A common issue faced on the site, especially in public chatrooms, is the (usually unconscious) assumption that whoever you're currently talking to is male, and as such, a lot of people unconsciously refer to others with he/him pronouns without really thinking about it. Many people will default to they/them no matter who they're speaking to, which isn't the biggest issue in the world, admittedly, but can also be uncomfortable for users who don't use neutral pronouns. Alternatively, in the event a user comes out as trans, other users may not know and will continue to (accidentally) misgender them, which can be upsetting.
The issue of accidental misgendering, while minor, could be easily fixed by allowing users to display their pronouns next to/below their avatars. These pronouns would not reset with a logout, similar to a user's avatar, but they would be editable at any time.
Currently, the closest we have to a feature like this is statuses, but these are imperfect. Many users don't know that they're available as an option, while many users may require that space for other messages. Adding a toggleable pronouns button where users could write in their pronouns to display them when their username is clicked on would both free up a users status for whatever message they need there while also preventing the feature from essentially requiring users to be "in the know" to properly take advantage of it.
Does this open the door to some inherent sillyness or misbehavior? Potentially, but no more than statuses themselves already do. In the event a user is seen abusing this feature to an unacceptable degree, they can be given the proper punishment, but I do not feel like this mild drawback should prevent PS! from implementing an otherwise incredibly positive accessibility feature.
Mockup of what this might look like
The issue of accidental misgendering, while minor, could be easily fixed by allowing users to display their pronouns next to/below their avatars. These pronouns would not reset with a logout, similar to a user's avatar, but they would be editable at any time.
Currently, the closest we have to a feature like this is statuses, but these are imperfect. Many users don't know that they're available as an option, while many users may require that space for other messages. Adding a toggleable pronouns button where users could write in their pronouns to display them when their username is clicked on would both free up a users status for whatever message they need there while also preventing the feature from essentially requiring users to be "in the know" to properly take advantage of it.
Does this open the door to some inherent sillyness or misbehavior? Potentially, but no more than statuses themselves already do. In the event a user is seen abusing this feature to an unacceptable degree, they can be given the proper punishment, but I do not feel like this mild drawback should prevent PS! from implementing an otherwise incredibly positive accessibility feature.
Mockup of what this might look like
