Below are terms people frequently use when they should use another term.
Misused terms | Alternatives | Reason Why |
---|---|---|
GitLabber permalink to GitLabber |
GitLab team member |
"GitLabber” includes both the GitLab community and people who work at GitLab. When you want to refer specifically to people who work at GitLab, use “GitLab team member” instead. |
International Rest of world permalink to International |
Non-US or global |
By definition, we are all international and global, regardless of where in the world we’re located. International and rest of world are often incorrectly used to speak to non-US, so we don’t use them to avoid confusion. |
Enterprise Edition to reference a specific code or “Paid” users EE Code or EE to reference a specific code or “Paid” users permalink to Enterprise Edition to reference a specific code or "Paid" users |
MIT Licensed (code is open source) and Proprietary (code is source-available) to refer to code. Free or Paid users to refer to types of users. Enterprise Edition to refer to the specific distribution. |
|
Community Edition to reference a specific code or “Free” users CE to reference a specific code or “Free” users permalink to Community Edition to reference a specific code or "Free" users |
MIT Licensed (code is open source) and Proprietary (code is source-available) to refer to code. Free or Paid users to refer to types of users. Community Edition to refer to the specific distribution. |
|
Hi guys permalink to Hi guys |
Hi people Hi everyone |
We want to use inclusive language |
Aggressive permalink to Aggressive |
Ambitious |
We want to attract a diverse set of people |
Employees permalink to Employees |
Team members |
We have team members who are contractors |
Resources permalink to Resources |
People |
We are more than just our output. |
Community permalink to Community |
Wider community to refer to people outside of the company |
|
Radical transparency permalink to Radical transparency |
Intentional transparency |
Radical tends to be absolute and infers a lack of discretion. We are thoughtful and intentional about many things — informal communication, handbook-first documentation, onboarding, etc. — and have exceptions to transparency. |
Sprint permalink to Sprint |
Iteration |
We are in it for the long-term and sprint implies fast, not quick. |
Grooming permalink to Grooming |
Refinement |
The term has negative connotations and the word refinement is used by the Scrum Guide. |
Obviously permalink to Obviously |
Skip this word |
Using things like “obvious/as we all know/clearly” discourages people who don’t understand from asking for clarification. Also, be aware of the Curse of Knowledge when communicating. |
They Do not refer to other teams at GitLab externally as "they" (e.g., "Well, they haven't fixed that yet!"). permalink to They |
The Product team (example) |
There is no “they” or “headquarters” - there is only us as team members, and it’s one team. You could instead say something like “The Product team is looking at that issue…”. When used in the context of a pronoun, they is as valid as he, she, or any other pronoun someone decides to use. |
Deprecate permalink to Deprecate |
Delete Remove |
We usually mean we’re removing a document or feature whereas deprecation is leaving the thing intact while discouraging its use. Unlike other terms on this list, there are times where “deprecate” is the right word, for example in the formal product process. |
Diverse candidate Diversity candidate Diverse team member Diversity team member permalink to Diverse candidate |
Someone from an underrepresented group |
A single person cannot be “diverse.” Using “diverse” as a noun is an “othering” term. Instead, someone may be from an underrepresented group. It is okay to describe a team or any collection of people as “diverse”, however. |
Non-technical used to describe a person permalink to Non-technical |
Usually, people mean “non-engineering.” |
Everyone has technical knowledge that they used to perform in their role. |
Search Elasticsearch permalink to Search |
|
There are many kinds of search in the GitLab application; use complete feature names to describe areas. |
Telemetry permalink to Telemetry |
|
Avoid this word since it has the connotation of third-party analytics. It also is too broad so use something more specific. |
Rule of thumb permalink to Rule of thumb |
Guideline or Heuristic |
Rule of thumb is of dubious historical origins and can be considered a violent or non-inclusive term. |
Deadline permalink to Deadline |
Due date |
Deadline may have violent origins and we use |
locked and loaded permalink to locked and loaded |
prepared, ready, available |
Locked and loaded is a violent metaphor, referring to guns. |
Grandfathered permalink to Grandfathered |
Legacy |
Grandfathered has discriminatory origins. |
Whitelist Blacklist permalink to Whitelist |
Allowlist Denylist |
Whitelist/Blacklist have connotations about value and map to racial terms. |
POC permalink to POC |
Proof of concept Point of contact |
POC is ambiguous. It is often used to mean |
GitLab monitoring dashboard permalink to GitLab monitoring dashboard |
GitLab metrics dashboard |
Monitoring dashboard is too generic and is often confused with GitLab’s self-monitoring features. |
Second-class citizen permalink to Second-class citizen |
Different class of team member Being treated like you don’t belong/like an outsider |
When referencing people, “different class of team member” or “being treated like you don’t belong/like an outsider” is preferred when discussing such environments, since citizen has political and socioeconomic connotations. In a hybrid-remote environment (e.g. not GitLab, which is all-remote), those outside of the office may feel inferior or deprioritized compared to coworkers who routinely work onsite. |
Top of the hour Bottom of the hour permalink to Top of the hour |
Start of the meeting |
While most timezones in the world are offset from UTC by a whole number of hours, a few are offset by 30 or 45 minutes. |
Middleman permalink to Middleman |
Go-between, intermediary |
It is gender-specific and therefore exclusionary. |
Poor man’s solution permalink to Poor man's solution |
It is gender-specific and implies that someone with less money would come up with a substandard solution compared to someone who has more money. |
|
Senior moment permalink to Senior moment |
I forgot |
We should not associate forgetfulness with senior citizens. |
Biweekly Bimonthly permalink to Biweekly |
Twice weekly/monthly Every two weeks/months |
Biweekly and bimonthly are ambiguous terms. |
Functional group leader permalink to Functional group leader |
E-group leader |
The term “functional group leader” is a past term that has now been updated. See Org Structure. |
Functional group permalink to Functional group |
Department or team (depending on the context) |
“Functional group” is a past term that is no longer used. See Org Structure. |
Learning Playbook FAQ Standard Operating Procedure Training permalink to Learning |
The entire Handbook is our standard operating procedure. |
Using these terms can confuse and lead to duplicate content. For example: Call it Contract Negotiation Handbook instead of Contract Negotiation Playbook |
White-collar workers Blue-collar workers permalink to White-collar workers |
Knowledge worker Trade worker |
The original terms are outdated references and have socioeconomic connotations. There are also other color classifications that are less common. |
Customer names mentioned in recorded or streamed meetings permalink to Customer names mentioned in recorded or streamed meetings |
Refer to a Google doc agenda listing the customer name Use a codename |
We want to train ourselves to not mention customer names to allow us to be as transparent as possible. Whenever possible, we want to publicly stream our meetings to YouTube and to do that we need to be in the habit of not mentioning customer names. So we should avoid mentioning them even in privately streamed meetings. |
Portal permalink to Portal |
The (Customer) Portal is an overloaded term that has come to represent multiple aspects in GitLab’s Fulfillment process. To disambiguate the different components of the system we should use more specific language. |
|
Black Mark permalink to Black Mark |
Blemish Blot |
This phrase is meant to refer to a situation where someone remembers something you did and holds it against you unfairly in a later circumstance. However, it can unintentionally reinforce the idea that black is associated with negative or undesirable traits. |
Poaching Raiding permalink to Poaching |
Voluntary Attrition Recruiting |
In the recruiting industry these are common terms to refer to companies targeting other company’s team members to hire them away. But they are violent and warlike. So it’s better to use the more literal, technical terms. While we want to keep voluntary attrition low as a company we should never forget that it is great for our team members if they get lots of great offers from other companies. |
High Availability permalink to High Availability |
Reference Architecture Scaled Architecture |
All solutions come with a trade-off between cost/complexity and uptime. Each availability component comes with complexity and maintenance. Users should thoroughly analyze the benefits of a solution against its costs and the team’s readiness. |
Final Solution permalink to Final Solution |
Completed Solution |
While often natural to use this phrase when referring to a theoretical end-point of a developing feature there is historical sensitivity around the term and its use during World War II. |
Homepage permalink to Homepage |
Marketing Homepage Homepage Content |
Both about.gitlab.com and gitlab.com has a homepage. Use “marketing homepage” to reference the homepage of about.gitlab.com and “homepage content” to reference the homepage of gitlab.com. |
CPO as an abbreviation for Chief Product Officer permalink to CPO as an abbreviation for Chief Product Officer |
Avoid name collision with our Chief People Officer. |
|
TAM as an abbreviation for Total Addressable Marketing permalink to TAM as an abbreviation for Total Addressable Marketing |
Avoid name collision with the job-family of Technical Account Manager |
|
Drinking the Kool-Aid permalink to Drinking the Kool-Aid |
Living our Values |
This term is used pejoratively to refer to a person that believes dangerous ideas. It can also be used with humorous intent to refer to extreme beliefs, particularly in the startup realm where companies are celebrated for disruption. Unfortunately, it’s a reference to the Jonestown mass-suicide incident that took place in Guyana in 1978, and should be avoided because we don’t use violent analogies. |
War of Attrition permalink to War of Attrition |
Game of Cat and Mouse |
A “war of attrition” refers to a prolonged conflict where each side seeks to wear out the other by a series of small actions. This might be used to refer to activities such as fending off comment/issue spam content or abuse of our CI system to mine cryptocurrency. A Cat and Mouse game refers to a constant pursuit with near captures and repeated escapes, which is preferable because it’s less violent and not a reference to warfare. |
Livestream permalink to Livestream |
Public or private stream |
“Livestream” is ambiguous as to whether the stream is publicly or privately available. Using “public livestream” or “private livestream” is too long and people often shorten it to “livestream.” To ensure everyone knows the visibility settings of the stream, use “public stream” or “private stream.” |
Seasons (Autumn/Fall/Spring/Summer/Winter) permalink to Seasons (Autumn/Fall/Spring/Summer/Winter) |
Months (Jun-Aug, Mar-May etc) or more precise date ranges. |
Seasons are different in the Northern vs Southern hemispheres and can vary culturally too, meaning they are not only imprecise but they can also be exclusionary to the other hemisphere or non-Western cultures. |
Master / Slave permalink to Master / Slave |
Leader / Follower or Primary / Secondary |
This language can also be used to describe an unequal and harmful relationship between people. We can use language that is more consistent with our DIB values. |
Zuora permalink to Zuora |
Zuora Billing, Zuora CPQ (Configure Price Quote), Zuora Revenue, Zuora Orders, etc. Alternatively, you can say Billing, Collect, Revenue, Orders, etc. |
Zuora offers many products and using the term by itself does not specify what Zuora product you are referring to. Specifying the Zuora product will provide clarity and context to your audience. |
CultureAmp permalink to CultureAmp |
The name of the specific survey you are referring to - i.e., Global Benefits Survey, Engagement Survey, Values Survey, Inclusion Survey, etc. |
CultureAmp offers many surveys and using the term by itself does not specify which CultureAmp survey you are referring to. Specifying the CultureAmp survey will provide clarity and context to your audience. |
PII / Personally Identifiable Information permalink to PII / Personally Identifiable Information |
Personal Data |
PII is not the term used in most privacy laws and by definition PII is more narrow that what is legislated under global privacy laws. Personal Data is described in in the Privacy Handbook and the GitLab Data Classification Levels. |
Please note that some terms may have been excluded from exports.
Slackbot (via configuration) can remind team members when they use a misused term.