Just an idea when it comes to profiles and gendering. My profile appears in the male section and one would like to think that laydeez would be interested in looking at mens profiles like mine, you know, BUFF ( big, ugly, fat, fuckers) and those of us who find the opposite sex to our liking, and vice versa, or flippety flop for those of us with sub state school educational grades. However, of late I have been viewed by a few 'blokes' and whilst I understand and accept that mistakenly hitting a profile whilst browsing on a phone, can and does occur, I am guilty of this myself at times, I find it slightly disconcerting to receive messages from profiles stating they are looking for the same gender as themselves. I am in no way phobic to other peoples sexual preferences or lifestyle choices but does anyone else think that a section for the L.G.B.T.Q.I.PTO.LBW.RSVP.GN.SF in the community would make their lives a lot simpler? It's bad enough getting rejected by members of the opposite sex without get rebuffed by those who don't share your very liberal views on life partner. There are even guys with profiles in the laydeez section! What's that all about? Are they confused? Do they not know which category they belong to? Debate.
A separate section for LGBT people will not work unless they are open about their gender preference. Some people want to keep their preferences private. A separate section could also subject them to harassment. May be a polite rejection message is all that is needed, or a polite message in your profile to say you are not LGBT might stop the messages being left.
D6, I too have no issue with anyone's sexuality but when asked by 4 separate people on here (within a 5 week period) whether I was gay, I began to doubt myself!! So I decided to show my support to the LGBT-Q community by proudly wearing my old rainbow hat at the FYP this year!
Do people read profiles? Or do they only see what they would like to see?
By the way just to put everyone in the picture I am NOT gay, bi or curious. Although my mates (some of which are part of the LGBT-Q community) would probably describe me as happy and definitely strange!
It is what it is and in an ideal world there would be no labelling and everyone would do their own thing without harassment or persecution.
I think the fact this thread was posted in the joke section only confirms your suspision linz, that a lot of people dont pay careful attention to what they read and only see what they want to see.
Going through all the comments in the cold hard light of day, I have to reply to Karen. When a mans profile states clearly he is looking for 'Male', it doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out the intent, especially if no further clarification of their wants appears in their profile script. Again I will state I am not phobic towards peoples choices, my ex wifes brother was gay and it was my honour to ask his partner to be my best man on my wedding day, one of the funniest best man speeches I have heard. Together, they were good company and if I am honest, fiercely loyal friends. Sandi, I deliberately chose the joke section as a way of opening the debate because I knew it would be received negatively by some. If it were to help people of the gay biker community by having this discussion and possibly a separate section for them then what is the harm in that? Debate.
I didn't say there was any harm in it. Don't see why this subject should be in the joke forum tho. If some members want a separate section surely they can ask for themselves?
Just because someone looks at your profile doesn't mean they're interested in you. Maybe they saw you post something helpful in the forums and decided to see who they were talking to. Maybe they just want to see if they recognised a local person. Maybe they just clicked the wrong link (often happens with those on the homepage which are scrolling by I'm sure).
I'm always clicking the wrong profiles by mistake. I also just check randomly on profiles.
It really doesn't mean anything and it worries me that people are even bothered by this. If it's such a problem for you just don't look at who is viewing you. or I could just disable the whole logging for everyone then nobody knows who is viewing who (facebook for example doesn't tell you who has viewed you).
Stop thinking that everyone who views your profile is in any way 'interested' in you. That's a good start I think.
Matt, I did say in my initial post that I understand profiles are accessed by mistake, and by and large I don't bother looking in reciprocation, but when the same guy looks numerous times I do check their profile out and if they have selected males as their preferred search term I then block them as my way of letting them know I don't swerve that way. Also, when I get a pm from a guy and their profile says they are looking for males, I block them too.
I started this thread as a bit of tongue in cheek fun, but having thought about it, perhaps you should add a profile section for those interested in same sex partners, that way gay and lesbian or even bi members would know exactly who is of a like mind to themselves. For example, I have seen 2 blokes profiles in the female section, I haven't clicked on them so I don't know if they have mistakenly re-sexed themselves or if they are men looking for other men and think perhaps being in the ladies section might offer them a better chance.
As for perhaps recognising a local person, of the dozen or so blokes I have blocked are in locations nowhere even remotely close.
Please don't be so condescending to suggest that I think every view of my profile is a potential match. I am old enough to realise that just because someone looks at my profile doesn't automatically mean they are 'interested', but having said that, my profile doesn't get a lot of attention anyway, and that doesn't bother me either, if it did I would not pay my subscription every year now would I?
I get a large amount of male members view my profile,hopefully they're viewing the multitude of pictures from bikenites.....if not,then may i just say i'm flattered,but straight..ta
If I'm off to, or considering, something on the event calendar I'll often check out the attendees just to get a clue as to what folks are like. It's not because I have nefarious intentions. There again I'm only here for the social side so possibly see things a little differently.