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GitHub, fuck your name change

mooseyanon.medium.com

11–20 of 1001 posts

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#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?

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#12
Though I initially sympathized with the name change from master to main (cause I don't care what it is called), I am now more of the opinion that this kind of window-dressing might actually be harmful as it distracts from addressing the root cause. It is a bit complicated as the name change in itself is not bad, but given the context, and that it distracts from addressing real issues it actually is.

Same thing with plastic recycling, in and of itself it is better than landfill, but as it allows us to feel good and look away from the real problem (plastic is cheap because most impacts are externalized) the recycling of plastic contributes more to the problem than to the solution. I know people who traveled around the world about once a year, own a big house and altogether have a pretty big impact that could easily be reduced, but they do recycle plastic and think of themselves as somewhat environmentally responsible.

For the record, I do recycle plastic.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#14
>Every summer countless tech companies of all sizes run internship programs, would it be a stretch to run an apprenticeship program of the same length for non traditional applicants?

Specifically how would you define non-traditional, and in your opinion why should this non-traditional segment of people get a separate funnel?

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#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 init.defaultBranch 
  hint: 
  hint: Names commonly chosen instead of 'master' are 'main', 'trunk' and
  hint: 'development'. The just-created branch can be renamed via this command:
  hint: 
  hint:  git branch -m 
  Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/test

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#16
Eliminating the usage of words with offensive connotations from the English language is double plus good.

edit: Downvotes and the wording of some responses make me concerned that some folks may be unaware of the reference. Doubleplusgood is a newspeak word used in the book 1984. Newspeak is a language that is used to eliminate the ability for people to express unapproved thoughts because there are no words with which to express the concepts to others.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#17
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…

Everything humans do is part of cultural change, because what humans do is change things.

The post is about prioritisation. Moving the needle in a way that matters, not merely doing something so we can pat ourselves on the back for doing it.

Just because you can change something it doesn't mean you should or ought to. Opportunity cost....

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#19
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…

It was amusing to see the GitLab ticket where they try to orchestrate the change. It’s still going on. At least 100 people involved and multiple tickets open for an entirely pointless change.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#20
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.

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