
Ask HN: Is using master/slave terminology anti-diversity? - soumyadeb
We got a PR in our repo https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;rudderlabs&#x2F;rudder-server&#x2F;pull&#x2F;432 requesting us to change the master&#x2F;slave terminology to main&#x2F;subordinate.<p>I really appreciate the author for bringing this issue up but somehow the main&#x2F;subordinate doesn&#x27;t seem right too.<p>Wondering if people have thought about this. And if yes, what alternative terminology people have been following?
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brendancol
IMHO “Slave” is the problematic word here. I think it’s better to avoid the
slavery analogy and instead use “worker” or “replica”.

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soumyadeb
master/replica sounds perfect to me. That should be fine I guess?

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bigiain
"master" even on its own os potentially problematic because of the
relationship with the word "slave" even if you cage that to "replica".

I'd suggest changing both, so you won't possibly be asked to change again
later. I went with "Primary/Replica" here, because it's genuinely more
logically descriptive of the roles, as well as moving completely away from
older "traditional" use of language that might cause offence or hurt.

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Gibbon1
My expedience is once the language police start driving the conversation
everything loses momentum and starts to fall apart. Because when the top of
your list of demands are inane superfluous things it makes everything else
appear so as well.

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mister_hn
No, since in IT it doesn't associate the concept to racists one.

Think about master/slave hard drive controllers (the old IDE interface) for
instance. And what about the Git "master" branch: what has to do with racists
concepts? And what about "master degree"?

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byoung2
I've thought about this since the days of IDE drives. As a black person in
America I see it as a reminder of a painful legacy reduced to a catchy
mnemonic. Those kinds of things waer in you, just like seeing 5 out of 7
people on US currency being slaveowners.

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jnxx
I am from Europe and I never thought that for things as IDE drives it has such
connotation in the US. I feel sorry how things are. If American society wants
to heal from this past, they will need do acknowledge the pain it brought.

Heck, in Germany quite a few two-letter abbreviations like "SS" are that taboo
that you'll never find them even in numerical source code. ("SS" was the
acronym for the Nazi storm troopers.) These letter combinations are utterly
burnt and nobody uses them since the WWII was over.

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detaro
This recent discussion lists a bunch of options:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23811866](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23811866)
\- which is best depends on the context

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soumyadeb
Thanks for the pointer. Missed that thread

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gigatexal
Both words need to go imo

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praveen9920
`leader/follower` is one option you can consider.

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soumyadeb
Ah, that sounds much better

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the_resistence
icecube/snowflake

