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OpenZFS removed offensive terminology from its code
On Wednesday evening, ZFS founding developer Matthew Ahrens submitted what should have been a simple, non-controversial pull request to the OpenZFS project: wherever possible without causing technical issues, the patch removed references to "slaves" and replaced them with "dependents."
This patch in question doesn't change the way the code functions—it simply changes variable names in a way that brings them in conformance with Linux upstream device-mapper terminology, in 48 total lines of code (42 removed and 48 added; with one comment block expanded slightly to be more descriptive).
But this being the Internet, unfortunately, outraged naysayers descended on the pull request, and the comments were quickly closed to non-contributors. I first became aware of this as the moderator of the r/zfs subreddit where the overflow spilled once comments on the PR itself were no longer possible.
Related: Allowlist, Not Whitelist. Blocklist, Not Blacklist. Microsoft Lops Off Offensive Words
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @12:47AM (2 children)
My girlfriend attained the title of "Slave" after quite a long number of years of dating (yes, we have a BDSM relationship).
Obtaining the title of Slave has been the pinnacle of the relationship and something she worked very hard for. It is a title that she is very fond of, and cherishes every day (and that other girls we date, also hope some day they can attain).
It is * offensive to us * that the term "slave" itself is now removed from software and the lexicon because others don't like it and whine about it.
Words mean different things to different people, and it is selfish for one group to usurp the word and its meaning from others (be it BDSM practitioners, hardware communications engineers..etc) .
It is crazy thinking like this that led to dystopic groups like The Taliban, ISIS, and other lunacy you see when everyone tries to accomodate any and all loonies that show up saying "I am a victim, I am offended you must obey me (or else we will burn down your town, call you 'racist' or get you fired'..etc)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday June 13 2020, @01:00AM
At the very least, "slavery" is not inherently racist, even when it is illegal or immoral.
Hey AC, remember this one [soylentnews.org]?
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @01:20AM
The Taliban and ISIS have an ideology based on cultural domination. They are not about to listen to "victims".
Sure, both ends of the political spectrum bend around towards authoritarianism. But only the right-wing ones, like your examples, are still functional when they get that extreme. The left-wing ones either fall to infighting, or they change ideology to create a new right wing with new winners and losers.