Quick hit: Dr Martens get it right
Jun. 3rd, 2011 11:30 pm( Screenshot. )
What Dr Martens have done here is - as the title suggests - got it right, in two simple but important ways:
Is it ideal? Well, no: in my perfect world, gender would be write-in - and potentially set up to suggest popular options in situations where data cleanliness is important. By this I mean that somebody typing "f" would have top options beginning with f suggested, a la word clouds or indeed Google Smartsearch. The only places I've found that actually achieve this are, well, Disapora (add me! I have invitations!), and, oddly enough, Caltech's Student Faculty Programme application system - though note that Caltech falls into the fallacy that it's only people outside the gender binary who self-identify.
Honourable mentions do go to both Dreamwidth and Blogger: both offer four options, but Dreamwidth has the slight edge at least from my point of view that reporting gender is entirely optional.
Well, what about it?
What Dr Martens have done here is - as the title suggests - got it right, in two simple but important ways:
- Gender is optional.
- Four options are provided: male, female, other, blank (i.e. prefer not to say).
Is it ideal? Well, no: in my perfect world, gender would be write-in - and potentially set up to suggest popular options in situations where data cleanliness is important. By this I mean that somebody typing "f" would have top options beginning with f suggested, a la word clouds or indeed Google Smartsearch. The only places I've found that actually achieve this are, well, Disapora (add me! I have invitations!), and, oddly enough, Caltech's Student Faculty Programme application system - though note that Caltech falls into the fallacy that it's only people outside the gender binary who self-identify.
Honourable mentions do go to both Dreamwidth and Blogger: both offer four options, but Dreamwidth has the slight edge at least from my point of view that reporting gender is entirely optional.
Well, what about it?
- I've fired off an e-mail to Dr Martens to thank them - and to ask if they'd be willing to give me their stats on how many people tick "other".
-
![[redirect profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
transfinite has compiled a list of places that get it wrong. Where else do you know that gets it right? We'll get the list up on the main website in due course. :-)
