My profile's about me randomly changed across all sites [duplicate]

Question

I have two styles for my user accounts:

1. Accounts under the Peilonrayz pseudonym.

   Same username and picture, similar about me.

2. Accounts that have been anonymized.

   Random name and picture, and no about me or other settings.

Due to getting a couple of yearling badges I looked at an anonymized account and found that Stack Exchange has copied one of my 'about me' sections to every account I own.

This is causing some of my profiles to expose PII.

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This seems to have affected me only after We’re Rewarding the Question Askers affected my account. Or it's just an unhappy coincidence.

Answer 1

A Stack Exchange staff member edited your user profile's "about me" section on November 13, 2019 at 20:58:09 UTC. (As a moderator on the network, I can see this information in a history log.)

As goldPseudo pointed out, when editing a user profile, one can choose whether to save the changes only to the current site/community, or whether to copy the changes to all sites/communities to which that account is linked. The editor must have chosen the latter option. (Note that only you and moderators, including staff, have the ability to edit your profile.)

I cannot see any details of why staff would have changed your profile (such actions are typically reserved for extreme cases), but you should have gotten a message via the site and/or via your associated email address containing an explanation. These messages have to be sent manually, however, and that extra step isn't always taken. (Although I feel strongly that it should be.)

I can, however, guess at what might have caused them to edit your profile. Your network profile (which is not synced with the per-site profiles) presumably still has your original "about me" contents, which includes some commentary on pronouns:

Pronoun: Peilonrayz
None of: They, he, she, and definitely not it

Reflexive: Peilonrayzelf
Possessive: Peilonrayz'
Other:     Peilonrayz

As you well know, this is a hot-button issue on Stack Exchange sites lately, and presumably an employee felt that your specification of pronouns violated the new policy. Given that the pronouns were all derived from your chosen nom de plume, it was most likely interpreted as an attempt of performative protest against the policy, akin to requesting that other users refer to you as "Your Highness".

As a moderator, I personally wouldn't have touched your profile's contents, but I can understand how a staff member could have gotten the impression that it was trolling behavior and removed it out of respect for other users' identities.

If you want to argue against the interpretation of the policy and/or plead for your profile's reinstatement, you can contact the team. However, I would suggest just not adding sort of thing back to your profile going forward. It serves no real purpose. If it was indeed an attempt to protest, consider doing so in a more appropriate forum, like a relevant discussion here on Meta Stack Exchange.

Answer 2

Setting aside the controversial issue of not recognizing one's preferred pronouns, I find it very disrespectful for a Stack Exchange staff member to disclose a user's personal information on a site that the user has chosen not to disclose.

OP, your profile seems to suggest that you are in the UK. You may want to investigate whether this behaviour constitutes a violation of the GDPR. (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.)

Answer 3

Some people "prefer to use only their name and not use pronouns at all". If that is all that is requested, it should not be counted as "obviously unreasonable" and "requested unkindly". (See point 8 of the implementation FAQ).

Pronoun: Peilonrayz
None of: They, he, she, and definitely not it

Reflexive: Peilonrayzelf
Possessive: Peilonrayz'
Other:     Peilonrayz

Cody tells us the above was removed from your profile by a Stack Exchange staff member. So in this case, you might consider using the "Contact" link at the bottom of the page, to submit a request to the staff.

I think the FAQ tries to focus on behaviour. In some cases, perhaps a staff member would look at a user's behaviour and judge a request in their profile as being "obviously unreasonable" or "trolling". I have no insight into whether that was the case for you.

I'm kinda anxious. If I was you, I would probably try to make sure I was being as convincing as possible. Considering the current unpleasant events. So I have some further thoughts.

In future, it might be useful to include a link to the Wikipedia section, or a similar introductory resource. And the quotation from it, or something similar.

Particularly because this specific possibility has not been mentioned in the FAQ. Perhaps an oversight in the FAQ. Although I would hope a moderator would be able to realize that this could be a possibility. Note that in some surveys, this possibility is no less popular than the most popular neo-pronoun (about 10% of non-binary survey takers).

It might also be useful to drop the "Peilonrayzelf" line. It's a fun line, but I don't think it is necessary. If it's the equivalent of "myself", then you're the only person who needs to use it. (Deleted, see comments).

Trolling

"considered to be trolling behavior" ... a "protest against site policy".

I have seen a number of Meta posts, about how users should engage if they suspect trolling. Here are links to two that might be relevant.

Neopronouns or trolling? (answer by Shog9)

How should we respond to posts that might be written by trolls? (answer by Kate Gregory)

"Please don't call someone's pronouns made up"

If a moderator needs to publicly explain a decision, they should try to exercise all reasonable care.

I note the FAQ does not use the phrase "made up". For a new word to enter the language, the first thing that has to happen is for someone to make it up.

There have been multiple examples of people complaining in a hostile tone, that all neopronouns are "made up". Part of the hostile tone comes from the connotations of that phrase, that they're not "legitimate".

Considering all of the above, I would hope moderators would be careful with this phrase.

Answer 4

It seems highly unlikely that this is a bug. Comparing your current profile with your network profile, someone (either yourself or a moderator) apparently just edited your profile on one site and applied the change with the "Save and copy changes to all public communities" button. If this was yourself, well, it's an honest mistake that can happen to anyone. If this was a moderator, there's a good chance they'll follow it up with a private moderator message explaining their actions if they haven't done so already.