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The popular social networking Web site Facebook announced a
new set of rules when it comes to its users’ details, as several problems were
reported in the cases when users chose not to select whether they are males of
females in their profile descriptions.
Up until recently, the Web site operated strictly with an
English menu, but as its popularity rose and its archives registered more than
80 million users, the company decided on expanding its services, step by step, with
an additional 15 language package.
Before, in the case of an incomplete registration, the
procedure was simple: the company’s grammatical device referred to the
individual users using a form of the gender neutral pronoun "they." But
now, with 15 other platforms, the formula fails to properly address the users
and as the company’s product manager Naomi Gleit explained: "We've gotten feedback from translators
and users in other countries that translations wind up being too confusing when
people have not specified a sex on their profiles," he said, as quoted by
Reuters. He also added that "People who haven't selected what sex they are
frequently get defaulted to the wrong sex."
Even though it may seem to be a minor problem for many,
Facebook’s officials decided to rapidly fix it, in order to make sure that all
of its subscribers are pleased with the Web site’s services, knowing that there
are surely some who might consider the issue rather sensitive.
The new company policy will demand users to state whether
they are male or female on their basic information form with an option to hide
the gender, similar to the way they can hide the year they were born or their
age.
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