Though late, some sensitive people are working toward making the world more inclusive and more appreciating.
Twitter engineers have presented the best example. Notably Regynald Augustin and Kevin Oliver have worked out on to formulate certain terms to replace the age-old terms that are loaded with the discrimination based on gender, age, birth, disability, or such racially fraught boundaries.
The best thing is that such efforts are also being taken up with other organizations including Microsoft, LinkedIn, Apple, Google, Python, Drupal, Quick Heal, and others. Many of these organizations plan to complete this effort in a year.
A Comparative Table That Shows the Neutral Terms
Some of the common words widely used in technical information have been replaced with inclusive terms.
| Non-inclusive Terms | Inclusive Terms | My Recommendation |
| Whitelist | Allowlist | For desktop-based software, use “Allowlist” as one word or “Allowed List” as two words.
Example: Add the trusted websites to the Allowlist / Allowed List. For handheld devices, prefer “Allowlist” as one word. |
| Blacklist | Denylist | For desktop-based software, use “Denylist” as one word or “Denied List” as two words.
Example: Add the websites to the Deny list / Denied List that you do not trust or are inappropriate. For handheld devices, prefer “Denylist” as one word. |
| Master/slave | Leader/follower, primary/replica, primary/standby | Primary/secondary |
| Grandfathered | Legacy status | — |
| Gendered pronouns (for example “guys”) | Folks, people, you all, y’all | — |
| Gendered pronouns (for example “he”, “him” or “his”) | They, them, or their | — |
| Man hours | Person hours, engineer hours | Engineering hours
The term “engineering” is more neutral than the term “engineer”. One “man hour” should be considered as one “engineering hour”. |
| Sanity check | Quick check, confidence check, coherence check | Quick check |
| Dummy value | Placeholder value, sample value | Placeholder value |