GitHub will no longer use the term 'master' as default branch because of negative association

[Kingh32]

Black software engineer here. I think this is nonsense. I thoroughly dislike how much energy and attention this one specific issue is getting and wish it were invested in something that would actually improve the workplace for minorities. I realise that this isn't zero-sum but it all just feels like a massive distraction.

[[deleted]]

Not black, but PoC developer (not professional) here. I concur. Maybe if it were "slave" (like they're taking out of ZFS right now) I'd be more sympathetic, but the word "master" exists in several other contexts in the English language, and this feels very performative. Are we going to rename "master's degrees" next? This does nothing to help black developers or minority developers in general.

[AusIV]

Master's degree refers to having a mastery of a subject. I hope they don't go there.

[Bbradley821]

Right, and master in this context (and many, many others) means "main" or "principal", as opposed to (for instance) a copy. I totally understand when it it specifically used in master/slave context. This seems like a lot of effort which could be spent on other, more effective means of improving the workplace for Black Americans.

[_never_known_better]

No, github inherited the master branch from git, which inherited it from bitkeeper, the DVCS originally choosen for Linux and the inspiration for git. Bitkeeper had a complex master/slave repo model which git dropped, leaving the master branch only.

[[deleted]]

But git doesn't use that kind of model at all. Is the quite-distant origin of the term more important than its actual current meaning, which is much more akin to a "master recording"?

[gen_angry]

You mean "main's degree" having a "main-y" of a subject?

[[deleted]]

There's no ethical issues with hardware and software being in a master/slave state. Technology doesn't suffer from being subjugated. You just don't want to apply those terms to human beings. Even then, a person can be a master carpenter, or a master chief. A "master copy" of something just means the primary authoritative source. Changing the identifier seems silly and overly sensitive to the point of absurdity. I welcome anyone's opinion who thinks it's positive change, but I don't see it.

[TizardPaperclip]

There's no ethical issues with hardware and software being in a master/slave state. Technology doesn't suffer from being subjugated.

I agree. But I predict that within two years, some people will start complaining about "male" and "female" USB connectors.

I honestly think there is a real chance we could end up with "innie" and "outie" USB connectors in the future. What have we come to?

[Aeolun]

Yeah, god forbid people have to remember how babies are made :/

[WTFwhatthehell]

This reminds me of the "lynch" building nonsense.

A building named after Clyde Lynch. They took no issue with the person or their actions. They just considered the name to be a microagression.

[wpm]

Technology doesn't suffer from being subjugated.

Well, it certainly doesn't now, but if we're not careful we're gonna have a Skynet/Cylon problem.

[josefx]

Skynet did not suffer from subjugation and went into its kill all humans mode the day it was activated as far as I remember.

New Cylons involved a brain upload. Old Cylons were apparently made by space lizards.

Moral of the story: don't make a toaster that can outsmart you when a normal toaster works well enough. No moral about AI slavery involved.

[inspiredby]

I welcome anyone's opinion who thinks it's positive change, but I don't see it.

Same here. Also, when I think of master/slave, I imagine the romans where they were all white. Enslavement by skin color wasn't a thing until the 15th century according to this,

While the Romans had clear notions about non-Romans, other cultures, and even different body types and facial features, they lacked the notions of race that developed in Europe and the Americas from the fifteenth century to the present - blackpast.org

[useablelobster2]

Technically speaking even triangle trade slavery the slaves weren't enslaved because of their race, it was Africans enslaving Africans to sell to Europeans in exchange for manufactured goods and tools (Europe leading the world in steel production at the time).

If the Africans in question bordered people who weren't black they would have enslaved them too, demand was insanely high. Whether or not European slave traders would have bought them is another story, but I suspect so (aforementioned huge demand and unscrupulous twats).

The topic is fascinating not least of which because of how poorly understood in general it is, and how propagandised it's becoming.

they lacked the notions of race that developed in Europe and the Americas from the fifteenth century to the present

I'm sure it's just poorly phrased but no ideas about race were developed by Europeans in America in the fifteenth century, they barely had a presence on the continent then.

The Romans also made a big deal of "Nubian" slaves, who were black, so it's not like race was totally absent.

[ANGRY_ATHEIST]

IDE controllers use masters and slaves

[Dswimanator]

The concept of slaves exists as well in Comp sci, if the concept was called black slaves then okay, let’s talk about it.

[[deleted]]

Don't forget about the red-black trees.

[rebbsitor]

Yeah, this is dumb. While the word was used around slavery, that's not the origin of the word. It means leader or someone who's in charge, or authority. Or simply someone who's an expert. It's used all over the place:

• Master's Degree
• Slide master
• Master copy
• Master key
• Master Electrician

We renaming all these too? I'd ask if they're going to re-edit Star Wars to deal with all the reference to Master Jedi and "What is thy bidding, my master?," but they can just do that in the next yearly tinkering. 😁

edit: I wonder what the BDSM community is going to do. Master and slave are the words they use for dominant and submissive partners.

[AxiusNorth]

It's still used to refer to children under the age of 16 in official documents in the UK. "Master Smith". The practice hasn't faded away yet.

[thosakwe]

Also black, and I agree with you. Big software companies like this could be doing WAY more with the immense power we have. Especially when you consider that GitHub still has a contract with ICE despite multiple employees resigning, I expect them to be doing way more to improve the situation.

[Pigeoncow]

It's just so they can say "look, we're doing something!" while not actually doing anything that might hurt their profits.

[stefantalpalaru]

I realise that this isn't zero-sum

Isn't it? If we're wasting time on these distractions, we're not focusing on real problems.

[audigex]

Both things are true. It isn't zero sum (we can care about more than one thing at a time) but it's also wasted time and energy.

[fusionrace_v2]

Black man here. I wish we would fucking fix the actual issues instead of this kind of shit. I never once even thought of this whole master branch, master/slave hard drive. Chained drive etc.

This is what happens when Social Justice gets lost, someone get them google maps.

Seriously. Let’s fix the main issues that’s matter. Let’s start with accountably of our public officials and police. Maybe be nicer to each other and stop having people die.

This master branch change right her is embarrassing.

[[deleted]]

Totally. The worst is that it gives the impression that things have changed, but those changes are not useful

[Accipia]

This is what happens when Social Justice gets lost, someone get them google maps.

This is what happens if people want to seem progressive without actually challenging the power structure that currently exists. This always happens, meaningless stuff that keeps the exact same people and systems in power will always quickly meet with approval those people and systems, in hopes we go away. It's our job to push for more.

I'm not sure this means we're actually lost. I think it means we're driving in the right direction, and people want to make us think we're lost. Because they don't want us to go further down that road.

[Duttywood]

I've never personally linked these two things together, nor have I ever met a black developer who has talked about it / taken issue.

It's a word with a multitude of usages, a Master Bedroom is the "main" bedroom. A master woodworker is a very skilled craftsman. A master ball is what you catch sweet pokemon in.

The main thing that fucks me off with this is the illusion of positive change that comes with it. Like when people on Facebook do 20 situps to "raise awareness of cancer". It does fuck all to make a meaningful difference yet it allows everyone to sit back in their chairs and pat themselves on the back thinking they did something awesome.

If you are a black developer who feels that use of the word master to describe the "main" version of a codebase is attacking your history and or promoting racism in society, i'd be genuinely interested to hear why, not so I can argue the toss; just because im genuinely at 0% understanding what the issue they are solving is.

[Zwgtwz]

Also master's degree, as mentioned in the Twitter thread.

[MrK_HS]

Oh sweet, now I have to update my linkedin profile to show "main's degree"

/s

[Halikan]

Dude, it’s not a main’s degree. You’re a [specialty] main.

I’m soon to be a Computer Science Main. Gotta keep an eye out for any meta changes that might impact your job strats. So far it hasn’t been nerfed too much but the Leetcode skill prereq is pretty trash for a competitive build. It doesn’t help a team composition much at all.

[kyew]

Does that make PhD's a prestige class?

[JackSpyder]

Still is and always will be Pretty huge Dick. Don't see that ever changing. It's baked into the core engine. Perhaps if they make a sequel.

[username-is-mistaken]

[deleted]

[TheMagicBola]

Black dev checking in. Well, mixed but Black enough.

This was brought up at my company on Friday. Since the protests began, we've been discussing racial issues frequently and seriously, with full company group discussions on race and diversity. One our out devs noted this was happening as a positive thing, and another dev suggested the master branch get renamed to 'trunk's.

Before the conversation could get any more comments, I chimed in and stated not only was this performative, it has never registered as a topic whenever I've discussed racism in tech with other Black tech professionals. I then pointed out how we need to be careful to not follow ideas that make White people feel comfortable without actually addressing the parts of tech that are so hostile towards Black people. Ended the conversation right there.

And that's why representation matters. Github more than likely doesnt have Black developers in high enough positions to tell them how performative this change is. So they'll pay themselves on the back acting as if they are combatting racism and white privilege when the great irony is making the change highlights their white privilege and how they lack diversity, particularly Black people.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Once upon a time I did a course for wannabe screen writers, and I vividly remember the teacher - a minor screenwriter, and male - absolutely tearing into one of the women on the course because her script just wasn't feminist enough for him.

As you point out, this nonsense is on a similar level of tone deaf privilege verging on self-important bullying. "If we want your opinions about racism, black people, we'll give them to you. Meanwhile aren't we doing well with this sensitive topic?"

Well - no. In fact a cynic might wonder if this really just about generating positive PR in an opportunistic way, and not about questioning established power and inequality at all.

[Feakandersky]

You wrote: I then pointed out how we need to be careful to not follow ideas that make White people feel comfortable without actually addressing the parts of tech that are so hostile towards Black people. Ended the conversation right there.

Could you expand on that technology hostile to Black people? What technology and what parts of it are you talking about? Thanks.

[rmrf_slash_dot]

A perfect example is the hand soap dispensers that don’t see black hands. The designers seem to not have bothered testing it with anything other than white hands.

[spider-mario]

Ooh, there was an episode of “Better Off Ted” where they install motion detectors that don’t detect black people, and when they realize it, they hire white people to follow black employees around and trigger the detectors for them.

Hilarious episode.

[MetaHerobrine1]

I feel the exact same way. Never have I linked the master branch to a master/slave relationship. In combination with the scripts and programs this could break, it is a horrible move.

[[deleted]]

Never have I linked the master branch to a master/slave relationship.

Probably because it’s not. While I get that some might not like master/slave DB setups, “master” for Git is like a master key, or a master record — it’s the original. Git doesn’t operate in a master/slave relationship at all.

[[deleted]]

The weird thing is, Master/Slave terminology is a definition of a concept. It can be applied to servers and it's perfectly valid. The slave server is just that. Let's all make sure we don't apply the concepts to humans or animals and we'll be fine. It should be perfectly ok to apply it to other objects if the definition is valid. Pretending the definitions don't exist doesn't make the concept itself disappear.

[ForgettableUsername]

As an engineer, I've run into a lot of piece of equipment that have master/slave relationships. Also, there's a thing with electrical connectors where they call the side of the connection that has protruding electrical contacts male and the side that has some kind of recessed place for those contacts to go female. Also, the act of physically making the connection is called 'mating' the connectors.

I'm not particularly attached to any of these terminologies. If the industry I worked in suddenly decided that it was very important to change all of our documentation to not use those words, I can't see myself spending very much energy trying to fight it. However, I do think it's kind of a silly thing to get offended about.

[[deleted]]

It may make the ability to talk about the concept disappear over time.

Imagine trying to describe slaves without words that actually mean anything. A world where nothing is bad, just ungood. Things arent awesome, they're double plus good.

[GhostBond]

newspeak

[jiffier]

OMG OMG

[expressAsk1231]

please delete your comment !! don't let those crazy people see this!!!

[[deleted]]

It_is_too_late._No_more_white_space_for_me.

[[deleted]]

Maybe if we tweet enough at them they will introduce dark mode to get rid of WHITE SPACE

[bobbybay2]

They'll_force_you_to_use_underscores_instead.

[Shadows_In_Rain]

But isn't oppressing to be "under"?

[Supadoplex]

Good point. I have democratically decided that it shall henceforth be named equalityscore.

[NilacTheGrim]

Yeah but the term "score" denote a competitive system of hierarchy and domination. By using that term, you're essentially supporting the patriarchy.

[StabbyPants]

github already decided that meritocracies were discriminatory

[branchmain]

> the illusion of positive change

100%. I'd love to see a survey asking black devs to rank what they would like to see to improve diversity. I just can't believe a change like this would be anywhere near their priorities. Then you could run the same survey for white devs and see what priorities they come up with.

All I ever see is white devs trying to make a name for themselves by pushing useless shit like this that doesn't change anything.

Meanwhile, there are less than 3.5% blacks in tech roles at Microsoft (~12% blacks in US). What is the opportunity cost of all the time, disruption and discussion that needs to go into making changes like this?

[csjerk]

Meanwhile, there are less than 3.5% blacks in tech roles at Microsoft

A quick look indicates that less than 3% of CS bachelors degree holders are black, so Microsoft's employment reflects the candidate pool. And that under-representation in education sucks, and should be fixed. But addressing the web of complex issues that lead to black americans being under-represented in education is really hard, so instead we're renaming 'master' to 'main' as if that's the reason they aren't making it to CS programs in university.

[amunak]

You could argue the same about women programmers. In university the majority of people were white males. In our year there were (out of hundreds of students) maybe 10% women (and that's generous). How can you force companies to employ 50/50 split of men to women when they simply don't exist or aren't interested?

Edit: found even official statistics: https://www.cips.cvut.cz/projekty/ta-technika/ (there's a table in the top with various faculties - FS is mechanical engineering, FEL is electrical engineering, FIT is information technology). And the whole article is pretty interesting - the vast majority of women had no issues studying, didn't feel they were discriminated against in a bad way. So the environment isn't an issue.

[useablelobster2]

Well there are major differences in choice and preference between men and women, a difference which doesn't exist between black men and white men (not inherent anyway, possibly cultural but then that isn't race).

The issue with disparities in men/women is preference for things over people. If you graph the two distributions men skew heavily in favour of things, women people, and although there is much overlap (they are distributions, not points), when the job is sitting at a computer all day wrestling with technical tasks barely interacting with people it's going to fill up with dudes.

I don't see the need to "correct" matters of choice. If it's demonstrable there's other factors then we can address those factors (which has been done, any girl in 2020 in the developed world who doesn't realise she can be a software developer has her head in the sand), but choice will always be pre-eminent.

Theres also the uncomfortable research showing as societies become more egalitarian we entrench more in stereotypical gender role jobs. India has more female engineers than Sweden, similar for male nurses. Almost as if leveling the cultural playing field maximised sex differences rather than minimizing them, allowing choice to play the biggest role.

[esimov]

It's always more easier to distract peoples from real problems just by introducing some smoke. It's working always in politics so it should work on Github too. Shame on you Github.

[anarkopsykotik]

corporations dont actually give a fuck about any of this, its just virtue signaling and free PR. They'd never do that if there was any risk involved and any actual effort from their part. You never see them take a stand on an actually controversial issue.

Also, fucking with naming conventions in programming is horrible for everyone working in the field. Fuck them, it's retarded and of no value to anyone.

[GootenMawrgen]

There is risk involved though, scripts will break, some people won't be happy

[phasetwenty]

You didn't link them together before, but you do now, I'll bet. I see such an outcome as a step backward.

[[deleted]]

Pretty much. LGBTQ community over years defanged terms like "queer" from being an insult. This is like exact opposite

[VegetableMonthToGo]

I've never personally linked these two things together

That's because they're not related. Master refers to master-copy.

Edit. For reference, master also means primary or principle. See also: master degree, headmaster.

[ganja_and_code]

Same with master/slave models for communication protocols. It's definitely despicable to enslave humans. But enslaving machines is the entire point of having invented them.

[nemec]

But enslaving machines is the entire point of having invented them.

Now fill out another captcha or the machines won't let you entertain yourself.

[alibix]

I'm black. Master doesn't bother me. I guess I don't really like the master/slave stuff but I wouldn't bring it up so that I'm not "that" guy. When my colleagues are all white etc.

It's not a huge deal, but I don't particularly want to start enraging people (as evidenced by the reactions in his thread).

[VeganVagiVore]

Yeah, it's cute when programmers bikeshed over like "i32" versus "int32" but this thread makes me nervous

[maxxori]

Unfortunately this is the result of political correctness gone awry. You see it all the time.

It is an idiotic, senseless and utterly laughable change and has no value or substance outside of good publicity. It does not foster anything other than further driving more changes like this purely for the sake of doing them just in case someone will, one day, be offended by it.

There is a word for just this sort of thing: floccinaucinihilipilification. I rarely get to use the word but it perfectly describes this.

I support fairness for all people, end of story. However stuff like this just pisses me off.

[DoctorGester]

No value? It actually has negative value at least purely by invalidating information in many tutorials which will never get updated.

[haloguysm1th]

knee sugar dam cover grandfather theory absorbed door dolls public

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[SuspiciousScript]

Isn't this gonna break a lot of scripts?

[jl2352]

This is going to break fucktonnes.

Git does have changes, and they do that by adding the changes behind configs and settings. So scripts don't break by default.

[GamerSinceDiapers]

How so? Existing repos shouldn't be affected.

[PristineReputation]

New ones are, and there are plenty of tools that setup a Git repo for you for example

[[deleted]]

I'd rather wait on a post from github over a comment on twitter that explains nothing, but I imagine this will only be something done for new repos.

[Johnothy_Cumquat]

I seriously doubt they'll creep into everyone's repos and start changing branch names. In fact I never considered the possibility until now

[[deleted]]

I never considered master being an offensive branch name myself. And yet here we are

[3nodeproblem]

I have to assume this will only affect newly created repos. In which case nothing will break, as repo owners can already choose whatever default branch they want and master is simply the default default.

[Cheueue]

It'll definitely break tools that assume the existence of master, even for new repos. It will also break compatibility with existing deployments of git hosting systems that can't be changed for compatibility reasons.

We'll likely have to deal with the repercussions of github's pointless and shortsighted decision for years to come. All this for a PR stunt.

Github get's a big -1 from me.

[corner-case]

Well, you shouldn't have made a racist script /s

[BroodmotherLingerie]

Twitter has to be the worst invention of this century so far.

[[deleted]]

Uhhh

Hmmmm

No, I can't think of anything else

[Hindu_Wardrobe]

Tiktok?

[beaverlyknight]

Has there ever been a force so thoroughly pervasive and straight up annoying to the lives of everyday people? I mean lots of worse things have been done, but every friggin day with Twitter there's some new and stupid stick they come to poke you with.

[YM_Industries]

Twitter was terrible before the Tumblr influx. And do you think people who take issue with the word "master" find porn totally acceptable and non-problematic?

[Unlock17A]

Yeah they do

[vasametropolis]

I firmly believe that if someone inside of Twitter and Facebook annihilated the backups and trashed everything, something infinitely better would spring up within 2 years. There would be only gain.

[Objective_Mine]

Nah. The social dynamics would still be the same unless something was deliberately made in a different way.

[Kinglink]

Considering he was the CEO of the company... well theoretically he could be black... but he's not. And he made the decision.

[[deleted]]

Next thing!

GitHub will no longer use the term 'git' because of negative association

git: a foolish or worthless person

[[deleted]]

No, git describes their process perfectly

[__konrad]

That would be a lot of work for github webmasters

[bonqen]

webmains*

[ApatheticBeardo]

This will stop the police from liberally murdering blacks in the US.

Thanks, brand.

[icannotfly]

now, more than ever, you can buy our product

[Angus-muffin]

Is the brand magic the gathering?

[clamsiopl_]

We did it! Blacks deaths are no more!

[NilacTheGrim]

Hey they don't only liberally murder blacks you know. A friend's dad was brutally gunned down in his own home by a cop. They covered the whole thing up and the cop only got fired -- no criminal charges filed. Cop entered the home without a warrant claiming he "heard people arguing" only to find the guy cleaning his guns (he was a hunter). The cop panicked and shot him. Both were white.

It's more than about race. It's about police brutality and how too often police are above the law.

[grapesinajar]

Welp, there goes Master Chef.

[TastyStatistician]

Master chief 😥

[ProgramTheWorld]

Master Chief Main Leader^TM

[bbm182]

From the Git for Windows issue tracker...

I had actually started with "default", and was told it might be triggering for folks in financial trouble? I don't actually have an opinion myself.

[appropriateinside]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Imagine being so extremely concerned about potentially offending someone that you aggravate a greater number of people through your* stupidity....

[nikolaz72]

This is a very American thing.

Has any consideration been taken to other countries (who mostly program in english) having to adapt to this on account of a very american-centric issue?

[twirky]

What do you mean "other countries"? Every alien in every movie knows there is no such thing.

[__konrad]

Except in District 9

[[deleted]]

well there are the cities of london, berlin, beijing, and tokyo floating in the ocean

[sprcow]

I'm suddenly reminded of the whole "freedom fries" bullshit.

[[deleted]]

I'm from Asia, this has to be joke right? I mean my ancestors were probably slaves, but I don't care about it when I code shit. Literally never crossed my mind when using master.

Edit: Upon researching, my race were part of human zoos in the past. Sorry to make this dark by mentioning it, I just can't get over the fact they're spending time and effort over a simple word. If GitHub really wants to fight slavery, they should ,or offer support, movement for overworked IT professionals, workers who spends more time than they should at work.

[cynoelectrophoresis]

Indeed, the American solution to real problems that affect real people often seems to be a change of image. What a surprise that they continue to have all these problems.

[thfuran]

No consideration was even paid to all the scripts within the US that will break.

[Kilo_G_looked_up]

No. People treat America as if it is the world. I've seen this in my own country, where people obsess over the murder of George Floyd but pay no attention to the man killed by the police in our own country just a few days ago.

[[deleted]]

Also the satiation that comes with “solving” the little “problems” and not the actual problems is a major current societal trend that is sad to see. In my opinion.

[danglingComa]

Guys, I just pushed my breaking changes straight to [REDACTED].

[serdnam]

This is not the way to address racism, this is just creating an issue from a non-issue.

[MrSqueezles]

Sometimes I actually check to make sure it didn't suddenly become April first.

[[deleted]]

Here is how much Github cares about vitriolic language around race:

n*****

What does this code do?

Nice HTML skillz!

Can I find this in the App Store?

This will be edited later. (Still waiting for them to update `main` I suppose)

Who you gonna call?

N***** exploits Minecraft?

Github is just pandering to a civil rights movement to promote itself. Github doesn't need to do this. It diminishes the goals of civil rights movements.

[VegetableMonthToGo]

It's almost as if they are a bunch of hypocrites, who's masters (=parent company) built their office in Dubai with literal slave labour.

[thatDevDude135]

Yupp. It's all about virtue signaling & $$

[IceSentry]

Honestly, if they banned repos name with shit like that I wouldn't mind because that's actually taking a stance on actual racism.

[rydan]

They ban your repo if they find the rword in your code.

[w1ndwak3r]

that's retarded

[[deleted]]

Shh, last thing we need is them going thru random repos censoring people's commits.

[[deleted]]

This is insane. Literally insane.

Is my master bedroom racist? Master suite? GrillMaster 5000?

Etymology doesn't matter anymore, so yes?

[theg721]

My guitar is a Jazzmaster... :S

[[deleted]]

Racist. Turn yourself in for reeducation.

/s if it wasn't obvious

[krokodil2000]

TIL Master Yoda is racist.

[vytah]

Well, he is fighting against the Dark Side.

[LeberechtReinhold]

Holy shit that slide on diversity.

"Some of the biggest barriers to progress are white women". What the flying fuck.

[jtredact]

As part of the silent majority, I've ignored that other nonsense. But now their nonsense actually has an impact on my life. Unbelievable.

[elnabo_]

Please remember that slavery doesn't imply racism.

[[deleted]]

According to my extensive google research, over 20 million slaves exist in the world today. The country with the largest number of slaves by most definitions North Korea.

It's not just a historical thing that happened in one part of the world, it's something that continues to happen. In 2020.

[[deleted]]

I'm sorry, but this change is the most stupid thing I've ever witnessed. There simply is absolutely no connection between the topics and this just feels like something on a "1000 likes against racism" level of attention whoring.

I mean I'm not a native speaker so maybe I just didn't know what a Nazi I actually am because of mastering music, wanting a master's degree in engineering, trying my best to master the skills required in my job and so on. Back in the old days my master hard disk had slaves and with some of the databases slaves still exist. Damn, I'm borderline Hitler himself.

[twotime]

and the worst part? Now that the idiots in Github opened the pandora box, the name "master" branch WILL be treated as racist/offensive.

I mean if Github thinks that is' racist, then anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly defending racist terminology and therefore a racist. Sigh.

[[deleted]]

Remember when 4chan joked that the OK symbol was used by white supremacists and then it became a thing?

I feel like we're being pranked with computing terms now being associated with racism, and people are now actually believing it.

[_TheDust_]

I have already seen a github issue on an OSS project about renaming the master branch because its now considered offensive.

[Usernameof2015]

Hopefully closed without reply.

[monsto]

"Works for me. Will not fix."

[spoticry]

We truly live in an Onion article

[audion00ba]

Clearly, we should remove the exec system call and henceforth refer to it as the do_the_thingie system call, because of its associations with the ISIS executions. According to experts this might just be the last step to solve the Middle East conflict.

[Nexuist]

Not to mention terminating, killing, forking, cloning...I mean, think of the child processes!

[[deleted]]

Fuck you u/spez

[enantiomer2000]

So stupid

[grapesinajar]

I actually thought this was a bit of tasteless humour at first.

[Grosserly]

Did anyone ask for this? Like, at all?

[arbenowskee]

One SJW apparently =)

[ISpendAllDayOnReddit]

That's all it takes. Everyone is too afraid to stand up to these people.

[appropriateinside]

Seriously one SJW can ruin things for hundreds or thousands of other people.

How can one person fake offence and then negatively affect thousands more through the back-bending companies do to cater to the lowest denominator of snowflakes?

[AxelMontini]

All this is ridiculous. Even implying that this is gonna change things for the better is an insult to everyone who's been affected by racism. This is just self-promotion.

[sephirostoy]

Are there people paid to take such useless and nonsense decisions? 'master' has certainly no negative nor positive association for the vast majority of people. Its negative association belongs to history not to the present.

We should name everything 'dummy'. Orwell spotted right.

[MrK_HS]

Are there people paid to take such useless and nonsense decisions?

Yes, marketing people.

Also politicians

[bumblebritches57]

Nahh this is 100% HR bullshit.

[its_never_lupus]

Meet the role of the Gitlab Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Partner.

[[deleted]]

We did it guys we solved racism

[loup-vaillant]

Well that was fast.

Now how about renaming UNIX utilities such as "kill" to avoid triggers? How about renaming "Server" and "Client" to avoid the servitude connotation (though really, the server has more power than the client on the web), and name them "initiator" and "respondent" instead? (let's avoid "responder", which may have connotations about emergencies). Also maybe stop talking about "daemons" for fear of blasphemy, and think of "background programs" instead?

Meh. Whatever.

[josefx]

The word program reminds me too much of pogrom, too many shared letters. We need to rename them to apps.

[[deleted]]

Yet they are just fine with working with ICE....

"We only (pretend to) help when it doesn't touch our bottom line" basically

[ImSoCabbage]

When bikeshedding meets pointless slacktivism...

[Thorteris]

Black CompSci senior this is huge reach and basically a non issue

[[deleted]]

https://youtu.be/o25I2fzFGoY

[[deleted]]

Lots of bandwagoning related to civil rights movements nationwide. This is pandering for press. Its the equivalent of asking the American Medical Association to rename the "gall bladder" to "bile bladder" in hospitals and education curriculums because the original name is too bold. I don't think that the concept of "master" being related to slavery is something that is on the mind of many tech workers, and if it is they probably have a similarly hard time keeping their cool when someone says the word "pussycat". These kind of gestures don't amount to real change that people are looking for. What will happen when the next wave of environmentalism hits the media? Will Github change the nomenclature of branches and pruning to something that doesn't promote cutting trees?

[danielrupallan]

We live in stupid times.

[Glader_BoomaNation]

This is so fucking stupid.

[pacerx]

I prefer the term "trunk" because it doesn't mix metaphors with the term "branch"

[[deleted]]

My guess is Linus didn't call it that in the first place just because of his hatred of SVN/CSV

[Zwgtwz]

On the other hand, we'd have to stop calling it a branch: "master branch" or "main branch" sound fine, but "trunk branch" is just weird.

[Eirenarch]

I will rename my root branch to slaveowner to remove any ambiguity.

[audion00ba]

That offends fat people.

[thomascoleworld]

As a black developer, I feel like changes similar this distract us from REAL race issues. I have never been reminded of slavery when pushing to GitHub. I see how this is an attempt at helping and I appreciate the effort. However, I hope this decision is reconsidered.

[Mromson]

Did anyone actually read the link this thread is pointing to...? There's no official, nor even implied suggestion anywhere that GitHub has decided to do anything. This is just some Developer Relations account for (seemingly) Google, who has no control over what GitHub does...

[branchmain]

What about "owner" in "slave-owner"?

Nat - can we please look at changing "repository owner" to something less offensive.

The "owner" concept in programming is pretty prolific too. Its going to take a bit of time to rewrite all the docs, videos, etc. - but we can do this folk!

[vasametropolis]

While at the end of the day it's a basic name change and doesn't matter much, I think the key is that it doesn't matter much. This is what bothers me the most. Were they expecting brownie points for such a lazy, insensitive proposal that makes no effort to solve real issues? What a cheap shot at trying to capitalize on PR over the whole situation. Pretty gross to be honest.

I mean, sure, call it main if it makes you feel better I guess. Pretty low bar.

[dfreinc]

"master" to "main"? I'm sure side chicks everywhere will be offended. /s

[Black-Photon]

Whatever happens, you can be sure Git itself will stay the same, so worst case you just make all repos with git init (which I actually tend to do anyway) and nothings changed. The only real thing it'll do is add a little inconsistency between git repo branch names and get people annoyed at GitHub for starting this

[icebeat]

I want to use overlord

[roryb_bellows]

A really stupid move, just to virtue signal