GitHub, fuck your name change • Hacker News Board

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#61

Post by dsincl12 » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

ecmascript wrote: post #5

This is a topic I feel cannot be openly discussed on HN (and basically everywhere else), sadly. I switched from Github to Gitlab after this change. Political correctness is a great way to know that a company has the completely wrong focus and will be unable to innovate and create good products.

GitLab made the change[1] as well unfortunately. I completely agree with everything written in the post as well. The problem with attacking words for cheap points is that it doesn't make a difference to the actual problem and is mainly used to show "aware" and "great" people are.

1. https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/03/10/new-git-default-bra...

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#62

Post by 3saryHg6LP2e » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

smashah wrote: post #51

Cannot argue with any of the points brought up by the author at all. That being said, "main" is a better name for that branch, especially for people new to VCS. The change would've been worthwhile on its own without the expectation of a standing ovation.

It's fine to think "main" or "trunk" or whatever is a better name, it's very easy with git to use a branch with whatever name you like. The issue I and others have (and I appreciate you aren't saying this in your comment) is we don't agree that "master" is "problematic" at all.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#63

Post by lukeramsden » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

Obsnold wrote: post #26

dijit wrote: post #15

it should be noted that git (the binary) is also in the process of deprecating `master`. This is the message I get on my machine when running git init: hint: Using 'master' as the name for the initial branch. This default branch name hint: is subject to change. To configure the initial branch name to use in all hint: of your new repositories, which will suppress this warning, call: hint: hint: git config --global ini…

I just tested this and don't get any message. What version are you using?

I get this on version 2.30.1 so presumably a 2.30 change. I don't think they're planning to move to main for definite, just that they're preparing people to stop treating `master` as always the default branch

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#64

Post by GNU_James » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

I would say, what I really think, but HN mods would also ban me for my words.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#65

Post by angry-tempest » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

jamil7 wrote: post #31

RawaHorse wrote: post #18

Maybe it's just me but, outside of tech contexts, I associate "master" and "slave" much more with bdsm than I do with actual slave ownership.

Maybe we can start using dom/sub instead of master/slave in tech.

I'm down

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#66

Post by 3saryHg6LP2e » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

sennight wrote: post #41

...and nobody in the valley seems to be aware of the etymology for "slave" :)

Or "robot"/"bot".

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#67

Post by beaconstudios » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:50 AM UTC

I've always seen this sad twitter-oriented political correctness dance as being upper middle class white people catering to the complaints of other upper middle class white people who think they know what a working class black person would want. It's a silly middle class status dance of displaying conspicuous virtue while not actually having to lift a finger, just like how Facebook used to be full of people posting cause petitions. Ie, the latest iteration of slacktivism.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#68

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:50 AM UTC

qwerty456127 wrote: post #11

I would agree "slave" seems a weird choice of a word but I can see nothing wrong in "master". Not a single moment in my life I thought about slavery when hearing/seeing the word "master". Should we also rename master degrees perhaps?

[deleted]

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#69

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:50 AM UTC

tsbinz wrote: post #34

sunaurus wrote: post #4

I feel like this topic has been discussed a lot already, but I think it's important to keep pushing back against useless wasted man-hours like this effort is. I live in a country that was almost entirely enslaved by foreigners for ~700 years. I've discussed this rename with dozens of engineers in my country. Without exception, every single one of them thinks it's completely ridiculous. We need to keep voicing these t…

So you say spending time on this topic is wasted time, and your solution is to spend more time on pushing back?

[deleted]

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#70

Post by lcrz » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 8:50 AM UTC

gebruikersnaam wrote: post #20

lcrz wrote: post #9

I just want to add a link to this[0] post here as a counterpoint for why changing language _can_ matter. The author seems to imply that the name change is all about being non-offensive to some people. Since the author doesn't find the language offensive, they conclude that name change is only political correctness or virtue signalling and a hollow gesture. I do not agree with that. Language and words are very powerfu…

> Since the author doesn't find the language offensive You're missing the point, the author concludes that the companies decide that the language is offensive without asking the people who are supposedly the offended party.

Are you sure about that though? They didn't publish anything about their internal decision making. It is an assumption that they didn't talk to any person of color. The idea of using so called neutral terms is not new: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3243656.stm