LJ fails again! This time, on gender issues.

[sofiaviolet]

As of their next code push (and LJ's code pushes tend to happen on Thursdays), LiveJournal will require all users to specify "male" or "female" for their account's gender. No third option.

The change is almost certainly to target advertising in a more gender-stereotyped way.

EDIT: 2009-12-15 10:30 EST
Probably thanks to the many people contacting LJ, the code has been pulled. It will not be going live in the next code push.

Unfortunately, I don't trust LJ not to attempt to sneak something like this through again.


synecdochic has a summary. She suggests going to the Edit Profile page and changing your gender to Unspecified, contacting Feedback, and emailing the GM of US operations at anjelika@livejournalinc.com.

complete list of posts on my Dreamroll re: lj's genderfail (though a lot of them are just signal boosts)
Please let me know if you want me to take down a link to your post.

synechdochic: wow. just .... wow. and EDIT to PSA and (no subject) and (no subject)

thingswithwings: listen, the internet just isn't gendered enough! let's police peoples' genders some more.

eruthros: Misc stuff I have been meaning to post

zorkian: embarassingly stupid

dira: No seriously, LJ, WHAT.

lauredhel: For livejournallers: LJ to make gender specification mandatory?

fleurdeliser: Gender and Your LiveJournal Account

zarhooie: There are no words for the rage. and Stressed about the bake sale, or how I learned to find truth in lies

fairestcat: This is all over my friendslist for a reason

saystheheart: (no subject)

cleverthylacine: I want to post about how asinine it is that LJ is going to try and make people specify their gender.

stepps: LJ... no longer LiveJournal, but LameJournal.

oursin: Ungendering

northern: stupid.

idyll: Wow

turlough: LJ does it again

azurejay: can't even sell my soul.

wistfuljane: OH HAI

Geek Feminism also has a post.

If anyone reading this would like a Dreamwidth account (Dreamwidth's diversity statement specifically includes and "welcome[s] people of any gender identity or expression"), I have some invite codes, and if they run out, I'm willing to buy accounts for people who need them.

Comments

[domtheknight]

Yo, if you run out of invite codes, I have *tons*.

[sofiaviolet]

Thanks. No one's asked for a code yet, but at least two people on my dreamroll who were namesquatting have decided to actually use their accounts over this.

[pinesandmaples]

::sigh::

You know, this stuff keeps happening. Just the other day, I discovered that Microsoft Word had "chicano" in their built-in dictionary but not "chicana." Awesome.

[sofiaviolet]

*stabs*

I have to admit, I usually turn spellcheck off - I'm pretty good at spotting my own typos and I know how to spell pretty much any word I'm going to use. The only 'errors' it catches aren't so much errors as omissions by the spellcheck dictionary compilers. /o\

[butyoumight]

I'm kind of really upset. I made a post to my journal asking if any of my flist was willing to migrate here with me. Only like, one person was affirmative in the 'I have a DW and I will start using it more'. Everyone else acted like I was insane, acted like this was legitimately just an error on LJ's part.

:(

[sofiaviolet]

:(

Seriously? Even in the absence of learned mistrust of LJ's owners and higher-ups, even a vague understanding of the purpose of changelog and how it works shows that it was on purpose.