The final straw.

[L number Banana]

That is not Alex but it certainly is the only Dude in existence...

Whew, I thought sidguppy had gone to a whacked-out Mr.Rogers kind of reality...

[grokefish]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Lebowski

[Shane]

Strangely though, my (perhaps erroneous) impression of a non-native speaker is that people (americans?) would often lump both sexes together in "you guys", as odd as it still sounds to my ear, but almost never or just never in "you dudes". Maybe a US thing too - don't know how it is in UK, Australia, or South Africa, etc.

This comes from the fact that the modern English language lacks a second person plural form of address even though we need/want one. "Technically" you is plural and thou is singular, but no one speaks this way anymore.

Since English lacks this form we often come up with regional ways to express second person plural. Some of the common forms are:
You guys (most widely used)
you'uns (US south)
ya'll (US south)
all ya'll (Texas, one of my favorites)
Youse (rhymes with "news")(Scotland, UK)
Youse guys (New York)

I mostly heard South Africans use "you people," which I found mildly offensive as it sounds like an accusation to me.

Dude, since I am from the west, refers to someone from the city that is unfamiliar with country life, and more specifically, does not know how to ride a horse.

So as to not totally get off topic, I am sorry to hear about your fish loss.

-Shane

[bronzefry]

I mess up virtually a lot. Going gender neutral just seems so wrong.

I stick with my original sentiment. We all go through tough times. Take a step back! Remember why you got into this in the first place and look to the Big Lebowski for some serious laughs.
Amanda

[grokefish]

So as to not totally get off topic, I am sorry to hear about your fish loss.
-Shane

lol, cool.

This si speak easy and I for one am better educated by your post.

[Viktor Jarikov]

This comes from the fact that the modern English language lacks a second person plural form of address even though we need/want one. "Technically" you is plural and thou is singular, but no one speaks this way anymore. Since English lacks this form we often come up with regional ways to express second person plural. Some of the common forms are:
You guys (most widely used)
you'uns (US south)
ya'll (US south)
all ya'll (Texas, one of my favorites)
Youse (rhymes with "news")(Scotland, UK)
Youse guys (New York)
I mostly heard South Africans use "you people," which I found mildly offensive as it sounds like an accusation to me.
Dude, since I am from the west, refers to someone from the city that is unfamiliar with country life, and more specifically, does not know how to ride a horse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Lebowski

there's only one dude, dude and this is him:

I am aware of the mentioned members genders dude, I call everyone dude, even my mother. This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dude Made me chuckle.

...and the education of the linguistically- and culturally-challenged me goes on...

Good ones, youse'all guys-dudes-people!

[Mod edit: Clean up URL link that got messed up --Mats]

[Viktor Jarikov]

I mess up virtually a lot. Going gender neutral just seems so wrong. I stick with my original sentiment. We all go through tough times. Take a step back! Remember why you got into this in the first place and look to the Big Lebowski for some serious laughs. Amanda

Well, at least you sign with your, likely, real name, which gives away your gender with, hmmm, roughly 95% probability these days? The funny thing I remembered is that when I was in grad school at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA in the late 90-ies, we had a post-doc in our group from Bangladesh, a real nice, sweet guy, whose name was Ananda Sarker. The smart people at the local telephone authority GTE decided he did not know how to spell his name right, so he was featured as Amanda Sarker in the local phone books...