Beware of outdated terminology #110
Description
I've edited this in the chapters I worked on, but we need to be careful to update a lot of terminology from the words that may have been used in OSW#1. I'd like to use this issue to keep a running tally of them.
The ones I've run across include:
- Fork a Project: because of git and Github, the term "fork" now refers to a code management operation and not a social action. Use "split a project" or "project splitting" instead.
- BDFL: due to numerous high-profile conflicts between the most prominent BDFLs and members of their communities, the "B" in "BDFL" is taken by a lot of readers to be ironic. In most cases, use "project founder" instead.
- Meritocracy: likewise, the term "meritocracy" has become a charged word because of publicized abuses of the term, and should not be used casually. Use "do-ocracy", "contributor-led", or similar terms instead.
- Mailing List: there's an assumption that an email list will be most project's communication format of record. Many projects today use some form of chat, or Github or Gitlab issues, Kanban boards, or even GoogleDocs as their primary communication mechanism. So use "mailing list" to refer to actual email lists, but when you want to say "project communication" say that.
Add the other out-of-date terms you've run across so that we don't accidentally keep them in the draft. Thanks!