[HumanReadable]

it's less clear to non-native English speakers what the hell a blacklist is than what a deny-list is.

EDIT: the replies I received to this comment are pretty shocking to me. I'm not arguing for the removal of anything, I am only listing one issue with blacklist that deny-list doesn't have. Anything you're reading into my comment beyond that is your tribal identity projecting its insecurity.

[IlliOnato]

I'm a non-native English speaker, and I must say that you are wrong.

Even forgetting that many languages have exactly the same construction ("black list") with the same meaning, the thing you do as a non-native speaker with an unfamiliar word is to look it up in a dictionary, or guess its meaning from the context, not try and run some inverse etimology on it.

I mean, for years I understood what "paste" meant (as in "copy and paste") and used that word without having any idea about "paste" being some sort of glue. I still have no idea where the word "parkway" comes from, but understand the word and use it. (If I were to guess from its parts I would arrive to something like a "garden path":))

[HumanReadable]

I didn't claim we should remove the world blacklist. The comment I was responding asked for things I find wrong with blacklist, I replied with one.

[ogogmad]

1. By this logic, we should abandon most words in the English language, because non-native speakers might otherwise need to learn them. Somehow though, you've applied this logic only to the word "blacklist". And why should a language with its own literature and history abandon its own vocabulary?

2. The usual reason given for not saying "blacklist" is because of supposed racism. Your argument is a new one, and seems to have been produced post-facto. Your comment is sophistry.

[edit] Removed some scathing remarks.

[rbanffy]

Even if the readability argument was created after the fact, it still stands. It’s immediately clear what an “allow-list” means.

[ogogmad]

By that logic, we'll have to give up most words in English. This is entitled to the extreme. You have been arguing with me for the sake of arguing.

[rbanffy]

Not really. English remains the most spoken language in our circles and it's immensely helpful because of that. What we can all do is to look for better names. Master/slave can be replaced by primary/replica, publisher/subscriber and a lot of others that offer narrower meanings and, therefore, are better names.

[major--neither]

do you seriously not understand what you're doing?

[HumanReadable]

The comment asked for things wrong with the word blacklist. I replied with a reason.

I'm not arguing for the removal of the word, I don't know why you think I am.

[major--neither]

> [edit] Removed some scathing remarks.

you mean you white-washed some remarks?

aha!

;)

[esarbe]

Not sure I buy that argument. In German they have the "Schwarze Liste" which essentially means.

German is pretty close to English though, so I guess your argument could still hold for other non-related languages.