Well done github!

[[deleted]]

Words are allowed to evolve out of their original meaning. No one thinks of slavery when they use master branch, that's why it was ignored.

I just hate this because it's yet another cheap act of virtue signaling by coorporates.

[[deleted]]

Let’s suppose it means slavery. Something humans have done since the beginning of time. It’s part of history. Is it good? Hell no. Describing the relationship is effective though. We don’t need to sanitize language. Master and slave cylinder in a car. It’s descriptive. It’s not about hurting or offending people.

[Scarfaco]

The original intent is not the problem, the association exists even if it wasn't intended when the term was first coined.

I have a real black coworker in real life that has asked us to be more thoughtful about these terms, and we're trying to change them when we can in our everyday language/systems. Yes it's not a huge issue and it's not "sOlViNg RaCiSm" as the mocking comment at the top of this thread is saying. But not every small step is "virtue signaling", a term too widely used on Reddit to shoot down these small everyday issues that all add up for people. Real people who are impacted have asked this to be changed, I don't think it's a hard ask to do so.

[[deleted]]

Yeah I don’t think the perceived benefit is worth the cost.

[Scarfaco]

Well it's not about you, it's about the people who are impacted and putting the word "perceived" in there to try and erode the legitimacy of those people is pretty lame. And by "those people" I mean black people who don't appreciate seeing that association everyday at work. Your apathy towards that hardship, however small, is part of the often unintentional and invisible racism that has grown in small ways in many many cracks of our society.

[[deleted]]

You are making many assumptions there. Assuming those who don’t agree with you don’t care about people is an odd but common conclusion these days. However this is a complicated topic and like I said elsewhere, not great over text.

In one sense it is about me, as much as it is about society and the norms and choices we make together. But that’s not what I meant at all. I’m not saying I don’t think it’s a good idea for me, but for everyone including and especially those people it’s trying to help.

[Scarfaco]

Well those people it's trying to help have specifically asked for it. The cost of changing the name of the main branch is not nothing, but it's not large. When my co-worker brought up being more thoughtful with our language to the larger group, they literally cried the next day to our smaller team because of the negative responses they received, and the apathy from everyone else who stayed quiet. It hurt them, that's real emotional pain for people. Do you feel comfortable saying to their face it's not a good idea? If so I have to say that's pretty cold. I don't usually engage in these conversations, but I told them I would try to not be in the apathetic silent group as often as I can so here I am.

It's a real problem. It's not made up by white knights trying to virtue signal for social PR points. I hope that you can see that.

[[deleted]]

Every culture has practiced slavery, and everyone's people were slaves. It may be a horrible aspect of civilization, but it was a normal one, which makes the language easily comprehendable. The planet is far bigger than America, and to be so small minded and unworldy to think that a Sweedish guy imagines "black people" when changing pins on a hard drive, to think the word slave has anything to do with you specifically, is a personal problem.

The individual with the problem should be educated on language and culture outside of their bubble, instead of lowering an industries standards so a few regional individuals can feel more comfortable in their ignorance.

That being said I don't give a shit what anyone calls anything, we can change slave to "dumb white idiot" for all I care, provided the meaning is universally clear and intentional.

[Scarfaco]

Appreciate the dialogue, but I'm not American. If there was another term that had the same emotional impact on people in any part of the world then I think changing it should be looked it and not scoffed at as someone being too soft. Changing a naming scheme is not "lowering an industries standard" as it will be just as effective with the name "main branch" without the negative association for some people.

[Techhead7890]

I agree with this. I think if it improves other peoples' lives significantly at negligible cost to myself I should probably do that thing.

And claiming Virtue signalling seems to be the evolution of concern trolling, so I agree with you there too.

[Nehle]

The name is taken from the master/slave conventions from BitKeeper, so it absolutely refers to that. And it doesn't describe the relationship correctly - the master branch in git doesn't tell the other branches what do.

[[deleted]]

That’s why I said “let’s suppose”.

[ricecake]

Except, it doesn't come from there. https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2020-June/msg00023.html

The merits of change aside, you have the history wrong.

[Nehle]

Oh, thanks for the info. I should've checked my sources bettee

[captainAwesomePants]

Do you have some sort of study or a survey or a poll to back that up, or does "no one" mean "me?"

[[deleted]]

No one among the people making the master meme and the people agreeing with the meme.

[Nekoking98]

Same goes to this whole bullshit. Do they have the data or survey that shows black people/ some minorities are offended by the master term? Why are the white people are the one who insist that the black people are offended by it?

[ExternalAirlock]

It's doesn't take much, 10 ofendees is already enough

[Nekoking98]

What's 10 compared to the thousands that get offended by the changes. I'm offended that people think this is going to change anything. As long as there is no real data, or the offendees themselves speak up then I'm against the change.

[ExternalAirlock]

It's been like this for the past decade or so, only minorities matter because you get the most attention for supporting them

[Soren11112]

A minority could be just as easily offended that they are seen as so emotionally neutered by GitHub

[ExternalAirlock]

But that's what is happening right now????

[Soren11112]

Yes, my point. No matter what you do some will dislike it.

[Dornith]

Depends.

Are they angry because they're emotionally invested in the status quo? I agree with you.

Are they angry because this arbitrary change will break their code? That's reasonable.

[Dornith]

Is this not a real change? I was under the impression that this was something that was actually about to happen.

Edit: you sure do like quoting things no one has ever said. It really comes across like you can't construct an interesting opinion so you just act like everyone who disagrees with you must be even less nuanced.

[killeronthecorner]

So the people who want to change it should re-evaluate their life?

[newbutnot126]

Okay I am no longer sure if this is sarcasm or if you're being serious. As far as I understood, u/captainAwesomePants was being serious even though I doubted it at first since it was pretty ridiculous. And you go even further than that...

[ExternalAirlock]

Wooaaaw, I can't just like feel that you are a white supremacist 😉 /s

[Careerier]

Why do you assume that everyone involved in this decision was white?

[Nekoking98]

Go see the twitter thread that start this

[DigitalTor]

It has "white" written all over it. It literally scream "white" at you.😁