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Remove "master" terminology from wmfdata-python
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Description

Computing's master/slave metaphor is unpleasantly reminiscent of real slavery and not technically precise anyway. wmfdata-python uses "master" in a couple places:

  • as the primary Git branch. We should change this to main as long as it won't cause significant backwards-compatibility issues.
  • in the spark module, following Spark's use of the term for the coordinator process. Spark has a general plan to replace the term, but until they actually do, we should probably wait to avoid confusion from introducing a non-standard term.

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nshahquinn-wmf created this task.
nshahquinn-wmf moved this task from Triage to Current Quarter on the Product-Analytics board.
nshahquinn-wmf changed the task status from Open to Stalled.Mar 23 2022, 10:58 PM

I've renamed the master branch to main.

Unfortunately, Spark still hasn't changed their use of "master". Term is widely used in Spark documentation, it would make things more confusing if we started using a different, non-standard term for the same thing. So, for now, I think we should just keep waiting 😕

nshahquinn-wmf lowered the priority of this task from Medium to Low.Mar 23 2022, 10:59 PM
nshahquinn-wmf moved this task from Triage to Icebox on the Product-Analytics board.

This is stalled and it's not clear when we'll be able to finish it, let alone who will do it at that point.

I am not really against removal of "slave" terms as there and usually plenty of other more precise words that can be used that are unrelated to human slavery, however, I am against unnecessary remove of "master" terminology as it was only applied to slave owners considerably after it already had many other usages and meanings (e.g., mastering a skill and the origin of the "Mr.", etc.). I have no issues with "master" branches and think it is silly and not useful to seriously consider trying to remove such references.

I think chasing the "try to not insult anyone" train can easily go overboard. It would be like trying to remove the original meaning of "gay" meaning "happy" because it has now been adopted by (especially male) homosexuality (luckily in both senses is it not usually considered derogatory).