S'ok. I was asked for my preferred pronouns on an application (for a job I didn't care too much about, but the pay was OK) so I put my preferred pronouns as he/him/dude, which are my actual preferred pronouns. I was told never apply to the company again. They make video games...

My first response to reading this was "dude isn't a pronoun", but after thinking about it, I realize it is being used more and more as a pronoun and not just as a noun.

I wonder what other words can be used as a pronoun?

A name for the male segment of this class of words is "bronoun," which includes things like bro, man, guy, etc.

Basically anything you can use in place of a name, so long as the grammatical usage is namelike.

"That guy doesn't have a clue." -- guy is a noun

"Guy doesn't have a clue." -- guy is a pronoun (you can tell because "he" also works grammatically)

However, I think these would need to be in the initial position(s) when slash-delimiting one's pronouns, because the final position is for a possessive form. That is, they're analogous to "he" but not analogous to "his" (and using them like "him" would be a stretch, as far as I can figure...), which might be what got GP in hot water.

> "Guy doesn't have a clue." -- guy is a pronoun (you can tell because "he" also works grammatically)

You don't think that's merely people being lazy and leaving off a word that can be inferred ('That')? This is something I often do in casual conversation, particularly vocal conversations:

"I am wondering what you mean" - 'I' is a pronoun

"Wondering what you mean" - 'Wondering' is now the pronoun??? Clearly not. It's just a way that people are lazy and sloppy with grammar when correct grammar isn't important.

This is convincing.

But to answer your "wondering" question: nope, because "he/him/his," nor their analogues (person, number, gender, etc.), don't work there.

It really isn't a pronoun, but goes into the implicit versus explicit thing. If your pronouns are "He/Him" you want to be called "Man", implicitly. If I don't say "Dude", explicitly, how are they to know?... Plus, I've met several people who chafe at being called "Dude", and I prefer it TBH. "Hey, dude" or "Dude's got good coding practices" are perfectly fine by me, but I'm also in my 40's and it shows =/

When I first read this it did sound a bit funny - I'm guessing they thought you were trying to be humorous, but, like the other reply, I can also totally understand that you actually enjoy being called dude.

LOL. Love it. But wouldn’t it be dude/the dude/dude’s?

I mean, most spaces have those as roles that you can fill in, but don't have to. wrt pronoun roles, they are used for figuring out how to refer to you -- it is after all, a trans space where appearance and expectation won't match up with people's preferences, and where people are tired from the water-drip torture* that is constant implicit and explicit misgendering.

* - that is to say, each individual instance (drip) wouldn't cause pain, but when you face it almost constantly, and you're already hyperaware of it, it can cause a lot of anguish.

In this case they were mandatory. I get that it represents an issue for that community but I'm merely describing a schism compared with earlier internet attitudes and some spaces today.

I left the community because it just upset me to have to do that. a/s/l always broke my heart and it still does.

I also think asking for some of those things is absurd and intrusive. I would feel a little (*not deathly) uncomfortable baring my soul like that to some anonymous Discord admins. I'd like to know what others feel/why this is a downvoteable comment.

I participate in a Discord that is kind of similar. Not the same one, because my example has totally optional pronoun choice. But they have reason to be cautious of newcomers: before they added an interview/onboarding step, they were continually brigaded by trolls of various levels of sincerity. The internet can be a harsh place, and I understand the desire to create a refuge.

I totally get _why_ its like that, and I'm not upset, its just unfortunate that this is a chasm of difference between very early internet culture.

I am guessing you are downvoted because a transforum is arguable one of the very few places where that question makes sense.

I would find it deeply wrong if HN were to ask for the gender of their users, let alone their sexual preferences, but I would expect the same of a dating site.

But I don't disagree with you in general. I also miss the intimacy a nick could afford you. Somehow you could talk about deeper things when nobody knew your name.

Is that a problem? Just give them fake information.

it changes how people might act around you. I always wanted it to only be about the words.

Any group like that is going to get a lot of trolls, so you probably experienced a kind of manual captcha.

sure, its a shame because I really like the content.

You can also enter fake data (for the things that aren't important: e.g. location), I do this all the time on the internet.