click-through ads thing for free users, my untouched Dreamwidth account is looking rather more tempting lately...

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

yah, i haven't been paying attention to lj ads since a kindly anon bought me some paid time, so i didn't know they'd gone as far as those awful pop-up ads that follow you round the page, i.e. the most annoying and invasive ads possible. ugh.

[drho.livejournal.com]

Feedback sent. I don't want to use Dreamwidth. All my stuff is here. However, I really don't appreciate intrusive questions that exclude people, so livejournal can make another buck from failing.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

yeah, i'm still on lj because i prefer it -- like you said, all my stuff is here. but more things like this could definitely persuade me away, expecially as dreamwidth gets stronger.

[cesario.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

yeah.

[cesario.livejournal.com]

At this point I shouldn't have to tell you that unless you're on the verge of making a call or going to bed you should get on AIM.

[fannishnonsense]

This is like the year of never-ending fail, isn't it? Argh.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

i'd like to think the fail will magically end in two and a half weeks with the coming of the new year, but somehow i doubt it.

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

OH LJ YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME.

Goddammit. If this does go through I'm hopping over to Dreamwidth and only using this account for modding things. Hopefully, though, there's still time for someone to actually realise what it is they're doing here and, you know, not.

[radiantbaby.livejournal.com]

Fuck. There are no words.

[infiniteviking]

Sent feedback. Got a long screed back about how the whole thing was a bad piece of beta code that no one was supposed to see and they were never really going to use it and unspecified is staying etc etc etc etc did I mention it was long? But still.

*grin*

*relurk*

[nonelvis]

They're definitely saying this was a mistake, and that the code was rejected as unacceptable. (Which it damned well is.) See this comment for their response.