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chore: better suggestions for blacklist / whitelist #45

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5 changes: 2 additions & 3 deletions content/faqs.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -38,9 +38,8 @@ Newspeak involved multiple changes but the most essential were:

Everything in the conscious language initiative is *the exact opposite* of that.

For example, "Denylist" is both more precise and more accurate than "blacklist";

"Primary" is both more precise and more accurate than "master" in projects that have made the switch.
For example, "Primary" is both more precise and more accurate than "master" in projects that have
made the switch.
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The goal of this project is to use more precise words, in order to avoid
unintended connotations that some common words and phrases have. Not
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7 changes: 4 additions & 3 deletions content/language/word-list.md
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Expand Up @@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ Lists which permit or deny a set of nouns, or select enabled features.

**Proposed alternative:**

* allowlist/denylist
* allowedNouns/deniedNouns
* `whitelist` -> exception list, inclusion list, list of allowed X / allowed X list
* `blacklist` -> exclusion list, prohibition list, list of unauthorized X / unauthorized X list
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**Reasoning:**

Expand All @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Because colors in and of themselves have no predetermined meaning, any meaning w
In the case of whitelist/blacklist, the terms originate in the publishing industry – one dominated by the USA and England, two countries which participated in slavery and which grapple with their racist legacies to this day.

From a technical communication perspective, using whitelist/blacklist as a naming convention applies metaphor (and, in turn, unintended meaning) when it isn’t needed.
More directly descriptive words like allowlist/denylist enhances understanding. Allowlist/denylist, or simply using allowed/denied as an entity prefix has the added benefit of being easily translatable to other human languages.
More directly descriptive alternatives such as the ones proposed above both avoid these connotations and also provide the additional benefit of being accessible to readers from other linguistic backgrounds. Other proposed alternatives such as `allowlist`, `denylist`, `grantlist`, `blocklist`, et cetera, do more harm than good when dealing with languages other than English, so they should not be used.

**Recommendation:** Adopt immediately

Expand All @@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ More directly descriptive words like allowlist/denylist enhances understanding.
* [IETF Network Working Group: Terminology, Power and Oppressive Language](https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-knodel-terminology-00.html)
* [Android PR](https://9to5google.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/android-aosp-allowlist-explanation.png)
* [cURL PR](https://github.com/curl/curl/pull/5546)
* ["Inclusive Language", a statement by Kludge Cyber Systems](https://github.com/kludge-cs/transparency/blob/master/open-statements/2021-04-04--TERMINOLOGY.md)

## Master, slave

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