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There is a term for well intended, but useless attempts at inclusiveness: "buttering the cat". I think this is a prime case. Do we have to change "master's the

There is a term for well intended, but useless attempts at inclusiveness: "buttering the cat". I think this is a prime case. Do we have to change "master's thesis" or "golden master" or "scrum master", too? No, because that is a different word! Now what I really did find off-putting is the use of master in "master and slave", as in IDE drives or in I2C. When I first heard it I didn't really bother me personally, but I was confused why somebody would choose such an inappropriate analogy. I would totally be ok with changing that to something more neutral.

Ekaros 5y ago
Actually I think "scrum master" would be one to start really attacking. It clearly implies that rest of the team are slaves controlled by the master. And that is something probably implemented in some scrum teams...
- TehShrike 5y ago
  "Master" has other meanings besides "slave owner", there are more plausible ways to interpret "master of scrum" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/master#Noun https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/master#Noun
- knighthack 5y ago
  I don't understand this need of politically-correct people to always ascribe the worst possible meaning to a particular context, especially when it's clear that that worst-meaning could not have been intended.
- krageon 5y ago
  Or you could assume the "master" means something in the sense of "has mastered the craft of scrum". It doesn't need to say anything about everyone else, it just describes the hat that person is wearing (namely, one of expertise in a given field). The toxic thing here is your insistence on fabricating a demon where there is none.
  - BlargMcLarg 5y ago
    Well by the sounds of many, scrum master definitely doesn't imply a master of scrum
    - krageon 5y ago
      I'm saying this is likely what the title was conceptualised to mean. In practice it doesn't mean that at all, but that's not germane in this particular context I think :)
DougN7 5y ago
Even with master-slave, why is that offensive? It’s a concept. Is referring to poor quality work insulting to poor people? Sure, the concept was applied to people and it was horrible. But does not speaking the words/concepts help? Should we never speak of the holocaust for the same reason? I’ve never understood the logic of how a concept is personally insulting or painful. It’s just a concept.
henriquecm8 5y ago
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/474419/does-the-term-master-in-git-the-vc-system-refer-to-slavery https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/474419/does-the-...
rcarmo 5y ago
I can’t speak for the cat, but this kind of change is really annoying. Then again I am not in the US and have no cultural biases that allow me to relate to the motivation behind this kind of thing. But hypersensitivity to these matters seems to have taken the tech world by storm, and we live in a largely US-led ASCII/UTF-8 where strings of characters are sometimes imbued with magical meanings, so…

Ekaros 5y ago

Actually I think "scrum master" would be one to start really attacking. It clearly implies that rest of the team are slaves controlled by the master. And that is something probably implemented in some scrum teams...

TehShrike 5y ago
"Master" has other meanings besides "slave owner", there are more plausible ways to interpret "master of scrum" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/master#Noun https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/master#Noun
knighthack 5y ago
I don't understand this need of politically-correct people to always ascribe the worst possible meaning to a particular context, especially when it's clear that that worst-meaning could not have been intended.
krageon 5y ago
Or you could assume the "master" means something in the sense of "has mastered the craft of scrum". It doesn't need to say anything about everyone else, it just describes the hat that person is wearing (namely, one of expertise in a given field). The toxic thing here is your insistence on fabricating a demon where there is none.
- BlargMcLarg 5y ago
  Well by the sounds of many, scrum master definitely doesn't imply a master of scrum
  - krageon 5y ago
    I'm saying this is likely what the title was conceptualised to mean. In practice it doesn't mean that at all, but that's not germane in this particular context I think :)

DougN7 5y ago

Even with master-slave, why is that offensive? It’s a concept. Is referring to poor quality work insulting to poor people? Sure, the concept was applied to people and it was horrible. But does not speaking the words/concepts help? Should we never speak of the holocaust for the same reason? I’ve never understood the logic of how a concept is personally insulting or painful. It’s just a concept.

henriquecm8 5y ago

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/474419/does-the-term-master-in-git-the-vc-system-refer-to-slavery https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/474419/does-the-...

rcarmo 5y ago

I can’t speak for the cat, but this kind of change is really annoying. Then again I am not in the US and have no cultural biases that allow me to relate to the motivation behind this kind of thing. But hypersensitivity to these matters seems to have taken the tech world by storm, and we live in a largely US-led ASCII/UTF-8 where strings of characters are sometimes imbued with magical meanings, so…