DLD #10 [All righty then!]

Actuallly... People need to be able to call you something. I understand that some people may be in circumstances where their "public" pronoun doesn't match their "preferred" pronoun (eg. trans people who aren't "out" yet). In that case I would suggest using your "public" pronouns. Even for the story, this would make sense because various NPCs are more likely to refer to you by "public" pronoun. They might be friendly towards you, but they aren't necessarily your "implicitly trusted friends". So they, too, should use your "public" pronoun if it differs from your "actual" pronoun. I hope that makes sense. I'm honestly still trying to comprehend the whole pronoun thing. I happen to be cisgendered, but even if I weren't, I personally see it as "it's just a word, who cares?" Between that and my mental condition (see other posts where I've opened up about that) it's very difficult for me to empathise with people who are more sensitive to such things. I'm trying here! :D

Whoops! I'm blind, clearly! My bad. c':

I guess when it comes down to it, all I'm asking is that we have the option to not have it shown on our profiles if we so choose. We can choose to change them at will, why should we not have the option to not display them at all if we wish to keep that to ourselves? Not everyone interacts in the forums or with others on a constant basis (I mean, I'm one of them and speaking up in this thread has been *nervewracking* for me because hello anxiety around people I don't know). I can understand the game's storylines needing it, but that's something only I will see--not everyone else on the site (rather, their experience is tailored to their preferences). I dunno, I guess I just grew up in a time where you didn't share anything personal on the Internet and I still adhere to that pretty strictly. Things like my name, where I'm from, my gender/sexuality, birtdate, and what pronouns I prefer are all things that I wish to not share with the wider world, and having the pronouns displayed on my profile robs me of that choice, I feel. I get it's not a big deal to most and that, like I said, I'm in a small minority, if not entirely on my own here. All I ask is that the option to choose whether or not they're displayed in our profiles is considered.

If you don't specify them, people will choose for you. Someone may be on your profile interacting with your Pokémon, maybe see something cool and tell a friend "hey check out his Shiny Eevee" or whatever. People are going to refer to you one way or another. Even in real life, people need to mention you in third person. Why would you not want the freedom to choose that?

Usually people default to using they/them or he/him for people they don't know. People might make assumptions if you put down they/them, true, but like...no matter what you do, people will have to make assumptions. Even if you don't list pronouns, people will make assumptions. I guarantee you people aren't thinking in their head "Oh, Cerberus38 is doing well on Cerberus38's charmander hunt" "I wonder why Cerberus38 doesn't want people to know Cerberus38's pronouns?" Since these pronouns are custom, you can even put any/all or none/none or something similar. You can even put in "Cerberus", it fits within the limit. It would make the story dialogue a bit strange, but tbf it would align with how you'd want others online to talk about you as well. I say all this while also having the personal opinion that it wouldn't be a huge deal to have this be a toggleable setting somewhere for it being displayed on your profile (as it's not really necessary, unlike how it's necessary for the story), just, yknow, PFQ's historically averse to toggles so I'm trying to offer suggestions. Maybe you can make a suggestion for it in the proper forum and see if others share your sentiment/support it as well?

That's an interaction I would never see or hear about, so it wouldn't really matter (to me) how they decided to refer to me. Why would I not want the freedom to have the *choice* to put this on my profile or not? That's what it's about, having the *choice*, the *option*, whether or not I want that information on my profile. I get it, it's a stupid, silly thing to be hung up over and I apologize if I've caused any problems or come off as harsh or rude, as that wasn't my intention. Maybe I live under a rock, but this is the first instance I've seen where a game or server or something is requiring me to have my pronouns listed for all to see, and it just... makes me uncomfortable, because to me (I realize that's very narrow and specific and certainly doesn't apply to any or everyone else) that's personal information that I don't wish to share until I'm ready to do so. I'm sorry that I'm repeating myself and can't articulate this better, as it seems it's not working to fully explain how I feel.

Sorry if this is weird, but if it's any help, they/them is often used as a gender neutral identifier in most conversations, so you could use that if you don't want to give away gender identity? (IE "What are they doing over there?" Or "Hey, Cerberus seems concerned, what can we do to help them?") If I remember reading correctly, there are custom options and thus it/its would also be not reveal anything relevant to your gender identity and allow you to avoid revealing any personal information? Altertantively, perhaps leaving it blank just doesn't show any information on profile and the game itself uses they/them as default? I obviously don't know how to program, although thinking about it you're right, I can't think of many forums that force you to display a pronoun.