I'm sure there aren't a ton of us, but here's a question for the ladies on DP: I advertise that I need services quite often and I often get "Dear Sir" in my pm box. I also often get rep that says stuff like "awesome post, dude," and other things along that line. Do you other ladies also get mistaken for a guy on Digital Point and why do people assume that my username which is not really gender biased is that of a male? Is it because of the high concentration of DPers?
Yeah, it's funny because I mostly buy content and require good English and the terms "Dear Sir" is a sure-fire non-native English phrase.
I haven't experienced this,mostly i got emails address "Dear Sir/ Madam" I think this is one of the good approach...
The world of webmaster is dominated by man, so usually other users will presume us ladies as man and address us that way.
Standard misogynist crap from "men" who don't consider that women would work in this world. I have no problem with being "one of the boys" but if you automatically assume I'm a man, or call me "dude" then you need to take a good look at the world and realise that women are doing all the same jobs.
Your username could be for either a male or female, and your avatar doesn't make it clear either (unlike Sarah's), so that could be why. The default is to assume male unless clearly otherwise - might not be "right" but that's just the way it's been for ages and in any industry. If your name were Melanie, Melody, etc., maybe including that in your sig would help minimize confusion.
This is a common practice. In general, do not pay any mind to it. The main thing is that you know you are a woman. And you'll stay being her regardless of form of addressing to you.
Agreed. It doesn't majorly bother me, but sometimes it's like... c'mon, really? But yeah, I'm going to change my avatar and see!
awesome post, dudette Happy now? No really... must be annoying... just like playing Sims online and everyone thinks you are a girl! Although after joining this forum I have become a bit more aware of the amount of women in the online business industry!
Its best to address a pm or email to anyone using Sir/Madam. I always do that incase I don't know the person I am speaking to. Its best to be on the safer side!
Yes Melbel it happens to me a lot too. I even got some itraders like "good GUY to work with" and reviews like "It was really nice working with HIM" and at that time i need to correct them that i am a female for GOD sake @ jhmattern .. My username is purely a female name but most of the people are not aware of this as its non-English name and maybe that's the reason and my actual name is "Faiza" but its just a different style of writing it as "Phyza" and i am famous with the same username all over Internet and my avatar represents a female too but still i never got someone who did'nt got shocked when i told them "I am a female" lol Btw i see 80% of the guys using female pics as in models/actress etc. so its still hard for anyone to recognize it via avatar. Thanks PHYza
What percentage of DP users are women here ? I'm male and will certainly use Dear Sir / Madam in future now!
Bloke's get it too , I get PM's all the time saying " Hi dear" again sure fire non native English speaker, Dear is something my nan says to my mum lol. Its either people have no comprehension of what these phrases mean or they just don't give two shits. Personally i couldn't care less as long as they do a good job.
According to Quantcast, 39% of Digital Point members are female. http://www.quantcast.com/forums.digitalpoint.com
Yeah but we all know thats not true, it's probably closer to 10% How does QC even get that info ? No one asked me if I was male or female...
I know it's not exact and even with my own site, their stats are a bit off. However, I do kind of have an idea of where they get their information. They get it from various things that users fill out online, not necessarily from Digital Point, but different sites you may visit. For example, when you install the Alexa toolbar, they ask you questions... basically demographic data. And then I'll visit sites such as Digital Point and my female-ness will be added to genders that visit Digital Point. QuantCast may have something similar or even purchase Alexa's info. I never really went that far into that in Marketing school.