Re: Proposal: Replace all references to master/slave in GNOME modules

[Ernestas Kulik <ernestask gnome org>]

On Thu, 2019-04-25 at 13:24 +0200, David Woodhouse wrote:
> On Thu, 2019-04-25 at 13:04 +0200, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> > > Besides, we can't use "mainline" anyway, as that is a reference
> > > to
> > > intravenous drug taking and since we can't be expected tell
> > > homonyms
> > > apart or pass basic primary school comprehension exercises by
> > > applying our knowledge of context to the words we see, we'll
> > > *obviously*
> > > interpret all instances of the word "mainline" as references to
> > > drugs... right?
> >
> > This is a "slippery slope" logical fallacy. Are you going to argue
> > that
> > we can't use "trunk" either because of its link to deforestation?
> > ;)
>
> Why not? It makes just as much sense as eschewing "master" and
> "mainline".
>
> I see it more as "proof by contradiction".
>
> The logic in this request appears to be of the form:
>  • Word X has bad connotations
>  • Word X' is a homonym of word X
>  • Therefore we must avoid all uses of word X and its
>    homonyms like X' with related etymology. 
>
> The logic is just fundamentally flawed, which is quite clear to see
> as
> soon as you try to apply it to the general case.

If we’re going to bring formality into the logic, then maybe I’ll butt
in as well. I believe that the premise is all wrong to begin with. The
claim is that this change will make GNOME somehow more inclusive, but
do we have anything more than white Americans writing opinion essays,
trying to absolve themselves of white guilt?

Other projects being mentioned only makes everything sound more
important, but is there concrete evidence of individuals being affected
to the point of not contributing? Is it just so that we could give
ourselves a good pat on the back and tell everyone that we are post-
inclusive?

For whatever it’s worth, I realize that I don’t truly care about using
a different branch name in the end, but I get super annoyed by these
innitiatives when they have no measurable outcomes.

> And if you want to claim that I'm making the logic excessively broad,
> and that the case of master¹ vs. master⁶ is somehow different to the
> case of mainline¹ vs. mainline², or trunk¹ vs. trunk², then I would
> happily listen to your explanation of what makes them different.
>
> As a software engineer, I much prefer to fix bugs rather than paper
> over them with workarounds. And if the bug here is that some people
> wouldn't pass a high school comprehension test because they can't
> tell
> the difference between different words that happen to be spelled the
> same, then changing a small handful of examples doesn't really
> address
> the real problem. It's a workaround, not a fix.