this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
411 points (97.0% liked)
196
3652 readers
2031 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I suppose it's a sign of the times - how things move forward, and how we learn from them - wherever you are in the world.
I'm guilty of having used Ford Tranny in the south of England, as it was widely used as a shortened term for the Ford Transit van. There's obviously no intention to use it as a slur as it's literally just a sawn-off model name, but I can see the hurt it would cause to someone from the trans community.
Same in Scotland, "I heard it on the tranny" or "get the tranny on" is simply an expression for a radio receiver, short for the transistor radio. I absolutely understand how it could ruin someone's day when used after being challenged however.
We live and learn.
I mean it's unconfortable to hear it but it's also an entirely different term
Like if you say your tranny failed and you point at your broken down vehicle, it'll sound pretty awkward to a lot of folks these days, but unless they don't know it's used unrelatedly to refer to a transmission I can't imagine many folks are likely to think you're trying to describe them as a lesser, invalid human on the basis of how they relate to gender.
I'd find it a bit awkward or uncomfortable but I certainly wouldn't take offense by it.
I don't think anyone who's used it to refer to like a transmission or transceiver or transit van is a bad person or anything. There's a lot of room for misunderstanding but part of communication is knowing your audience. Honestly that's probably the biggest reason I think it's a good thing it's falling out of favour- there's less room for misunderstanding
reminds me of the debate in programming about the central branch yor all changes in git being called
master. people wanted the terminology changed because they thought it was about slavery, like master/slave hardware devices. but it's not; it's your known-good version, like a mastered mix of a music track. that word has a different root and was never connected to slavery....but if you have to explain that every time, then changing it may be for the better. not because the people using it are bad, but because it makes new folks less likely to join. so the new default is
main.My issue with the 'master' debate is that the overwhelming number of people I saw fighting against its usage had only "added inclusive language to readme/CoC" as their GitHub history. At that point you're not a programmer, you're an idealogue injecting your preconceptions into a world that you don't understand. Frankly we need less intervention and presumption from this single viewpoint, the western white imperialist, and more people asking questions as their default mode of interacting with things they don't understand.
yeah that was an issue.
Tangentially related is whitelist/blacklist. Nowadays its more common to hear allowlist/denylist or blocklist. Though I'm moderately sure the dated term is coded in something racist, unlike your example.
Colour based terms are super cultural too from what I've been told, stuff like red being bad and green being good isn't universal so imo it's not a bad idea to use more explicit terminology.
Beyond that, if you go into reporting and the like, red/green colour coding for indicators isn't accessible (colour blindness isn't uncommon, last job I had a few colleagues with red/green and one with blue/yellow, I was told that making them very distinct shades helps a lot), people also print stuff out on monochrome printers (there's old data viz wisdom that suggested designing for this) so I prefered symbols when I did more of that work, still suggest it when I get asked to review things.
How many people had to be explained what a master copy is? Do these same people need to be explained what a master degree is?
As for the 'master and slave' terminology, yeah it should go away, if anything because it was rarely even accurate. For example, the IDE interface refered the primary drive as master and the secondary as the slave. But the primary drive has absolutely no control of over the secondary. It just defines who gets the bus id of 0 and 1...
At some point, if enough people are annoyed and the alternative is just as valid, the annoyance of getting used to the new term is worthwhile.
I was annoyed by the change like 5ish years ago, when the movement started, but now idc anymore.
The change still annoys me at times as the default to git is still master. Its the hosted git (Github, Gitlab, etc) repos that default to main. And on occasion I get reminded this when I push a local initialized repo to them...
That's configurable since Git 2.28. You can change
init.defaultBranchto main or trunk or whatever you want.it happens enough that it became worth it to go with it. people new to any field will come into it with only the "common" understanding of words, and it's such a small thing.
honestly even without it being the same as a slur it would only sound right coming from an aussie, otherwise it doesn't feel like a natural shortening
Imagine going to a mechanic because the engine is acting up and getting hit with "Your ignition timing is too retarded, it's killing the engine" without the necessary context.
(to advance/retard ignition is the correct terminology for setting the timing ahead/behind top dead center; also used in aviation for moving the throttle levers towards a higher/lower power setting)