why gender?

i mean, why do we even have a field for it? DW, not being beholden to advertisers, certainly doesn't need to know that about us?

i would guess one reason is that many people want that marker. i recall on some bulletin boards people even wanted little blue and pink icons (*gah*!) so gender was more instantly recognizeable.

are there any other reasons? there probably are and my brain is just not fully online right now. do enlighten me, if you can.

(the userpic is meant for something entirely different, but never worked for that, and it struck me how oddly it fit my observation about BBs.)

observations

i've been subscribing to lots of people i don't know -- mostly from meeting them on #dw, but also from picking over denise's enormous reading list. i am purposely not just choosing people who seem to have a lot in common with me. and it's really good for me, i think -- i'm hearing more different voices now. not that my flist on LJ has been unidimensional by any means, but for the most part it consists of people with whom i've hung out in the same online places for years if not decades, and while they don't bore me in the least, there is something to the freshness of the new voices that shakes up my own thoughts more.

now, i could have done this on LJ any time, but generally i did it rarely, and only when somebody's linked post had really inspired me in some way. i really like that dreamwidth has split the old friends list into access and subscribe. yeah, i am sure there will be wank about that too, some people will get just as upset at somebody not granting them the same level of access that they grant, but it does take some of that general angst away. and the mere removal of the word "friend" emboldens me to subscribe to anyone i care to, because it no longer seems so fraught with unintended meaning. "subscribe" is perfectly neutral and reflects what i am doing pretty well.

i am not going to crosspost this. i am worried that my LJ flist will get annoyed with all the dreamwidth squeeing; one person has already griped about how DW, DW, DW everywhere makes her want to run in the other direction. i feel weird about not crossposting because i also don't want to deny my flist my content to draw them over here (something else there is griping about from an anti-DW faction). but hey, this _is_ my new home. it'll mostly shake out with DW making cross-site communications easier, so i am not going to push anything.

GIP

it's azz's fault inspiration.

tree shoggoth

dreamwidth goodie:

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