

Words to Avoid - strikeanerve
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ForFree

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strikeanerve
“Content” If you want to describe a feeling of comfort and satisfaction, by
all means say you are “content,” but using the word as a noun to describe
written and other works of authorship adopts an attitude you might rather
avoid. It regards these works as a commodity whose purpose is to fill a box
and make money. In effect, it disparages the works themselves.

Those who use this term are often the publishers that push for increased
copyright power in the name of the authors (“creators,” as they say) of the
works. The term “content” reveals their real attitude towards these works and
their authors. (See Courtney Love's open letter to Steve Case and search for
“content provider” in that page. Alas, Ms. Love is unaware that the term
“intellectual property” is also biased and confusing.)

However, as long as other people use the term “content provider,” political
dissidents can well call themselves “malcontent providers.”

The term “content management” takes the prize for vacuity. “Content” means
“some sort of information,” and “management” in this context means “doing
something with it.” So a “content management system” is a system for doing
something to some sort of information. Nearly all programs fit that
description.

In most cases, that term really refers to a system for updating pages on a web
site. For that, we recommend the term “web site revision system” (WRS).

