On Thu, 13 Sep 2018 at 17:15, Mark E. Haase
Let's assume her proposal was made in good faith.
Certainly. I'm opposed to any proposal to change long-established and common usage wording on the basis that it has the *potential* to cause offense. If anyone is *actually* offended by the wording, let them speak up, and explain why they find it offensive. Otherwise, I'd prefer to assume that people are sensible, and have a certain level of willingness to take others' words in good faith, rather than assuming offense where none is intended. It would be easy for me to claim that the culture of assuming offense where none was intended is itself a divisive and corrosive factor in society at the moment. But if I did so, that in itself would be making unfair assumptions of the intention of people making proposals like Samantha's, so I won't - I'll merely say that I'd like any proposal such as this to be backed by specific evidence of real-world cases that demonstrate that the change is needed, exactly the same criteria as we would use for a proposal for a technical change[1]. For what it's worth, I'd also have preferred it if the recent change to eliminate the (pretty standard) master/slave terminology from the documentation had been subject to the same requirement for evidence of need. Words have multiple meanings. Assuming that a word used in one context automatically brings along context and connotations from a totally unrelated area seems silly to me, to be honest. Language isn't that black and white[2]. Paul [1] I appreciate that questions of what makes good, or even acceptable, prose are very subjective. So concrete evidence is harder to produce. But nevertheless, at least an honest attempt to produce *something* would be better than simple unsubstantiated statements like "you can't argue that the word "ugly" is harmless" (yes I can - and I will, if you insist), or references like "In the spirit of the big recent terminology change" to other controversial changes as if they offered unqualified justification for more of the same. [2] There's an example - in case anyone thought otherwise, the phrase "black and white" referred to contrast between opposites, and not racial stereotyping, or indeed any reference to people as opposed to abstract concepts...