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MNHQ

Gender specifications on your Mumsnet account: update

6 replies

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 10:29

Morning folks,

Following on from last week’s thread about our asking you to sign up to Mumsnet as male or female, here’s where we’ve landed.

We’ve had a careful read of the thread, and done some more general reading around and investigation into how this is handled elsewhere, and we think the best way to proceed is to add the option “other” to the list of responses to the question of gender. Viz

Female
Male
Other (please specify) _

This is how lots of other sites navigate this, so we hope it’s not too controversial.

As ever when it comes to questions around gender, we’re aware that not everyone will agree, but this seems to us to be the most inclusive and sensible route to take.

Do let us know what you think.
MNHQ

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MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 11:51

Hey everyone,

So: first up, you don't need to fill it in at all, if you'd rather not; MN will still accept your registration if you skip that question.

On the question of why we ask, the answer's twofold. In the first place, it can be useful to have demographic information about our users for campaigns and so forth. In the second, it's useful for us to know a bit about you as we hope, at some point down the line, to be able to tailor useful/relevant content to individuals - ie not to show you an ovulation calendar at the side of the thread you're on if you're male. Advertisers don't tend to ask us for data on gender at the minute (possibly because we're a site called Mumsnet Grin). However, as I said, you're under no obligation to fill this in at all if you don't want to.

HairyLittleCarrot, we're expecting to make the change in the next couple of days.

MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 12:15

Hey all - we ask other questions too (are you pregnant, do you have children, their ages, etc) all of which we'd add into the mix when it came to showing relevant content - but again, as I said, you can choose not to fill this out. It really is up to you; there's no obligation.

MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 12:25

JugglingFromHereToThere the gender/children/etc questions all appear on the second screen when you register, and you can skip that whole screen if you want to. Will have a look at precisely how it's worded (I need to log out and rereg to check!)

MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 20/01/2016 14:30

Hey everyone,

I fear I've further muddied the waters here. To be clear - we're not asking for gender or sex. The question will be worded, simply, "Are you..?", and underneath that there'll be a drop-down menu, which will show "Female" as the default answer (based on the site's current usership). If you click on the menu, you'll be able to change it to "Male" or "Other". If you pick "Other", you'll be shown a box saying "Please specify".

Again, to be clear: you don't have to fill ANY of this in.

MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 21/01/2016 10:11

@TheWomanInTheWall

Actually it would be more in keeping with MN if there was a "fuck off and mind your own" box, right?Grin
Grin

Ok, we'll do this. We may rephrase it slightly (along the "rather not say" lines), but the sentiment's there.

MNHQ

OliviaMumsnet · 21/01/2016 21:19

Hi all
Just to let you know that we've removed and will be removing any posts that were personal (and apols if there were delays there) so that we can get back to the discussion
Thanks ever so

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