First off, I have just realized the apostrophe in the thread title is misplaced. Apologies to all fellow pedants.

Thing is, I like to know when I am replying to a post, whether the poster is male or female. Obviously this is impossible in the case of anonymous Guests, although my presupposition is that he/they are invariably male.

There are however a number of members whose chosen handles give no clue as to their gender. Often it is possible to deduce from their postings whether they are male or female, but not always.

What I am proposing is that if your handle does not identify your gender, you could post to this thread simply stating "Male" or "Female" in the message. Not a big deal, and maybe you wish for some reason to remain ambivalent, but I feel it would be useful for other members to know. I can think of one or two past incidences of confusion regarding this issue.

I mean , I would be seriously embarrassed if I were to allege that someone lacked balls, and subsequently found out that I was addressing a woman ..................

Murray