@dang please add a year flag to this - it's especially important given that Redis and antirez moved in a direction opposite of what this blog post describes (see other comments in the thread)
On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
21–30 of 162 posts
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#22Next, we ban certain songs by Britney Spears and Iron Maiden (probably the band Audioslave too).
Yes, slavery was a (bad) thing throughout history. But it's just a word, and I don't think slavery is a problem between machine or software processes anyway. The word 'robot' comes from the word 'slave' too; should we start finding something else to use, because it might offend someone educated in US universities between 2005 and 2025?
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#23I find the top comment to be the most insightful thing here, and wish everyone who is running these campaigns would read it.
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#24Allow me to be offended on behalf of you, and if you aren't offended then you are a problem too.
I think of it as:
1) I am personally offended, so you should be offended to.
2) If you are not offended, then because my personal offense is rooted in a just cause, you are bad.
3) Because you are bad, I cannot have a dialog with you. Indeed, I should not even try, because the cause is just.
MLK Jr had wise words on this, noticing the danger of a person convinced of their own righteousness. Much of the non-violence playbook was predicated on the tightrope that is (1) convincing someone to believe strongly in a cause & (2) still act rationally enough to allow for discussion, negotiation, and compromise outcomes.
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#25I suspect this is one of those topics that at some point, everyone will have just switched terms because it's not worth the hassle to fight these fights over and over again. Kind of a "I'm not wrong, but is it a good use of 20 hours a year to argue about this?"
I agree and keep a set of topics that just aren’t worth the mental anguish to discuss. The list started in the 90s where every single time circumcision was brought up, it devolved into a few people who commented more and more while the rest of the participants commented less.
I’ve wondered how this affects actual opinions but can’t talk about it.
I also wonder what other topics I haven’t noticed but others have checked out of and I’m missing their participation.
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#26Allow me to be offended on behalf of you, and if you aren't offended then you are a problem too.
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Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#27On this subject: there's a conversation pattern that goes like this:
A: "Please change terminology X to Y because X is ethically bad, and Y is clearer anyway."
B: "I disagree about Y being clearer."
A: "You're an evil partisan of ethical-problem-in-question."
I've seen this far too often and I think it's terrible.
I strongly recommend anyone who is advocating a terminology change to either leave out the "and Y is clearer anyway" part, or be willing to discuss that part independently of the ethical part.
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#28I've read about a bunch of these renaming efforts in the past weeks and I think some of these are very justified while some of them seem to take it further than necessary. The master/slave naming seems clearly outdated to me and this one is a direct reference to slavery. A better word like replica exists so I'm using that instead. This makes a lot of sense. On the other hand there's efforts to rename white/black list…
I always thought about it as the "vinyl master" analogy as well but it looks like it has a master/slave origin from the Bitkeeper days. https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...
Honestly, why does it matter where the word comes from? Virtually no one ever used a git master branch thinking about slavery and not the "vinyl master" analogy. Shouldn't that be the actual meaning that is worth evaluating? Language evolves over time, the "master" in the git context doesn't have any reference anymore (in meaning) to the master/slave (which is a stupid wording to be honest) from bitkeeper. A soft proof to that is that every time that discussion occurs, you have lot of comments expressing their confusion given that the word in git context is actually used as a "master record".
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#29The problem I’m starting to see is that the continued use of phrases like this (master/slave, blacklist/whitelist) can be a constant reminder to some that they “don’t belong here.” Obviously, in this context, they aren’t meant to be racist; but they are a reminder that racism exists. The end result is that it makes more people feel unwanted and ultimately leave tech.
>the continued use of phrases like this (master/slave, blacklist/whitelist) can be a constant reminder to some that they “don’t belong here.”
I'm sorry, but what? It's not like you're calling the CEOs/managers "masters" and the rank and file devs "slaves". It's literally a term assigned to an inanimate object.
Re: On Redis master-slave terminology (2018)
#30Needs 2018 tag. I thought this was a reprise of the old discussion in light of events in the USA. Instead, it's about something that happened two years ago.