I wrote admin once and told him I found this policy to be sexist.. It's a known issue =)

Ive seen this as well.

Its not a policy, its a lack of programming effort...

Its policy to let it remain.

It provided me with a laugh and a reason to provide sarcastic digs...so all is well here!

Seems odd it remains though!

Well I dont know the secret glocals agenda, but I assume its not a policy. Policy implies intent, deliberation to keep it that way. This, I feel, is a lack of interest in changing it.

It is, I emailed admin and said WHATS UP WITH THE SEXISM?!?!?! and the response i got, was that it was too much trouble to change (not verbatim) so it would stay.  Hence, its deliberate.  So i gave him a good tease on why they chose HIS for uniform instead of HER.

it would be so easy to change it in:

"Lexillent changed RSVP to..."

or:

"Lexillent changed the RSVP to..."

or:

"Lexillent changed his/her RSVP to..."

or:

"Lexillent changed their RSVP to..." (I'm not 100% sure of this version, but somebody told me that it's used in English when the gender is not specified)

Ciaociao

Fabrizio

I'd have thought the simple "Female" on a profile would be enough to select "her" rather than "his"...evidently not! Or secretly all the women on Glocals are actually...men...and the system knows it...and is therefore correct, which is why it's too difficult to correct? Hmm...

Fabrizio, you're right, "their" can be used when being unspecific on gender!

what about if the site admins change your name to Mario? 

yeah I'm sure it's not sexism if it just happens cos 'that's the way it is'??? Hello, the whole thing is that sexism is ubiquitous and sneaky and often deemed the 'natural' course of things... Not that I actually care if I am called 'him' or 'his' rsvp or whatever.. I wonder how guys would feel if 'she changed her rsvp to NO FLIPPING WAY'. BTW God is a woman, just saying. Alex

I already have a dude's name .. His makes little difference after that

i've also emailed Nir/Oded about the problem. Numerous times.

Andrew is absolutely right: it's a lack of programming effort. And "difficult" or "too troublesome" is 100% unadulterated nonsense.

Instead of:

echo "$name changed his RSVP to No"

they should write: 

echo "$name changed ";

if gender="F" then echo "her" else echo "his"; (yes, this can be shortened immensely, but I'm speaking also to any non-programmers)

echo " RSVP to No";

Done.

And this suggestion could be on one line, so you can replace one line of code with......a different line of code.

Come on, guys. *we* care about it. why don't you?

also, while "their" is often used, i believe it's actually, officially, grammatically incorrect.

@lexillent i still don't think it's policy. being lazy does not a policy make. it's not deliberate. what you see (always 'his') was not deliberately decided. It was a programming error or gaffe. If they *always*, across the entire site, use the male form and not the appropriate one, that would be a policy. they didn't adopt this course of action. it just happened. but, that does not mean that the next time a phrase needs to be written that could benefit from gender differentiation, it will be again the male form, according to policy. it'll be whatever the programmers decide to do.

FYI: I can't click on the Thank Poster buttons any more. at least on this thread.

<sigh>
 

Or, how about leaving it as private? I don't feel the whole community needs to know if I can attend or not. Look at the 'Attending' list if you want to know who's going. Problem solved!

This seemed to go from a harmless piece of information to a sexist debate(never the intention)...and back, maybe now the issue will get some attention!

Also Zonker, you're right, academically, "their" is not accepted, as no true gender-neutral pronoun exists in English (why...I have no idea), though it's becoming increasingly accepted throughout other areas, I can't see people being offended, or confused by it though. Still, this would require similar (if not identical) programming to assign the pronoun to a gender profile anyway (?), so my vote is to just correct it, enlist Zonker to help, it seems he's got it covered already =p !!

"On the one hand, it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun (he) in reference to no one in particular. On the other hand, it is unacceptable to a great many readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using he/she or s/he, for example) or to use they as a kind of singular pronoun. Either way, credibility is lost with some readers."  -- The Chicago Manual of Style.

I guess you can't win this one.  I would support the use of "their" because it saves a little bit coding work and is guaranteed to irritate a cunning linguist.

I would support the use of "their" because it saves a little bit coding work and is guaranteed to irritate a cunning linguist.

I'm quite sure subliminal advertising isn't allowed on Glocals.

Well basically English language like most other languages is sexist!

  Why would you have female and male pronoun? Do you always have to  specify the gender ? well of course you have to if you want to go to a gynecologist, but not when you are going to a pub or giving a lecture or … 

Sorry for mentioning it!