Rename Comment Blacklist option to be more inclusive

[dartiss]

At the moment, certainly in the English translation, there is a "Comment Blacklist" field (Settings -> Moderation in WP Admin).

To make this more inclusive, I would like to see this renamed. My suggestion would be "Blocklist" but I'm sure there are others that would equally work.

[jorbin]

I agree the UI should absolutely be updated here. I don't want to change the underlying option as that is a backcompat breakage (unless we added code to handle that, but we would still be in the situation where blacklist is supported in code).

[dartiss]

Replying to jorbin:

I agree the UI should absolutely be updated here. I don't want to change the underlying option as that is a backcompat breakage (unless we added code to handle that, but we would still be in the situation where blacklist is supported in code).

Totally agree.

[dartiss]

Just noting here too, that once this change is live, we will need to update the documentation that the settings page links to - ​https://wordpress.org/support/article/settings-discussion-screen/#comment-blacklist.

[jeremyfelt]

48900.diff​ catches the screenreader text, but does not get the text displayed on the discussion settings page—one line above.

[jorbin]

In 46820:

Text Changes: Rename Comment Blacklist option to be more inclusive

This doesn't change the underlying option name as that would be a backcompat break, but it makes the UI a bit more inclusive.

Props dartiss, jeremyfelt, aaronjorbin.
Fixes #48900.

[desrosj]

In 48121:

General: Remove “whitelist” and “blacklist” in favor of more clear and inclusive language.

“The WordPress open source community cares about diversity. We strive to maintain a welcoming environment where everyone can feel included.”

With this commit, all occurrences of “whitelist” and “blacklist” (with the single exception of the $new_whitelist_options global variable) are removed. A new ticket has been opened to explore renaming the $new_whitelist_options variable (#50434).

Changing to more specific names or rewording sentences containing these terms not only makes the code more inclusive, but also helps provide clarity. These terms are often ambiguous. What is being blocked or allowed is not always immediately clear. This can make it more difficult for non-native English speakers to read through the codebase.

Words matter. If one contributor feels more welcome because these terms are removed, this was worth the effort.

Props strangerstudios, jorbin, desrosj, joemcgill, timothyblynjacobs, ocean90, ayeshrajans, davidbaumwald, earnjam.
See #48900, #50434.
Fixes #50413.