To be honest, I am not sure where this post should be classified, but I can gladly move it if need be. So please advise if the better choice would be " Off Topic" instead of in here as I have placed it already. Thanks.
Anyway, whenever I download a portable application from here, I see the advertisement (or recommendation, what have you, etc...) to "whitelist..." this or "blacklist..." that, etc. As this verbiage sounds a bit crass in some respects, I was wondering about the ultimate origin of it precisely. I am not a developer, and it may very well have some mundane roots, if you will, but I thought I would ask in either case. Thanks.
Where do you see such recommendation? We generally make no such recommendations.
The only whitelist/blacklist features available are via an OEM-licensed version of the platform to allow the customer to control what apps their employees see within the app store.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The advertisements and asking you to allow pop up blockers to permit them on the pages? As that is way for PortableApps pages to generate revenue and help cover the cost of the site?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Ah, ok, I see what the original poster meant.
This is an optional request that you either (1) allow ads to be displayed on PortableApps.com in your ad blocker since PortableApps.com doesn't have the funds to pay off the AdBlock Plus publishers to show ads or (2) consider making a donation to help support us and pay for hosting and download bandwidth. Both are entirely optional and will not affect your ability to browse this site, make downloads, or use our platform. The way we're able to fund downloads and this site is via donations and ad revenue. Without them, we go away.
We use a simple client-side detection to determine if the browser is set to block popup ads. If they are, we have a script that will clean up the bits left behind CSS-wise by the ad blocker and then show a simple message asking for support that blends in with the rest of the page using the same font, color, and layout so it's not distracting. For anyone who hasn't seen it before, this is what it currently looks like (look at the left column of the page):
http://i.imgur.com/KwWvAEW.png
It links to our 'how to whitelist' page here: https://portableapps.com/support/whitelist-us
As well as our donation page here: https://portableapps.com/donate
PortableApps.com does not now nor has it ever shown popup ads.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Both blacklist and whitelist predate computers by many (many) years with blacklist tracing back to the 1600's, and whitelist from the early 1900's.
Both terms however have been heavily adopted in computers, especially in internet security circles regarding lists of email addresses/email domains/websites that can or can't be allowed on specific networks or computers.
You mean "white-list" like in
"Please consider white-listing us in your ad blocker or making a donation so we can keep bringing you awesome free software."
?
You are supporting portableapps.com by that, because in this case whitelist means to tell your ad-blocker (i am assuming you are common with this term), to not block any ads for the internet address "portableapps.com". So after whitelisting, you see their ads here then, instead of not seeing them, them not having them displayed to you and thus not receiving any award from the people who would have payed for their ad being displayed in your browser.