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GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

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Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#111

Post by mx60s »

silveraxe93 wrote: post #6

This is just so damn pointless. It will cause some "great" controversy, people will be called white supremacists for refusing to stop saying master. Now even if this catches on, then yeah OK I'll start naming my branches as main unless I want to make a political statement, which would just add to confusion when developing. Meanwhile these people will pat each other on the back, yell "yeah! We sure made a difference."…

I love how this is making everyone mad at progressives. Not one progressive asked for this and not one progressive is going to call people white supremacists for using the word "master".

Let's call a spade a spade and recognize that this was a big company trying to sound "woke" without doing anything.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#112

Post by shockinglytrue »

clint wrote: post #50
protomyth wrote: post #25

What bugs me about crap like this is that it ignores world history, makes these people feel good about doing nothing of consequence, and takes attention away from things that will actually help. If you are going to help, actually do something that improves the lives of people. Maybe, you should really put some effort into beefing up the Computer Science programs in black high schools and colleges? You are Microsoft,…

Little known fact: The single, and only thing being done right now to address systemic racism is github renaming the default branch to master. I wish people would do other stuff like March, and donate money, and goad corporations into donating millions of dollars to minority owned businesses, passing new laws that address historical abuses of power and the police state. But no. We've got 350 million people solely foc…

Please review the HN community guidelines before posting something like this in future

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#113

Post by KayL »

Everybody knowing that is a replacement for the word "Master". After 50 years, `Main` === `Master`. Will it?

`root` is better if you really want to make a change. Or rand() is your friend.

Maybe I'm not a native English speaker. After knowing the history of Master/Slave. I still not linking them to the bad side.

If they can, rename `Git` also. Acutally I have some complaints from my clients before.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#114

Post by luckylion »

mx60s wrote: post #111
silveraxe93 wrote: post #6

This is just so damn pointless. It will cause some "great" controversy, people will be called white supremacists for refusing to stop saying master. Now even if this catches on, then yeah OK I'll start naming my branches as main unless I want to make a political statement, which would just add to confusion when developing. Meanwhile these people will pat each other on the back, yell "yeah! We sure made a difference."…

I love how this is making everyone mad at progressives. Not one progressive asked for this and not one progressive is going to call people white supremacists for using the word "master". Let's call a spade a spade and recognize that this was a big company trying to sound "woke" without doing anything.

> Not one progressive asked for this

Is the SJW crowd not progressive? Are they not "real progressives"?

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#115

Post by techntoke »

tzs wrote: post #95
techntoke wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying that Muslim people or Native Americans have not been targeted and discriminated against, and rather than have a movement that encourages justice and equality for all we should just focus on one race to unite us all? If I put a sign in my front yard that said White Lives Matter, would that not be considered racist?

I saw someone make an excellent point, when someone else was asking why we have a black history month in the United States but not a white history month. He said that we don't have a white history month because every month is white history month in the United States.

Why don't we have a Native American history month, or Hispanic? Is it because those races are just like white people, never have to face discrimination? Never have anyone judge them because of how they look?

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#116

Post by floatingatoll »

Traster wrote: post #10

Using the term master doesn't bother me - in my opinion the idea of the master/slave dynamic is much less problematic when you're talking in the context of bits and bytes flicking up and down on some silicon. Having said that, if it bothers people, change it. I do suspect to a certain extent though that people are more interested in changing it because they're worried it might be offensive to other people than actual…

As a mysql DBA, this terminology issue made me uncomfortable for most of the past 15 years. I'm uncertain whether I agree that it's relevant in GitHub terms since we don't have upstream/master -> fork/slave, but it's inspired me to think about the term "master" in the mysql, git, and art proofing spaces simultaneously, so I'm glad they're making the change and I look forward to finding out what I think about it after some time has passed.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#117

Post by krapp »

techntoke wrote: post #115
tzs wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw someone make an excellent point, when someone else was asking why we have a black history month in the United States but not a white history month. He said that we don't have a white history month because every month is white history month in the United States.

Why don't we have a Native American history month, or Hispanic? Is it because those races are just like white people, never have to face discrimination? Never have anyone judge them because of how they look?

Native American Heritage Month is November, Latinx Heritage Month is from September 15 to October 15.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#118

Post by pariahHN »

tekromancr wrote: post #101
pariahHN wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we going to get rid of every word that a plantation owner ever used to insult the slaves? For words that specifically have no purpose other than conveying hate, I can understand stamping them out. But master has quite a few other meanings, most of which I would think existed before institutionalized slavery of black people existed. Seems a bit unproductive to target it. They had supervisors - should we stop using…

I don't think "Let's reframe problematic work language in terms of kink-culture" is the slam-dunk rhetorical move you think it is.

It wasn't intended to be. It's an actual question - where does the cutoff point lie for something standing on its own vs it being considered a problematic and irredeemable symbol of an atrocity and how do we define it? How do we differentiate between when someone is an asshole or not?

I came across an example of this the other day after seeing the word used in a historical text for a class [0,1]. I was fairly certain it did not mean what it sounded like it meant so I looked into it. While the word does not have a definition associated with slavery (that I know of) and is thus arguably further away from the issue than the word master, its phonetics are enough for its usage to result in condemnation.

Lives can be ruined, either from an accusation over a misunderstanding or a failure to recognize actual harmful intent. Vagueness creates friction. To solve a problem there needs be a thorough and precise understanding, and when it involves multiple people there also needs to be a sufficiently common definition.

[0]: http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/16-capital-and-labor/will...

[1]: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Controversies_about_the_word_nig...

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#119

Post by crocodiletears »

luckylion wrote: post #114
mx60s wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how this is making everyone mad at progressives. Not one progressive asked for this and not one progressive is going to call people white supremacists for using the word "master". Let's call a spade a spade and recognize that this was a big company trying to sound "woke" without doing anything.

> Not one progressive asked for this Is the SJW crowd not progressive? Are they not "real progressives"?

A lot of oughties progressives fail to realize that they won the lions share of the first phase of the culture war going into the early teens. At that point, they stopped being progressive, and instead became the status quo (not necessarily conservative, but relativistically more adjacent to conservatism now).

Because they can't see this, they're loath to let go of the label in spite of the fact that they're now 'just' liberals.

Left-aligned culture warriors (sjws) are far more deserving of the label 'progressive', and generally the target of teeth gnashing about progressives. This is often taken as a personal, and non-sequiturial affront by those previous recipients of the label.

Re: GitHub is working on renaming default branch from “master”

#120

Post by dang »

techntoke wrote: post #43
snlacks wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's because people are offended at the use of the word master, in this case. I think, that it's symbolic. By making a point of getting rid of the word master, you're showing that black lives matter.

What about all other races that are discriminated against or people that are bullied? Do those matter?

Please don't bring up tired tropes like that one here. It's never going to change, so we're only going to get a tedious flamewar out of it, which indeed you've been perpetuating downthread—which, please don't.

It's not as if we lack for new things to discuss and argue about.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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