Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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If "Master/Slave" terminology in computing sounds bad now, why not change it to "Dom/Sub"? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts

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It sounds way less offensive to those who decry the original terminology's problematic roots but still keeps its meaning intact.

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[–] prime_number_314159 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think very few people mind changing it, and a few people want it changed, so it's slowly shifting across various use cases. I've only discussed the change from master/slave terminology with one person that affirmatively supported the change, and they didn't know that there's still slavery in the world today.

I don't know what to make of that, other than to say ending human slavery ought to be a higher priority than ending references to it.

[–] shrugs 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think very few people mind changing it

I doubt that. Do you know how many system configurations depend on these keywords? Do you have any idea how many hours of work and system outages this would cause?

[–] prime_number_314159 1 points 2 months ago

I've seen a few projects rename during major version upgrades, when everyone has to read the release notes and make changes, anyways.

Plenty of old deployed systems may continue using master/slave terminology, and of course some projects will stick to that language even decades in the future, but it was once more prevalent than it is now, and that declining trend looks like it will continue.