WebProNews

Facebook is requesting that its members declare if they are male or female so it can correct a grammatical device that causes the site to refer to users as "they" or "themselves."

Grammatical errors in the messages Facebook uses to personalize pronouns when members communicate with their friends have increased since the site launched in other countries that do not speak English.

"We've gotten feedback from translators and users in other countries that translations wind up being too confusing when people have not specified a sex on their profiles," said Naomi Gleit, a Facebook product manager. "People who haven't selected what sex they are frequently get defaulted to the wrong sex entirely in Mini-Feed stories."

If members don't declare which sex they are they will receive a prompt asking if they want to be referred to as "him" or "her." That information will not be visible in members "basic information" but will be displayed in mini-feeds and news feed stories.

Facebook will allow members to opt - out if they do not want to specify their gender. They will be able to remove reference of their gender from messages about their activities.

The option is similar to a feature that allows members to not display their birthdays or remove the year they were born.