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bigstrat2003today at 4:53 AM1 replyview on HN

No, blacklist and whitelist are far superior because blacklist is a normal English word. It isn't even a term of art, programmers just adopted a word that already existed in the English language (and used whitelist by way of analogy). The argument that the new terms are better holds no water whatsoever. The old terms were superior.


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Jarwaintoday at 5:47 AM

How is "allowlist" or "denylist" not more clear to, say, someone for whom English is a second language?

Sure blacklist was already an English word, but it's not necessarily _common_, and the distinction between blacklist and whitelist is kinda arbitrary. If you'd like to explain Why the word means what it does I'd love to hear it

Allowlist and denylist are clearer, in that the meaning is in more clear alignment with the words it's made up of.

The old terms just make more sense to those who are old enough to be used to it.

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