Incomplete demographic info deprives surveyors of information about who said what. It doesn't affect the answers given to the substantive questions. Asking for demographic info up front can affect the answers people give to the rest of the questions.
And in answer to your question, I assume it's virtue signaling because it is all the rage these days. Did you miss all the black squares on Instagram?
the black squares if I remember correctly were a way to signal that you are a good person who supports people who have been oppressed. maybe I am misremembering what the black squares were for - was it supporting World Government? which we also need
Does the SO survey ask for demo info before asking substantive questions? This is a well-known no-no.
I can't tell if you actually missed the black squares or are just trolling. This was very, very hard to miss. Even if you're not on Instagram, it was widely covered in the news. [1]
> I can't tell if you actually missed the black squares or are just trolling. This was very, very hard to miss.
I (not the person you're replying to) have no idea what you're talking about. Not on Instagram, and didn't read whatever news-bubble you read. I think you're making unwarranted assumptions about the universality of your personal bubble.
Supposing that every "result" represented a person who knows what you're talking about, that's still less than 0.1% of the English-speaking world. That would suggest that it's a bubble.
(on the one hand, of course most people don't create web pages, so perhaps this heuristic undercounts how many people would know. on the other hand, one person who knows creates many many web pages, and of course instagram people are disproportionately likely to have web presence, so this heuristic overcounts how many people would know. or perhaps your whole comment is silly. I don't know!)
You broke the site guidelines badly in this thread. We ban accounts that do that. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules in the future, we'd appreciate it.
And in answer to your question, I assume it's virtue signaling because it is all the rage these days. Did you miss all the black squares on Instagram?