A search of the HB didn't turn up anything on this.
Basically, as part of a HBer's profile, an optional checkbox that causes a O-> or O+ icon to display alongside their name in annotations, to indicate gender.
Thus when refering to a HBer in the third person, it is possible to use the correct "him" or "her" gender.-- 8th of 7, Jun 20 2008 The Gender Genie http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.phpSlightly more accurate than a coin toss. [Klaatu, Jun 20 2008] I usually just look down. [+]-- Klaatu, Jun 20 2008 Two buns good, two bones baaaaaad.....-- 4whom, Jun 20 2008 I put the contents of the idea into The Gender Genie and it says [8th of 7]:
Female Score: 53 Male Score: 90
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!
Edit: I ran one of [Vernon]'s ideas through the site and it says:
Words: 11016
Female Score: 12518 Male Score: 17864
The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male and that he drinks FAR too much coffee!-- Klaatu, Jun 20 2008 The Gender Genie thinks my profile is female, but didn't have enough words to judge. One of my longer ideas had over 600 words, and indicates that I am male. I was reading something about gender differences in brain hemispheres the other day, which indicated some confusion. Can we not devise a reliable test?
I say we get a good enough idea of possible gender after becoming familiar with other 'bakers. And, if not sure, can usually adopt gender-neutral language. I can only recall one instance when I made a wrong assumption, and that could have been easily avoided. A note in the profile or a carefully chosen name should be good enough, if the owner is worried. [-]-- baconbrain, Jun 20 2008 In addition to gender, one might optionally include likes/dislikes, star sign, and what you are wearing. There could also be an icon, which I envision as similar to the criossant at the top of this page, except not looking like it. The icon would show the halfbaker. On clicking it, the icon and the information underneath would change. Optionally.-- bungston, Jun 20 2008 Steady on chaps. This is a dangerous wee road to go down: We'll be advocating for headshots and icons and personal taglines and ...-- Jinbish, Jun 20 2008 It's not a bad idea. But, I mean really, a new option just creates more work for the guy that runs this web site.-- Amos Kito, Jun 21 2008 That is too much work. Instead, halfbakery should automatically query Gender Genie whenever the words "Original poster" or "Idea writer", etc. appear in an annotation, and replace it with the appropriate pronoun. Maybe a new html tag like <pr> could be implemented to automatically trigger the replacement.-- phundug, Jun 21 2008 [Klaatu], I never, ever drink coffee. Never liked the smell enough to want to try it, and since I now know its just another worthless expensive addictive drug, I'm never going to be trying it, either.-- Vernon, Jun 21 2008 Oh the humanity. What is life withou caffeine, I ask you?
Vernon, for one as worldly as yourself, you have never lived.-- Custardguts, Jun 21 2008 He didn't claim to have lived without caffeine, he merely implied it when he said he has never had coffee.-- Canuck, Jun 21 2008 This idea is far too presumptuous. Those of us who don't categorize quite so easily might have trouble picking an icon.-- Aq_Bi, Jun 21 2008 What about a halfbakery dating service? I suggest it be called Facebake.-- xenzag, Jun 21 2008 // more work for the guy that runs this web site //
[Amos], er, may we draw to your attention that She Who Must Be Obeyed isn't known as that just by chance ?-- 8th of 7, Jun 21 2008 I think she knew that!-- po, Jun 21 2008 If this were to be done with more than a simple text "m" or "f", it should fit the hb theme. For example, the French have a female "ink pen", a male "pencil". Baker items would also be appropriate. When I first visited this site, if I saw names with one of 2 different symbols, I'd probably have figured it out on my own in a few moments.
//how would we decide//[boysparks], Its simple. On a scale of 1 to 100, I'd have 100 pencils, of course. As I became more indeterminate, I'd lose pencils, until I begin using only ink pens. You'd would not refer to me as a "her" until I had ink pens. Or ask [Klaatu] the Gender Genie to take a peek.-- Amos Kito, Jun 21 2008 //how would we decide whether to use 'him' or 'her'?// Use the common neuter option: they, them, their etc.
e.g. "Someone knocked over my pint, and I didn't quite know how to respond to them. Then, they started looking at me funny, so I punched them in the face. Their nose was broken and I'm sure they felt very sorry for themself. As it turned out, they got the last laugh because some of their mates took me outside and kicked my head in."-- zen_tom, Jun 21 2008 I have to ask WHY?
I so enjoyed my brief flirtation in a lift/elevator and she knows who she is...-- po, Jun 21 2008 Female=turnip Male=table German system, much better than French.
Anyway, no, i don't care what gender you people are. I mean, i care about you lot, but the number of X chromosomes you have isn't significant to me. Unless you're a tetrachromat.-- nineteenthly, Jun 21 2008 Also, this invention might have precluded [blissmiss] from calling me [Jinbee-yatch]...-- Jinbish, Jun 21 2008 May I suggest that this problem could be solved by simply asking everyone to write in Thai, Na Krup (Na Ka for female).
(and no punctuation would be required either. Or verb tenses. Or capital letters).-- Ling, Jun 22 2008 //the guy that runs this web site//
Ha!-- pertinax, Jun 22 2008 Actually, the way i understood it, "guy" used to mean "man" but has now meant "person" for quite a while.
It would be interesting if there was a conspiracy between certain groups here to send hidden messages to each other through the forms of their names. I mentioned before the spurious idea of everyone with an X in their name being a Christian, but how do i know there aren't numerological correspondances or something, that certain cabals on the HB know about but of which i'm entirely ignorant? After all, i certainly waste a lot of time here, and this would be an extension of that.-- nineteenthly, Jun 22 2008 Guy Fox?-- skinflaps, Jun 22 2008 Further to the degenderizing of the term *guy*, the other day I heard a group of young female persons greet each other as *dude*.
What I want to know is, is this a good thing?-- Canuck, Jun 22 2008 Is that a rhetorical question ?-- 8th of 7, Jun 22 2008 What do you think?-- hippo, Jun 23 2008 I have man boobs. I feel somewhat left out to dry.-- daseva, Jun 23 2008 The weird thing about this is that there was a time when "man" was generic, to the extent that the word "woman" was actually grammatically masculine, but it was later decided that semantic drift had rendered this inappropriate. My daughter has just confirmed that females do in fact now call each other "dude". It makes you wonder what the point of rejecting the idea of generic "man" was.
Ah well, one does what one can, as we Britons say.-- nineteenthly, Jun 23 2008 *dudette*, if you please. (but true, my own daughter called me *dude* years ago) After all this debate, I have removed my negative vote because there is some substance to this idea. I don't think the hb needs it, as one should know the folks in their *neighborhood*, esp. the person who rules this site!-- xandram, Jun 23 2008 Fishbone for this one 8th. If people want you to know about them then they can put it on their profile page. There's no need for any additional functionality. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go and take my curlers out.-- DrBob, Jun 23 2008 I dissapprove.
Sincerely, your friendly neighbourhood pansexual.-- erlehmann, Jun 23 2008 I used to enjoy watching newcomers make the fatal assumption that [bristolz] was a boy. Because of her incredible knowledge base about traditionally not-so-feminine topics, she was mistaken quite frequently.
She would let the newbie go on for a bit and then let 'em know. It was fun.-- blissmiss, Jun 23 2008 :-( On the other hand, :-)-- nineteenthly, Jun 23 2008 <Joyce Grenfel>
[ninteenthly] ....... [Ninteenthly].......... [NINETEENTHLY] ! ... Don't do that.
</Joyce Grenfel>-- 8th of 7, Jun 23 2008 OK. How about:
( <:-\><:-\/> \/ <:-\></:-\> ) \/ ( <:-/><:-//> \/ <:-/></:-/> )
?-- nineteenthly, Jun 23 2008 //gender score// do me! do me!-- Voice, Jun 24 2008 Right, [Voice], i just cut and pasted three of your ideas into the Gender Genie as blog entries and you show up as female, with these statistics:
Female Score: 499 Male Score: 440
However, i note also that you refer to tipping your hat to a lady, which is interesting.-- nineteenthly, Jun 24 2008 Well, at least that means that [Voice] has only the one head .........
Or maybe multiple heads, but ony one hat ...........
<later>
Or possibly, multiple heads and hats, but only one arm/tentacle/claw/appendage ....-- 8th of 7, Jun 24 2008 Maybe [Voice] tips a hat on a male head to the other, female head on the same body, and has eight limbs and two sets of genitals? Pray tell, [Voice].-- nineteenthly, Jun 24 2008 What I don't get about this idea is that it won't even tell you what gender someone is, only what gender button they felt like hitting in a whimsical moment. I suspect the Gender Genie would probably be more accurate - which is saying something.-- wagster, Dec 10 2008 random, halfbakery