Have you ever run a sanity check on server? Perhaps had a service that’s hung?
Maybe you’ve had a housekeeping script, or wondered if a particular platform supports something natively?
Well, next time you look in the mirror, you’ve got a low-down, dirty bigot looking back at you and you should be ashamed at the incredibly insensitive language you’re using.
According to the new Inclusive Language Guide they’ve endorsed, most of the language that IT people use to discuss services, software, and projects is downright disgusting.
Check out some of the condemnations:
- Instead of “black hat” and “white hat”, you must say “malicious hacker” and “approved hacker”. Ironically hacker itself is a co-opted word whose originally meaning has been subverted.
- You can’t say “housekeeping” because…people shouldn’t keep house? Strange, because “housekeeper” is hardly a gendered term. Instead you must say “cleanup” or “maintenance” or “logistics”.
- “Sanity Check”? How dare you, you ableist.
- You can’t say “normal” or “abnormal” because…reasons? Instead you say “typical” or “atypical”.
- “Dummy”? You might as well be spitting on people in wheelchairs.
- “Hung” is labeled “violent Language that practices a degree of aggression”.
You’d be forgiven for thinking this was an Onion article, but it’s something the Linux Foundation actually believes in.
If everyone took these suggestions seriously, they would quickly turn into euphemism treadmills. Today we can’t say “normal” – tomorrow they’d be horrified someone says “typical” and would be suggesting a new term.
But really, who would take these ideas seriously?
“Avoid using idioms and jargons,” is another key recommendation. I’m not sure how someone has a conversation about information technology without using information technology jargon. Can we no longer use terms like “CPU”, “network”, and “compiler”?
Suggestions
The list seems to have a lot of room for improvement, in my opinion. Here are some terms they missed:
Horsepower: deeply inconsiderate to horses (and those who identify as equines), since they did not consent to their strength being commodified for mechanical comparisons.
- Primary/Secondary: these terms practically scream hierarchy, if not patriarchy.
Firewall: may be alarming to those with a history of house fires or fear of walls. I suggest using “Boundary of Warmth.”
Bug: derogatory toward insects, portraying them as inherently problematic when they’re just trying to live their best lives.
Thread: offensive to knitters, as it trivializes the noble art of textile creation for mere CPU scheduling.
Deadlock: insensitive to those dealing with jammed doors or locksmith trauma. And the violence!
- Fork: can cause distress to spoons and knives by implying cutlery hierarchy.
Cloud: could upset people who live in perpetually sunny climates and feel cloud-excluded.
Ping: might offend submariners who still have flashbacks from Cold War sonar drills.
Mouse: unfairly stigmatizes rodents, who do not deserve to be synonymous with point-and-click servitude.
Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.
Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.
His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.
You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.
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