Lodewijk is absolutely right. For example, "Benutzer" in German is a
default term, it covers both male and female users (probably the same
with gebruiker in Dutch), so why change it to something causing
problems all over the place, not only technical ones? They can add it
to the code of Mediawiki but per default it would be disabled, and to
enable it, it needs of course a community decision.
Btw., Gerard, this wouldn't really help to attract more new female
users. Or how would you think the software could know the gender of an
anonymous user to address them with female language if appropriate? ^^
Best regards
Th.
2011/2/13 Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org>rg>:
And do you want it to be implemented :) But that
question is to be
answered on a community level of course - but I guess there are a few
potential reasons why they might not want to implement it:
* It could potentially give people the feeling they have to tell their
gender: some people might not be willing to (male or female)
* Although grammatically correct, I would find "gebruikster" in Dutch
very weird - because it is rarely used it would put a huge emphasis on
the fact that someone is female - this will depend per language.
* I'm no expert in the field, but I can imagine some issues around
transgender people
* If you have a male/female version, and someone never told which they
are: which will be the default? Male of female?
* What to do when people fill in the "incorrect" gender? Will there be
attempts to enforce correctness? (because it could be perceived as
lying)
etc. I would be a supporter of making it possible for a community to
make this choice, but I would not like us to make that choice for
them.
Best,
Lodewijk