I received a rather strange feature request in my email:
Hello there, I'm using iMtG 4.4.0 rev 75
I am curious why the default players are all Sirs: "Sir One", "Sir Two." As a native-English speaker, "sir" commonly refers to a male. Is there a gender-neutral use for it?
Honestly, it's just a bit bothersome as I'm a female who loves MTG and opening the app to see me addressed as a Sir was disconcerting.
So maybe I'm missing a different use for the word? If you're using it in a gender-neutral way that I'm not familiar with, then fine. But if the names were created with the assumption the players would only be male, I ask that this gets changed.
Certainly more interesting than the usual "You should be able to play test decks on here" requests. Seems reasonable, though. I say either add a female gender option (I suppose Madam) to the players, or change it to a gender neutral term.
Us guys may outnumber the ladies, but there's no reason we shouldn't appeal to both genders!
Perculiar since you can change the names. But then, I'm a dude working in an elementary school of 80% women and it does rankle me a tiny bit every time I see feminine pronouns splashed across motivational posters and inspirational emails about teachers. Being the niche demographic makes a sir notice things that the madames don't even think about. And vice versa.
Plus it might be interesting to change the default to "Madame" just to see what kind of response it evokes 😈.
"Player" is gender neutral
That just escalated to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1m1coz/imtg_app_blatantly_excludes_female_players/
I don't even know how to respond to this.
Quote from: Gorzo on September 09, 2013, 05:52:00 PM
I don't even know how to respond to this.
You could keep my response readable on reddit by giving it points, if you believe that what I'm saying makes sense ;)
Quote from: Piotr on September 09, 2013, 05:27:26 PM
That just escalated to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1m1coz/imtg_app_blatantly_excludes_female_players/
That wasn't an obnoxious reply, her saying "EVERYONE FIND A REPLACEMENT FOR THIS APP AT ONCE IT SUCKS .rearend. BECAUSE THE STARTING LABELS ARE SIR EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN CHANGE THEM UGH PIOTR IS A GREEDY .female dog.
Wow! These people are obviously worthless idiots because they are wasting their lives launching an E-campaign over something small that can be changed. Some people either need to grow-up or have their parents supervise their internet interactions. I hope they know that if you wanted to you could easily request their information from their internet provider and sue them for defamation. I just hope that people realize people who are so petty (they called them self it) aren't worth listening to and this great app doesn't take a hit.
Quote from: Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth on September 09, 2013, 08:47:24 PM
Wow! These people are obviously worthless idiots because they are wasting their lives launching an E-campaign over something small that can be changed. Some people either need to grow-up or have their parents supervise their internet interactions. I hope they know that if you wanted to you could easily request their information from their internet provider and sue them for defamation. I just hope that people realize people who are so petty (they called them self it) aren't worth listening to and this great app doesn't take a hit.
She wanted an excuse to make a blog entry and post it on reddit, at the end of the day it is more probable explanation of what happened than theory that she is 'worthless idiot'. I suspected her to be one of the aspiring 'terrorist feminists' and I have given the excuse willingly, and she has proven me right.
Political correctness is a form of stupidity and one of the three things I hate most, so obviously I replied in my usual style. Polite enough to be safe and provoking enough to see the next step, which is the reddit escalation, free advertisement for iMtG, and some collateral damage such as this 1 star review:
Masochistic Player Names by Austindoggie - iMtG - Version 4.4.0 - 9 Sep 2013
The developer of this app uses the stupid "Sir One" and "Sir Two" names for the life counter in a dumb meme text. I don't support this sexist developer who assumes everyone who plays magic is a man. The developer refused to change it, and even replied with a snarky comment saying "we use sir because the majority of our players are male, just like we use colors because the majority of our users can see."
What is sad about it all is that if I was employed by one of the corporations and my boss was a moron (happens a lot as some of you know), I would be in trouble. What is also sad, is that instead of spending the whole day on TLC of the scanner as I planned, I had to drop it and take care of this silliness. You, the reasonable user base of iMtG, were hurt by this terrorist feminist, because rather than spending my resources helping you, I spend them defending our app from a bunch of .people who do not appreciate logic as much..
BTW, Main Menu -> Settings -> Colorblind switch was added because I got several complains from people who cannot say green from red. It is impossible for them because their eyes cannot differentiate between the colours, for them Hans, Run! is 2 colourless and 4 of reeen color. They cannot change the names, there's no know workaround for their problem. Here's an example:
"Hello there, I'm using iMtG 1.22.1
Awesome app by the way!
One recent change that's made it slightly difficult though, was the change made to the mana symbols. I'm sure this must have been due to WOTC copyright reasons, but it's made it slightly difficult to read offer me now, as I'm partially colorblind.
If at all possible, could the symbols be reworked to contain the mana letters in their respected colors? B/U/W/R/G in their color dots? This would make it almost as easy as when they held the WOTC symbols, and I hope wouldn't be too hard to implement.
Thank you kindly for your time. Again, awesome app, I'll be using it for a long time to come. Keep up the awesome work!
Sent from my iPhone"
Wow. People just need to chill out.
Quote from: Piotr on September 10, 2013, 06:36:07 AM
Quote from: Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth on September 09, 2013, 08:47:24 PM
Wow! These people are obviously worthless idiots because they are wasting their lives launching an E-campaign over something small that can be changed. Some people either need to grow-up or have their parents supervise their internet interactions. I hope they know that if you wanted to you could easily request their information from their internet provider and sue them for defamation. I just hope that people realize people who are so petty (they called them self it) aren't worth listening to and this great app doesn't take a hit.
She wanted an excuse to make a blog entry and post it on reddit, at the end of the day it is more probable explanation of what happened than theory that she is 'worthless idiot'. I suspected her to be one of the aspiring 'terrorist feminists' and I have given the excuse willingly, and she has proven me right.
Political correctness is a form of stupidity and one of the three things I hate most, so obviously I replied in my usual style. Polite enough to be safe and provoking enough to see the next step, which is the reddit escalation, free advertisement for iMtG, and some collateral damage such as this 1 star review:
Masochistic Player Names by Austindoggie - iMtG - Version 4.4.0 - 9 Sep 2013
The developer of this app uses the stupid "Sir One" and "Sir Two" names for the life counter in a dumb meme text. I don't support this sexist developer who assumes everyone who plays magic is a man. The developer refused to change it, and even replied with a snarky comment saying "we use sir because the majority of our players are male, just like we use colors because the majority of our users can see."
What is sad about it all is that if I was employed by one of the corporations and my boss was a moron (happens a lot as some of you know), I would be in trouble. What is also sad, is that instead of spending the whole day on TLC of the scanner as I planned, I had to drop it and take care of this silliness. You, the reasonable user base of iMtG, were hurt by this terrorist feminist, because rather than spending my resources helping you, I spend them defending our app from a bunch of morons.
BTW, Main Menu -> Settings -> Colorblind switch was added because I got several complains from people who cannot say green from red. It is impossible for them because their eyes cannot differentiate between the colours, for them Hans, Run! is 2 colourless and 4 of reeen color. They cannot change the names, there's no know workaround for their problem. Here's an example:
"Hello there, I'm using iMtG 1.22.1
Awesome app by the way!
One recent change that's made it slightly difficult though, was the change made to the mana symbols. I'm sure this must have been due to WOTC copyright reasons, but it's made it slightly difficult to read offer me now, as I'm partially colorblind.
If at all possible, could the symbols be reworked to contain the mana letters in their respected colors? B/U/W/R/G in their color dots? This would make it almost as easy as when they held the WOTC symbols, and I hope wouldn't be too hard to implement.
Thank you kindly for your time. Again, awesome app, I'll be using it for a long time to come. Keep up the awesome work!
Sent from my iPhone"
Didn't she just admit you did something GOOD to the app????? Also, the named CAN be changed... She obviously hasn't used the app much. *sighs* It's not that big of a deal!
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 09, 2013, 08:07:33 PM
Quote from: Piotr on September 09, 2013, 05:27:26 PM
That just escalated to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1m1coz/imtg_app_blatantly_excludes_female_players/
That wasn't an obnoxious reply, her saying "EVERYONE FIND A REPLACEMENT FOR THIS APP AT ONCE IT SUCKS .rearend. BECAUSE THE STARTING LABELS ARE SIR EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN CHANGE THEM UGH PIOTR IS A GREEDY .female dog.
Putting words into her mouth (especially one as misogynistic as "bitch") is not helping our case.
If she didn't write a blog post about this incident, I would think it was coming from a genuine place, but because she did, I feel like she just needed something to write about and saw an easy subject; a subject which is already rife with anti-misogyny outlooks (gaming communities hating females [see Wil Wheaton's "Don't be a dick" speech.]) I also feel like any response Piotr would've given would've elicited a similar reaction, giving her writing material to fill her blog with. She also took it to the internet's cesspool in hopes of bringing more traffic to her blog (as evident by her posting a link to it.)
Tl;dr We were catfished.
Edit: After I made my initial comment, I saw Piotr posted this: "She had malicious intent of using my app as excuse to post blog entry which she thought will be easy way for her to gain more followers." We are privy to Ms. Leslie's plans!
I'm grateful to Leslie (http://www.lesliebeslie.com/2013/09/09/why-do-gaming-communities-like-mtg-exclude-women) for many things: gracious linking, pointing out that I designed Life Counter better than it was in the days of default 1, 2, 3 instead of Sir One, Sir Two, Sir Three: I think she's right, Player One would fit (It would be redundant and take more space than Sir One, so no), for making me smile when I realised she couldn't figure out that iMtG can support 10 players not 8 as she lied* on her blog (Not all people are good at using touch interfaces and it is not obvious to some what page dots are and what scrolling table is. This is valuable reminder to a practical guy like me.) ;)
You can do a lot of good trying to harm, and the other way round. For example, I'm sure** that Obama is really a good guy, it's just that what he does turns out into doing bad things, accidentally ;)
Could I thank Leslie by making default player names @"Sir One", @"Sir Two", @"Sir Three", @"Sir Four", @"Sir Five", @"Lady Six", @"Sir Seven", @"Sir Eight", @"Sir Nine", @"Player Ten"? ;)
* as per iMtG law.
** a .loving. lie.
Quote from: Mikefrompluto on September 10, 2013, 01:01:52 PM
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 09, 2013, 08:07:33 PM
Quote from: Piotr on September 09, 2013, 05:27:26 PM
That just escalated to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1m1coz/imtg_app_blatantly_excludes_female_players/
That wasn't an obnoxious reply, her saying "EVERYONE FIND A REPLACEMENT FOR THIS APP AT ONCE IT SUCKS .rearend. BECAUSE THE STARTING LABELS ARE SIR EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN CHANGE THEM UGH PIOTR IS A GREEDY .female dog.
Putting words into her mouth (especially one as misogynistic as "bitch") is not helping our case.
If she didn't write a blog post about this incident, I would think it was coming from a genuine place, but because she did, I feel like she just needed something to write about and saw an easy subject; a subject which is already rife with anti-misogyny outlooks (gaming communities hating females [see Wil Wheaton's "Don't be a dick" speech.]) I also feel like any response Piotr would've given would've elicited a similar reaction, giving her writing material to fill her blog with. She also took it to the internet's cesspool in hopes of bringing more traffic to her blog (as evident by her posting a link to it.)
Tl;dr We were catfished.
Cheated? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZCDGBnC058
Quote from: Mikefrompluto on September 10, 2013, 01:01:52 PM
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 09, 2013, 08:07:33 PM
Quote from: Piotr on September 09, 2013, 05:27:26 PM
That just escalated to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1m1coz/imtg_app_blatantly_excludes_female_players/
That wasn't an obnoxious reply, her saying "EVERYONE FIND A REPLACEMENT FOR THIS APP AT ONCE IT SUCKS .rearend. BECAUSE THE STARTING LABELS ARE SIR EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN CHANGE THEM UGH PIOTR IS A GREEDY .female dog.
Putting words into her mouth (especially one as misogynistic as "bitch") is not helping our case.
If she didn't write a blog post about this incident, I would think it was coming from a genuine place, but because she did, I feel like she just needed something to write about and saw an easy subject; a subject which is already rife with anti-misogyny outlooks (gaming communities hating females [see Wil Wheaton's "Don't be a dick" speech.]) I also feel like any response Piotr would've given would've elicited a similar reaction, giving her writing material to fill her blog with. She also took it to the internet's cesspool in hopes of bringing more traffic to her blog (as evident by her posting a link to it.)
Tl;dr We were catfished.
Edit: After I made my initial comment, I saw Piotr posted this: "She had malicious intent of using my app as excuse to post blog entry which she thought will be easy way for her to gain more followers." We are privy to Ms. Leslie's plans!
I wasn't meaning to put words in her mouth. I merely... Paraphrased what I saw her saying.
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 10, 2013, 01:50:48 PMI wasn't meaning to put words in her mouth. I merely... Paraphrased what I saw her saying.
It doesn't matter. What matters is how SHE would feel if she was reading it, not how you did feel when you were writing it. Makes sense?
Quote from: Piotr on September 10, 2013, 02:44:11 PM
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 10, 2013, 01:50:48 PMI wasn't meaning to put words in her mouth. I merely... Paraphrased what I saw her saying.
It doesn't matter. What matters is how SHE would feel if she was reading it, not how you did feel when you were writing it. Makes sense?
I understand. I meant no harm, only to say what I felt, like she herself did.
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 10, 2013, 02:59:07 PM
Quote from: Piotr on September 10, 2013, 02:44:11 PM
Quote from: Mlerner12 on September 10, 2013, 01:50:48 PMI wasn't meaning to put words in her mouth. I merely... Paraphrased what I saw her saying.
It doesn't matter. What matters is how SHE would feel if she was reading it, not how you did feel when you were writing it. Makes sense?
I understand. I meant no harm, only to say what I felt, like she herself did.
No worries ;)