5 ms·

I can relate. Recently learned while talking to some folks from Spain, that they use the word "puta" a lot, and it is used to express feelings not meant as a ru

I can relate. Recently learned while talking to some folks from Spain, that they use the word "puta" a lot, and it is used to express feelings not meant as a rude insult, as they explained. There are some differences in German, too. For example "wixen/wichsen" is an old word that means to wipe/shine your shoes and is still in active use in this sense in Switzerland as well as Austria, however it lost its appeal in Germany, because it is now primarily with a different meaning. The Wix company took this different understanding of its brand name to an ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IddnMutPgTI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IddnMutPgTI Since we have an IT background here, same goes for "Mongo", like in MongoDB. Mongo is considered making fun of handicapped people in Germany. Former Fraport AG changed its brand name because it was abbreviated FAG - Flughafen AG and found it difficult to expand business with that brand name. No bad actors, if you ask me, only different context. List could go on and on...

tjungblut 5y ago
That reminds me of a time where we had the substring "prd" in our Azure Storage Accounts. The MSFT profanity filter thought it meant fart in Czech, where we used it as a moniker for production. Ever since then the accounts were named with the substring "prod".
- anshorei 5y ago
  Reminds me of AoE chat filters, which aren't satisfied with censoring specific words, but literally just any words that resemble it. Which one looks more offensive to you? "Hold on, my dock is nearly up" "Hold on, my ** is nearly up" Censorship can actually make things MORE offensive. (other censored words include "but" and "come")
  - jaclaz 5y ago
    On some (techhical) bullettin boards you couldn't talk about Matsushita CD/DVD drives, but luckily enough Panasonic was fine. Still, all in all, automatically replacing a (supposed) swear/offensive word with some asterisks makes less overall damage than banning someone's account (temporarily or for longer periods or forever). It is simply intimidating when you have to think twice or thrice before saying something for fear of being automatically banned (without possibility of explanation/recourse).
formerly_proven 5y ago
I'm not so sure about MongoDB, they also named their Ruby bindings Mongoid.
vintermann 5y ago
Yes, it's pretty surprising that MongoDB has gotten by without change when even "master repository" had to go. What's seen as offensive online is very US-centric, I knew that, but I didn't know mongo wasn't a well-known slur in the US. People with Down's syndrome used to be called "mongoloids" because they were thought to have Asian-looking eyes (epicanthic folds), so calling someone "mongo" or "mong" is basically an extra racist way of calling someone mentally retarded.
- kayodelycaon 5y ago
  Even as a sheltered American, I know “mongoloid” is not “politically correct”. Having an important ruby library by the same name makes me uncomfortable.
  - mbg721 5y ago
    Is this "niggardly" all over again? At some point we're going to run out of inoffensive syllables.
    - rosndo 5y ago
      How is this even a little bit similar to “niggardly”?
- gkbrk 5y ago
  > "master repository" had to go. It had to go? Certainly not gone from git itself, Github or most other Git hosting services. If someone creates a bug report on your project about virtue-signalling word changes and you give it credibility, it doesn't mean the original word went away from the lexicon.
  - vintermann 5y ago
    Pretty sure main is the default on the hosting services, if you create the project there first.
- ChoGGi 5y ago

tjungblut 5y ago

That reminds me of a time where we had the substring "prd" in our Azure Storage Accounts. The MSFT profanity filter thought it meant fart in Czech, where we used it as a moniker for production. Ever since then the accounts were named with the substring "prod".

anshorei 5y ago
Reminds me of AoE chat filters, which aren't satisfied with censoring specific words, but literally just any words that resemble it. Which one looks more offensive to you? "Hold on, my dock is nearly up" "Hold on, my ** is nearly up" Censorship can actually make things MORE offensive. (other censored words include "but" and "come")
- jaclaz 5y ago
  On some (techhical) bullettin boards you couldn't talk about Matsushita CD/DVD drives, but luckily enough Panasonic was fine. Still, all in all, automatically replacing a (supposed) swear/offensive word with some asterisks makes less overall damage than banning someone's account (temporarily or for longer periods or forever). It is simply intimidating when you have to think twice or thrice before saying something for fear of being automatically banned (without possibility of explanation/recourse).

formerly_proven 5y ago

I'm not so sure about MongoDB, they also named their Ruby bindings Mongoid.

vintermann 5y ago

Yes, it's pretty surprising that MongoDB has gotten by without change when even "master repository" had to go. What's seen as offensive online is very US-centric, I knew that, but I didn't know mongo wasn't a well-known slur in the US. People with Down's syndrome used to be called "mongoloids" because they were thought to have Asian-looking eyes (epicanthic folds), so calling someone "mongo" or "mong" is basically an extra racist way of calling someone mentally retarded.

kayodelycaon 5y ago
Even as a sheltered American, I know “mongoloid” is not “politically correct”. Having an important ruby library by the same name makes me uncomfortable.
- mbg721 5y ago
  Is this "niggardly" all over again? At some point we're going to run out of inoffensive syllables.
  - rosndo 5y ago
    How is this even a little bit similar to “niggardly”?
gkbrk 5y ago
> "master repository" had to go. It had to go? Certainly not gone from git itself, Github or most other Git hosting services. If someone creates a bug report on your project about virtue-signalling word changes and you give it credibility, it doesn't mean the original word went away from the lexicon.
- vintermann 5y ago
  Pretty sure main is the default on the hosting services, if you create the project there first.
ChoGGi 5y ago