We should use technical words in a technically correct way, or else public discourse becomes obscured and confused. Like what Discord did with the word “Server”, it’s not innocuous even when people are doing it by accident.
Language isn’t set in stone, and when people use the term “algorithm” when referring to the system in place that decides what content is put in front of them, people understand what they mean. No one gets this algorithm mixed up with the math/computer science term algorithm.
The discord one is slightly different, but I’d argue it isn’t that harmful, as Discord “servers” function effectively as a server from a user point of view. The only problem with this nomenclature is that it somewhat implies to a layperson that there is some form of privacy/security in place, which there isn’t.
We should use technical words in a technically correct way, or else public discourse becomes obscured and confused. Like what Discord did with the word “Server”, it’s not innocuous even when people are doing it by accident.
Language isn’t set in stone, and when people use the term “algorithm” when referring to the system in place that decides what content is put in front of them, people understand what they mean. No one gets this algorithm mixed up with the math/computer science term algorithm.
The discord one is slightly different, but I’d argue it isn’t that harmful, as Discord “servers” function effectively as a server from a user point of view. The only problem with this nomenclature is that it somewhat implies to a layperson that there is some form of privacy/security in place, which there isn’t.