Brig asked

June 4, 2000 3:07 PM

Brig asked the weblog world for a gender check. Four percent said it's not anyone's business. Well if it's not anyone's business why take the poll? 621 people think it's no big deal. And it is no big deal. In fact, who cares what plumbing is behind all these blogs? Why am I even posting this?? Somebody just shoot me.
posted by ZachsMind (4 comments total)

I didn't know if the poll was going uncover anything new; if you would have asked me at the start to predict the final percentages, I would have said 60-40 m-f, and although it started out near 55-45, it seems to have ended up in between. At least it's good to have data to back up our guesses.

The "none of your business" option is a valid one. People can vote for their disapproval of the poll or any form of sexism by voting that way.

I always refuse ethnic surveys for a similar reason - I can't think of any positive way the data being gathered could be used, so I always opt-out. People are people, don't separate them into groups and count them, it's a pointless exercise.
posted by mathowie at 4:47 PM on June 4, 2000

Well, answering a poll with "none of your business" really made no sense, when you think about it. A more apropriate option might have been "Does it matter?" or something.

Wow, Brig really inspired me...now I gotta know the female to male ratio at my site.... if the female ratio dropped, then I know it's time to cut down on the "potty humor".... or cut & paste my head on Halcyon's body. :0)
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 6:47 PM on June 4, 2000

I chose "none of your business" because I delight in making the world a little bit more complicated. And I don't like all that "file yourself in the proper bin" rubbish anyway.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 7:22 PM on June 4, 2000

Had "none of your business" read "does it matter" I wouldn't have answered "male." It's not that it's not anyone's business. In most cases you just have to read the weblog to get an idea of the gender. My point was that it's just kind of a silly question.

Like going into an IRC channel and someone asks for a gender check or an age check. It just seems silly and childish, but someone asked Brig if she knew, and how else would she find out then ask? ..or he.. Brig is short for a girl's name, right? Gee now I'm all confused.

The fact the results turned out almost 50/50, with it being a bit more men than women, well that was probably rather predictable.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:02 PM on June 4, 2000