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by dlivingston 2440 days ago
The majority of comments have no qualms with respecting one's mode of self-identification, but rather, with the method by which S.E. has chosen to approach it.

In other words, the commenters have an issue with the poor execution of a noble idea.
1 comments
Spivak 2440 days ago
Genuinely, what's the poor execution? They seem to have basically codified "use someone's stated pronouns" with an awareness of the common ways people try to get around it.

It seems like anyone who respects how other people identify will have hard time running up against this policy.

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kelnos 2440 days ago
The policy assumes that everyone will act in good faith, or will be explicit about acting in bad faith. That's a terrible assumption.

For example: if I put an unfamiliar pronoun in my profile, and someone sees it, are they obligated to refer to me that way? What if I'm just trolling? Should people be required to google my preferred pronoun and then make a value judgment on whether I'm acting in good or bad faith?

If they err on the side of assuming good faith, and I'm really just trolling, then we get an answer for all to see that includes someone falling for a troll, which reduces the value of that answer. It also normalizes trollish behavior, which is bad.

If they believe I'm acting in bad faith, and they're wrong, they could get banned from the site, which is an overreaction to what I'd expect will be a common, innocent mistake.

And that's just one example; there are plenty more in the comments.

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Kye 2440 days ago
I would hope a mod on SO/SE is better at detecting trolling than the average /r/TumblrInAction poster. People who do this are very obvious if you're not already poised to go off on a rage at the people they're pretending to be. Unchecked confirmation bias is a critical vulnerability.
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gwbas1c 2440 days ago
> It seems like anyone who respects how other people identify will have hard time running up against this policy.

Because the policy isn't about respecting gender identity; it's about having a political battle where there are no winners.

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drstewart 2439 days ago
Must be nice to assume everyone is a native English speaker. Do you not believe foreign language speakers have equal rights to transpeople?
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