I wanted to chime in here. Having been a member of this forum for over six years, the whole "gender" thing is something I've had discussions about with many people over the years.
I used to speak to many new girls in the chatroom, until keeping a much lower profile in recent years. I used to be friendly with two forum members, whom I of course will not name, who would pc me every time I started talking to a new member whose profile said female, and these two people would say to me: "Mitch, Susan K (A fictional name of course) is a guy". This would tick me off to no end. While these people might have thought they were being helpful, it didn't do me, or anyone else, any good, if I was trying to get to know someone, and these people pced me frequently, saying all this. Neither of these people had any proof that Susan K was or wasnt a guy, and they would only serve to do two things. One, upset me if I was trying to talk to someone, and two, unfairly smear Susan K, who might well have just been a new girl, trying to talk to and get to know a new guy.
I'm not naive. I'm sure that there are members on here, whose profiles say "Female", who are actually guys, coming on here to get their kicks, and fuck with people's heads. On the other hand, I'm sure there are far more people, who visit TMF, for the purpose of being legitimate. I try not to concern myself with the first kind of person. I completely understand Myriads and Jeff's positions, about neither them, nor the forum, having the resources to prove who and who isn't definitively a guy or girl. My advice to you would be this: Read profiles, take TMF for what it is, a place for people with the common interest of tickling to meet and discuss, and, if you befriend someone for a while, at that point, ask them to do webcam, send you a picture, or pictures, or call you on the phone. It would be extremely unwise, and would not make you many or any friends, if you go around saying to every girl you talk to "Hi, even though you dont know me, I want you to get on cam, or call me, so I can prove you're a girl". Use discretion. My feeling is, that anyone who is legitimate, will not mind.
I hope this helps.
Mitch