When Does it End

My day started with this post on the Techwr-l list:

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Subject: Politically correct term for four-eyes authorization?

Hi,

We have a problem with a term in our product documentation (and the UI as well), and I'd like to ask for your collective wisdom.

In line with the four-eyes principle, our product can require an authorizer to approve (and possibly review) the actions of a user. Currently, this is dubbed four-eyes authorization. The problem is that the "4-eyes" term is derogatory and should be changed. Possible candidates we found and are commonly used are "dual control" and "two-person rule", but these are not as accurate, because in every definition I could find (for example, http://www.theserverside.com/report/Integration-of-User-Control-Mechanisms-into-Secure-Critical-Applications), they refer to two users who have the same privileges to perform an action, but can only do so together. In our setup, this is not the case, one of the users is who performs the action, and the other approves that.

If any of you works in an IT security or finance-related field, have you encountered a problem with four-eyes before? (And how did you solve it?)

Thanks a lot for your ideas in advance.

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Off-list, I responded with this:

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I don't accept your conclusion that "4-eyes" is derogatory. I've been called "4-eyes" on occasion when someone refers to me wearing glasses. If anything, I don't think it's accurate as I wear glasses so, by the definition that "4-eyes" means someone with glasses, I wouldn't think I needed a second person. Is there a reason you have to call it "anything" at all and simply focus on naming the task the user is doing with your product. Something like "Obtain Authorization from a Second User."

We have something in the system I work on now where a person reviews a response to an essay and then assigns a score, based upon established criteria and project rules. The response to the essay is then routed to another user and that person reviews the same response and then assigns a score. If the scores are the same, all is good. If the scores are different, they go to another person who reviews the response and assigns a score. That third person who assigns a score is "adjudicating" the assigned score. The name of that task is, yep, " Add an Additional Score for Adjudication of Score Differences."

Good luck.

[rant: I'm saying all of this because I went through something similar years ago while working at a telecommunications billing software company. I was talking to the lead designer about a project that would add two types of the same entity to the system. One was going to be the highest level and was to be called "master" and the term for its subordinates? Yep, "slaves". The lead designer said, "We can't have 'master' and 'slave' in our system!" I said, "Why?" "Because it could offend someone!" "Does our system have anything to do with the Civil War?" "No. " "So why would you apply terms that are most commonly associated with the Civil War to our system?" My point was that "master" and "slave" in our system had nothing to do with the despicable legacy that caused the Civil War. It is a term that is used in the IT industry and our use of it, in the IT industry, was appropriate. Lately, it's getting worse. Society is just getting too crazy with what you can say and what you can't say. For example, if you work at a specific company and say, "you guys", you now have to put $1 in a jar because "you guys" is sexist. Another example is if you describe someone that robs someone else as a 'thug' it's now considered a racist term. One time I mentioned that "the office girls" were making copies for me of a user manual only to be called out for that phrase because it was "sexist." Finally, and this is more about the dumbing down of our society, if you attend college at Utah Valley, there's now a third lane in some areas on the sidewalk. One is labeled "walk" one is "run" the third is "text", which is for those walkers that are texting as they walk. Someday we will have no way to communicate because all words and even actions will be deemed inappropriate because they will offend "someone" in some way. It has to end somehow. [/rant]

Sorry if this rant offends you but I thought it might best describe my perspective.