My older younger brother (think before you ask) recently joined Facebook and asked me to sign up in order to share his photos. So, reluctantly, I did. Surprisingly, I found the interface to be infinitely more intuitive than Myspace which I hate but joined in order to communicate with my grandson, Dakota, while he was in Europe with his soccer team. I know, lots of folks love Myspace, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a bloated, clumsy clunker.
Anyway, between the two, Facebook appears to provide a smoother user experience and a better sense of humor. For example, I found this post on the site’s own blog somewhat amusing. Apparently, some folks aren’t choosing a gender in their profiles, an omission that has caused some problems for Facebook’s language translators, so much so that they’ve asked members to kindly select one or the other. Of course, not to appear insensitive to users who haven’t yet decided which gender they want to be, Facebook has granted an exception:
“We’ve received pushback in the past from groups that find the male/female distinction too limiting. We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in Mini-Feed.”
The male/female distinction is “too limiting”? How so, I wonder. What other distinctions might there be? Anyone?