[satokema_work]

Removing 'slave' from the vocabulary makes more sense than removing 'master', master is a term that predates its usage in slavery contexts.

Asking (and explaining the logic of main vs master) would be better UX than forcing a new paradigm into contexts where it's not welcome - all of my corpo repos use master; sneaking main into new repos is not helpful.

[hartator]

Removing any words of the vocabulary is an aberration.

[ceejayoz]

Entirely to the contrary, it's 100% normal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaism

https://www.businessinsider.com/best-old-english-words-that-...

Language evolves, and has since it was invented.

[ComputerGuru]

Words falling out of use and words being taken out of use are two altogether different beasts. I suspect you might be commenting disingenuously, though.

[ceejayoz]

You're free to name a Github branch "master" if you want.

Others are free to pick "main". Github's free to pick a default. People are free to infer what they like from your choice.

Over time, we figure out which one we, as a society, prefer.

[audessuscest]

give it a year or two before professional offended people think it's outrageous that there's still projects using master branch, then give it a week before github start giving notice to those projects.

Did you see that some artist is close to be canceled for saying the most boring stuff? https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1491433294935867397

What you may find harmless and maybe even meaningless change, is actually part of a total insanity that he's not going to stop anywhere.

[ceejayoz]

> Did you see that some artist is close to be canceled for saying the most boring stuff?

I see the NY Post is once again running a "here are some random tweets" article of the sort they've been running for years now to fill clickbait space.

[ComputerGuru]

This isn't about people having the option just happening to have an option to pick whatever name they want - this is in the context of a massive backlash against the specific use of a specific word, then people being given the option to make that choice under scrutiny or at least with extreme care and taking into account the risk of backlash should they "choose wrong."

[TeeMassive]

> You're free to name a Github branch "master" if you want.

The time me and many other spent finding a solution is not "free", and is not the first time that has happened or will happen.

> Others are free to pick "main". Github's free to pick a default. People are free to infer what they like from your choice.

Until Microsoft and other Big Tech companies decide that they will promote projects and developers who do.Of course they are "free" to do so, but that goes against your argument that people are "free to choose".

> Over time, we figure out which one we, as a society, prefer.

Where did "society" or the git user communities were asked and heard if that was a good idea? The decision came from the bottom up and the discussions that were had were restricted to a few posts (because "we already had that discussion before, flagged/deleted) or were incredibly censored and one-sided with accusations of racism directed at people who were using their real names and work addresses.

[dzhiurgis]

I don't like being reminded about racism, murders, looting and shooting in some irrelevant american town every time my build fails because of this inflammatory change by github.

[ceejayoz]

Life is full of disappointments.

Having to update a branch name on a couple dependencies a few times doesn't really rise that high on my list of them.

[audessuscest]

that's correct, removing word is usually done by despotic decision to control people's mind / speech

[gambler]

Language evolves via gradual changes in common usage, not by decree from a fringe minority that captured some institution. Anyone who says that this nonsense is an example of normal process of language evolution is a gaslighting liar.

[ceejayoz]

Have you considered the possibility that being all worked up over the default name Github assigns to the first branch in a new repository puts you in "fringe minority" status?

[CodeGlitch]

It's more than "being worked up" though isn't it? This is having real world consequences with zero tangible benefit to anyone.

[audessuscest]

Unfortunately this github case is just one example among many others and it only seems to amplify toward complete insanity. https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1491433294935867397

[ceejayoz]

Again, have you actually taken a look at that article?

> “Please, no, ADELE can’t be a TERF,” a “staunch feminist” performer named Jacob told his thousands of Twitter followers.

> “Who’d have thought Adele was a transphobe and would use her platform to call for the destruction of the trans community. Especially the confused teenagers,” another long-time Twitter user posted.

(They had to go with "long-time" for that second one because they've only got 375 followers.)

"We searched up a handful of mean tweets" isn't journalism or indicative of anything except the fact you can always find some mean tweets about someone, and it's a little hard to say Adele is canceled in an article about her winning Artist of the Year...

[gaius_baltar]

> not by decree from a fringe minority that captured some institution.

They are not a cringe minority. I mean, they are cringe, but not part of any minority, except the self-created ones. Sorry for the wordplay. They a dozen people with no technical skill who tried (and succeeded) into getting some petty power, status, and time on the spotlights by crying "These <insert some extreme word here> FLOSS devs are oppressing me!!", just because FLOSS projects were an easy target (i.e. usually managed by people who are compromising, supportive and that don't like wasting time with non-technical conflict and focus on having a job done).

And we gave up to them, hoping they just go away hunting another easy target (masterworks, MSc degrees, master/apprentices, that master chef TV show, and so), while we pay lip-service to dodge the mob before they come to destroy our projects/jobs/companies/etc.

And, of course, no minority was positively affected by any of this. They are working just like everybody else, because behind a keyboard don't matter which $PERSONAL_CHARACTERISTIC people have, but what they deliver.

[sam_lowry_]

> by decree from a fringe minority that captured some institution.

Welcome to France.

[audessuscest]

it stills makes no sense. We should stop this 1984 nonsense

[ffhhj]

Many famous masters in the ancient world were even servants or slaves.