On our community blog we have authors that use they/them pronouns and would like to give them the option to list this in their author profile. Rather than adding it to the name field or misusing any of the other fields, it would be helpful if there was a dedicated field for that in the user profile. Is anything like this planned?
It hasn’t been planned but, then again, no-one has asked for it before. We are always open to suggestions!
Do you have a GitHub account? If so, you could open an Issue on the ClassicPress repository. If not, let’s see what others think of the idea and whether anyone has particular views on how it could or should be implemented.
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I like to think CP is inclusive and accessible so ny vote is to include such feature.
Should it be in core or just a plugin?
That is a great question - my idea is that it should be given as an option in core. I do not really like plugins touching the user profile really…
On reflection, I think I prefer this as a plugin, and here’s why. Adding such a field in core won’t actually achieve anything. The value stored there will need to be output somewhere over which core has no control, and no current themes will display it. So it would need custom code in a theme or plugin to make use of the field. In which case, it seems to me that a theme or plugin should be what creates the field in the first place.
Oh I see, you are saying adding in core means we would need to change the profile front-end but even having the templates to output it when a theme has no way to display it it serves no use. That makes a lot of sense and I did not think so thanks for pointing that out.
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I have now thought of more issues with this. Should the field have fixed options of (say) he, she, they, or should there be an “other” alternative too, or should the field be freeform? The answer will depend on how the field is going to be output, which is entirely context-specific and something core will not know about. So I’m now convinced that this is plugin territory.
makes sense because for example in Italy such field could be used to output Mr., Ms. etc… I think it should offer a free form text field to add to profile and a way to output it with the name when the name of the person is shown.
Another simple option however without having to code a plugin for this, since often I see the name and (she/her) after it would be to simply write that in the name field (it would show like for example “Laura (she/her) Green”. Or if written after the surname it would show as “Laura Green (she/her)”.
I know this means everyone has to write their pronouns, but it offers the freedom to indicate them or not indicate them.
I think a dedicated pronoun field would be a useful addition. It would keep author profiles clear and give people an easy way to share their preferred pronouns without changing other profile information. A simple optional field would work well.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t. It would just provide a means of putting that information in the database. Nothing in core would make it available to anyone other than the same user. That’s why this is a matter for a plugin.
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I agree with @timkaye
Also, this is country specific and also used in specific circles only, as opposed to the title (Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr, etc).
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Believe this would be too close to privacy expectations. Menbership or social plugins may find this part of the plugin but for core it is best to have safety and privacy. Just as the user name has several choices to hide or display your real name. My vote would be, No.
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