For completeness sake, let me add how other tools call their options.
In git, the nearest equivalent to these buttons would be "ours" and
"theirs" as a merge strategy, "local" and "remote" in the mergetool
pre-resolution overview and HEAD and to-be-merged-branch's-name in the
diff. The latter could read like working copy and
to-be-merged-version's-name in Monticello. Mercurial apparently calls
them "local" and "other". SVN calls them "mine" and "theirs".

If the diff display were not unified in Monticello, you could call one
version "left" and the other "right" and name the buttons after them.
Kdiff3 calls them A, B and C in a three-way merge and you "choose A",
for example. Now that the diff is unified and colored, it would be
possible to "choose red" or "choose blue" and easily match that up
with what you see. But especially now that the interest in themes came
up again, the colors might be changed.

IMHO the designation of the origin
(local/remote/mine/ours/theirs/other) should be added to the buttons.
The verb then becomes less important which is good, because apparently
there are different perspectives on the operation. Also, the other
tools mentioned above all name the options after their origin, so it
may be easier for newcomers if Monticello did so as well. If we
include a verb, my personal favourites would be "keep local" and
"accept/use remote" (in that order, which would mean to swap the
buttons, but I understand if that is rejected).

2016-01-23 17:37 GMT+01:00 Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com>:
> Hi Fabio, Chris,
>
> On Jan 22, 2016, at 4:00 PM, Fabio Niephaus <lists at fniephaus.com> wrote:
>
> I think that it's not only the naming but also the direction that is
> confusing. Sorry for being selfish, but I usually care about my own stuff
> more than about the stuff on the server, right?
>
> How about:
>
>   Keep -> 'Replace Local'
>   Reject -> 'Keep Local'
>
>
> Let's try and search for more candidates.  The two word ones are clunky and
> long.  Keep is horrible because it conflicts with the sense of "keep what's
> mine".  But some other duals are (where left is Replace Local and right is
> Keep Local)
>
> Import vs Exclude
> Accept vs Reject
> Merge vs Ignore
> Advance vs Remain
> Approve vs Disapprove
>
> More of a stretch but may trigger thought:
> Infect vs Quarantine
> Ingest vs Refuse
>
> and the question mark at the end of each suggestion is implicit ;-)
>
> Any other suggestions?
>
> This is also what most syncing services name the two options when you
> start using them (e.g. iCloud or Google Chrome Sync).
>
> Best,
> Fabio
>
> --
>
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 11:41 PM Chris Cunningham <cunningham.cb at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> So, once again, I am bitten by these button labels.  They just don't speak
>> to me.
>>
>> From back in 2013, there was a description by Nice that explained it thus:
>> "If you say keep, then you accept the incoming version to replace your
>> version.
>> If you say reject, then refuse the incoming version and prefer to keep
>> your own version."
>>
>> Then back in 2015, another discussion about what these values mean with
>> several options thrown out.  But it looks like we still have Keep and Reject
>> - which still confuses me.
>>
>> Maybe we could just relabel them the way Nice suggested:
>>     Keep -> 'Keep Incoming'
>>     Reject -> 'Reject Incoming'
>> ?  Maybe also update the balloon help to take Nice's exact words?
>>
>> I'll push a change later tonight/tomorrow to the InBox unless I hear back
>> that this is a horrible idea.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> cbc
>>
>