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The list it is on is about what words to use in external product documentation and marketing. Not some "if you use these words internally the word police are go

The list it is on is about what words to use in external product documentation and marketing. Not some "if you use these words internally the word police are going to come after you" list. I'm going to be charitable and suggest this person is just accidentally leaving out context, rather than deliberately trying to rile people up because they disagree with something :)

lubesGordi 5y ago
I mean, I'm still pretty shocked to hear 'motherboard' isn't allowed in external product documentation. I don't think it matters if it's internal or external.
- mattkrause 5y ago
  "Mainboard" is arguably a bit more literally descriptive: it is the main board of the device. The figurative part of "motherboard" is pretty vague: it's just larger than the "daughterboards" and in charge of them--it doesn't birth or nurture them or do anything that's stereotypically maternal.
  - fluoridation 5y ago
    Often power is transmitted from the motherboard to be daughterboards, and the two are connected via a conduit like a fetus in the womb. It's not a completely arbitrary metaphor. As for whether it's the main board or not, surely that's a matter of opinion. An AI researcher would be much more interested in what the GPU board is doing than on what the motherboard is doing.
    - mattkrause 5y ago
      It's certainly more central to the device itself. You can run a computer without a GPU, NIC, sound card, etc, but regardless of the peripherals you want, you're gonna need some kind of motherboard/mainboard to tie everything together. I've heard claims that it's a motherboard because it has female connectors (i.e., sockets), but that's sort hard to square with the contemporary coinage of "daughterboards."
unethical_ban 5y ago
Motherboard isn't offensive. It shouldn't be offensive. If someone is offended by it, that is a problem of theirs. The idea that a large, influential organization plays along with the idea that "motherboard" should in any way be filtered is as absurd as filtering the words "table" or "stereo".
- DannyBee 5y ago
  Sorry, but i'm going to trust the folks who think hard about what should and should not be in documentation that ends up in literally hundreds of different countries more than an an absoluteist HN statement that "it's not offensive" from a random person. But in typical HN fashion, i'm sure you know better. Just like the people who say that X or Y should take 2 people over a weekend. Remind me again what your experience is here to say they are wrong? Are you a culture expert of some sort? It's really not obvious from your HN profile or comment exactly why you think your expertise should overrule theirs. Otherwise, i'd say it sure is fun to get upset and pretend it's the reactionary woke police, rather than a group of people carefully thinking something through.
  - bitcharmer 5y ago
    Saying that something is or isn't offensive doesn't require being and expert in cultural studies. You just know it by the virtue of being part of the culture and observing what the trends of the majority are. I think your militant stance on the subject is more problematic than someone else's view that the word motherboard is not offensive. Also, advocating for some narrow unknown group of people to have exclusive right to define language gives off a little cultish vibes.
    - DannyBee 5y ago
      "part of the culture". See, this is the whole issue right here. It's not about a single culture. It's hundreds. This wordlist is for global products with literally billions of users in literally hundreds of countries. Yes, it requires experts to know what will be inoffensive to all of them at once (or at least, the vast majority). Your "narrow unknown group of people" is really "people who are experts at language and culture and understand this". Paying and asking them to help figure out how to create common standards that will cover the majority of the hundreds of cultures at once does not seem cultish or militant at all to me? It is something literally every single company with literally billions of global users in hundreds of cultures does. Otherwise they end up naming their product something offensive to a culture, etc. News stories about those gaffes occur literally all the time, so i'm sort of shocked you are really trying to argue that trying to avoid them is somehow cultish. I am probably one of the least "politically correct" people you will find, and i'm not even all that progressive in the scheme of things, yet this clearly makes sense to me. So I look at this, and see HN having a huge overreaction because they are upset the world is becoming a lot more politically correct for no obvious benefit. That bothers me too - a lot in fact. I just don't see the particular thing complained about in this part of the thread (a wordlist used to ensure google doesn't say offensive things in product documentation) all that objectionable. The original article, about offensive/inclusive/etc AI writing nudges, bothers me about 1000x more than the wordlist.
flippinburgers 5y ago
I don't see how that matters at all.
zionic 5y ago
> The list it is on is about what words to use in external product documentation and marketing. So this list is real, you own it, and you acknowledge that as a continued employee you are supporting this nonsense?

lubesGordi 5y ago

I mean, I'm still pretty shocked to hear 'motherboard' isn't allowed in external product documentation. I don't think it matters if it's internal or external.

mattkrause 5y ago
"Mainboard" is arguably a bit more literally descriptive: it is the main board of the device. The figurative part of "motherboard" is pretty vague: it's just larger than the "daughterboards" and in charge of them--it doesn't birth or nurture them or do anything that's stereotypically maternal.
- fluoridation 5y ago
  Often power is transmitted from the motherboard to be daughterboards, and the two are connected via a conduit like a fetus in the womb. It's not a completely arbitrary metaphor. As for whether it's the main board or not, surely that's a matter of opinion. An AI researcher would be much more interested in what the GPU board is doing than on what the motherboard is doing.
  - mattkrause 5y ago
    It's certainly more central to the device itself. You can run a computer without a GPU, NIC, sound card, etc, but regardless of the peripherals you want, you're gonna need some kind of motherboard/mainboard to tie everything together. I've heard claims that it's a motherboard because it has female connectors (i.e., sockets), but that's sort hard to square with the contemporary coinage of "daughterboards."

unethical_ban 5y ago

Motherboard isn't offensive. It shouldn't be offensive. If someone is offended by it, that is a problem of theirs. The idea that a large, influential organization plays along with the idea that "motherboard" should in any way be filtered is as absurd as filtering the words "table" or "stereo".

DannyBee 5y ago
Sorry, but i'm going to trust the folks who think hard about what should and should not be in documentation that ends up in literally hundreds of different countries more than an an absoluteist HN statement that "it's not offensive" from a random person. But in typical HN fashion, i'm sure you know better. Just like the people who say that X or Y should take 2 people over a weekend. Remind me again what your experience is here to say they are wrong? Are you a culture expert of some sort? It's really not obvious from your HN profile or comment exactly why you think your expertise should overrule theirs. Otherwise, i'd say it sure is fun to get upset and pretend it's the reactionary woke police, rather than a group of people carefully thinking something through.
- bitcharmer 5y ago
  Saying that something is or isn't offensive doesn't require being and expert in cultural studies. You just know it by the virtue of being part of the culture and observing what the trends of the majority are. I think your militant stance on the subject is more problematic than someone else's view that the word motherboard is not offensive. Also, advocating for some narrow unknown group of people to have exclusive right to define language gives off a little cultish vibes.
  - DannyBee 5y ago
    "part of the culture". See, this is the whole issue right here. It's not about a single culture. It's hundreds. This wordlist is for global products with literally billions of users in literally hundreds of countries. Yes, it requires experts to know what will be inoffensive to all of them at once (or at least, the vast majority). Your "narrow unknown group of people" is really "people who are experts at language and culture and understand this". Paying and asking them to help figure out how to create common standards that will cover the majority of the hundreds of cultures at once does not seem cultish or militant at all to me? It is something literally every single company with literally billions of global users in hundreds of cultures does. Otherwise they end up naming their product something offensive to a culture, etc. News stories about those gaffes occur literally all the time, so i'm sort of shocked you are really trying to argue that trying to avoid them is somehow cultish. I am probably one of the least "politically correct" people you will find, and i'm not even all that progressive in the scheme of things, yet this clearly makes sense to me. So I look at this, and see HN having a huge overreaction because they are upset the world is becoming a lot more politically correct for no obvious benefit. That bothers me too - a lot in fact. I just don't see the particular thing complained about in this part of the thread (a wordlist used to ensure google doesn't say offensive things in product documentation) all that objectionable. The original article, about offensive/inclusive/etc AI writing nudges, bothers me about 1000x more than the wordlist.

flippinburgers 5y ago

I don't see how that matters at all.

zionic 5y ago

> The list it is on is about what words to use in external product documentation and marketing. So this list is real, you own it, and you acknowledge that as a continued employee you are supporting this nonsense?