
Ask HN: Less culturally loaded terms for “Master/Slave”“ - jascii
I&#x27;d like to move us away from those terms and would love to hear from others what terms they have come up with. There is &quot;primary&#x2F;secondary&quot; but it seems long and doesn&#x27;t type nicely. What ya got?
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arh68
Leader/Follower (pietroglyph's is probably best), Cam/Follower,
Sender/Receiver, Drive/Pulley (?), Reference/Replica, Model/Instance,
Broker/Agent, Supervisor/Worker, maybe even Coordinator/Helper (these are a
bit long), Lead/Rhythm, Lead/Understudy, Boss/Worker

Also good but maybe weird: Alpha/Beta, Red/Black (and if we need 3+, I think
Hearts/Spades/Clubs[/Diamonds[/Jokers..]] is fine if you write down the object
of the game, so to speak)

Slightly humorous but not best: Hivemind/Drone, Hypnotoad/Zombie,
Sauron/Saruman, Don/Capo, Drummer/Dancer

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itamarst
Switching away from problematic terminology is also a good opportunity to make
it more accurate and specific.

In some situations it's "process A allows writes, process B only allow reads",
in which case "writer/reader" maybe?

In other situation it's "process A is in control, but process B will take
control if process A fails". In which case "controller/fallback", maybe?

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kens
It depends if you're talking about replicated databases, flip flops,
hydraulics, or something else. (I'm currently writing about flip flops, so I'm
interested in terminology for that case.)

Wikipedia has some suggestions:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master/slave_(technology)#Term...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master/slave_\(technology\)#Terminology_concerns)
Also see the HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17954823](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17954823)

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yamrzou
What exactly is wrong with using master/slave?

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jolmg
You know, what's funny is that it probably would stop being culturally loaded
if people stopped giving special treatment to words like these, trying to
avoid them.

I imagine that OP is making reference to African American enslavement in US
history, but I wouldn't even consider this relation if it weren't for this
post.

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madcaptenor
I have the same question regarding "Scrum Master". Obviously nobody is
explicitly calling the team members "slaves" but it's still not a good look.

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coralreef
If a martial arts teacher is referred to as "master" by their students, does
that infer that they are slaves?

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madcaptenor
I guess not. I suppose I have more respect for a martial arts teacher than a
scrum master.

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Jamwinner
Can you cite any instance of these terms actually being problematic in
practice? This is usually a political statement dressed in concern troll
clothing.

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jascii
Just asking what alternatives others have come up with because _we_ would like
to use something different. I'm not really interested in having an in-depth
discussion as to why at the moment. But thanks for your input.

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dekhn
I tried various alternatives (daimyo/peasant), but after using them for a
while I realized they had similar connotations.

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jgrahamc
lord/serf

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jascii
Hmm, not sure I'd call that less culturally loaded..

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jascii
I ended up going with ` _-prim` and `_ -sec` which seemed reasonably self-
descriptive.

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JamesVI
I had a manager who was big into amateur dramatics so I used Director/Actor.

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pietroglyph
I’ve seen leader and follower on some motor controllers that I’ve used.

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sethammons
Write (master), wo / replica, reader, ro

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AnimalMuppet
Active/fallback?

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rogerkirkness
Parent and child.

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buboard
government/citizen

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sesuximo
worker/manager?

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jimmyvalmer
zed/gimp

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ressetera
a/b

