That, and to prevent it from being presumed all male. That is, without calling out pronouns, people will either default to "he/him" (which presumes everyone is male), or "they/them".
If you don't want to identify a gender, "they/them" doesn't.
But it normalizes calling out pronouns such that someone can say "I am a woman and would like to be called as such" without sticking out.
That's really the intention; by making it so everyone, even those who legitimately don't care how they're identified (which is a smaller number than those who are fine being 'defaulted' to 'he/him' or 'they/them'; most who don't want to call out a pronoun will object to being referred to as 'she/her') define a pronoun, it normalizes it for those to whom it is important. And it doesn't de-anonymize anything; "they/them" is an option, as is asking "please don't use pronouns when referring solely to me; use my username").
Sure, but it still would need to be provided pre-emptively; it doesn't really avoid the issue that some people have of having to upfront declare preferred mode of address. Even though that's perfectly normal even in day to day conversation, i.e., "Hi, I'm (name)".
> Isn’t the whole point of declaring pronouns that it gives you the option not to be gendered, if you prefer?
No, the point of declaring pronouns is to bring meatspace identity into cyberspace.
Sometimes that's the point of the space, as in social networks, but other times counter to the point. e.g. does anyone care what a typical HN user's gender is? Should they? I'd argue no, because we're here to focus on topics of common interest and our respective genders usually aren't relevant to that discussion.
An exception there might be users who we already know are dogs (those who have chosen to make their meatspace identities transparently recognizable from their HN identities).
Enforcing arbitrary pronouns aims to achieve the exact opposite: enforce the use of gender-specific pronouns to third-parties based on someone's preferences.
> Just default everyone’s pronouns to “they/them” unless they explicitly change the setting. Doesn’t seem like a big deal.
I fail to see the rational basis of complaining that "default pronouns" are pushed onto a small subset of users, but then suggesting that this problem goes away by pushing "default pronouns" onto everyone.
Who gives a shit about “rational basis”? It’s just basic courtesy to address people according to their preference.
Complaining about this increasingly makes you look like one of those assholes who refuse to remember someone’s name because “nobody in my family and friends has a weird name like that.”
Well, for starters those who show respect towards others and don't feel entitled to force their own arbitrary whims onto everyone around them and act as some kind of etiquette police .
If you have the gall to try to frame this issue as one of respect, the very least that's expected of you is that you show it towards others.
If you’re a pseudonymous dog, your pronouns can be “they/them”.