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

[Peter Hutterer <peter hutterer who-t net>]

On 26/4/19 24:56 , mcatanzaro gnome org wrote:
> Hard to believe this is a serious discussion that we're actually having.
>
> On Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 7:02 AM, jtojnar--- via desktop-devel-list 
> <desktop-devel-list gnome org> wrote:
> > On Thu, 25 Apr, 2019 at 11:21 AM, Daniel Playfair Cal via 
> > desktop-devel-list <desktop-devel-list gnome org> wrote:
> > > "master/slave" -> "leader/follower"
> >
> > Please note that leader/follower terms are commonly associated with 
> > exploitation of people by cults and should be avoided as well.
>
> Since it's impossible to tell what the intended tone here is: was this a 
> serious request to avoid the terminology, or a joke intended to make a 
> point? (I'm guessing the later?)

I'm a German native speaker and to me the word "leader" has definite 
negative connotations, for the obvious historical reasons.

For some reason the same connotations don't occur where context is 
available like "thought leader" or "leader of their academic field". 
Languages/brains are weird. But just "leader" on it's own? Not good.

Likewise, "follower" is weird. In a sports context it works, otherwise 
it has a religious/cult/submissive context.

Which is the crux of the matter really: whatever you're going to pick 
will have different connotations in other languages. Many ESL speakers 
will primarily think in their own language and substitute the words to 
English. So if you want to change terminology, I suggest getting a 
domain expert involved rather than 'randomly' picking something that 
sounds good to a small set of developers. That's how the original 
master/slave wording was decided on after all.

Cheers,
  Peter