Firefox removing terminology from browser that has been identified as derogatory

There seems to be an assumption that &quot;master&quot; is always paired with &quot;slave&quot;, but not only is &quot;master&#x2F;servant&quot; a more common pairing, &quot;master&quot; is obviously a very common word&#x2F;prefix&#x2F;suffix with various meanings whose usage normally has nothing to do with subjugation of anybody.<p>A chess grandmaster does not imply the existence of chess grandslaves. The Sega Master System didn&#x27;t enslave other game systems. A master key is just a key with wider scope than the regular keys.

<i>Primary Password is replacing Master Password</i><p>Those words don&#x27;t mean the same thing, though. I would think a &quot;master password&quot; gives me access to anything any of the other passwords do, but &quot;primary password&quot; implies it has access to more things than any other password but not necessarily everything. If you must change it to appease what is probably like three people, call it the &quot;supreme password&quot; or &quot;ruler password&quot; or &quot;king password&quot; or &quot;ultimate password&quot;.<p>@dang can we get a ruling on whether this submission violates the HN guidelines? Whenever something goes from flagged to vouched over and over it&#x27;s being driven by ideology.

They changed “master password” to “primary password” because they think that “master” is an offensive word, because they are insane.

I see it as a part of wider problem where people in western countries substitute substance with virtue signaling form because due to all the outrage culture the society selects for these status-promoting behaviors. The war on words and common sense, Orwellian stuff.<p>Time to reconfigure GitHub to use “master” default branch to tick off idiots.

What does &quot;master password&quot; mean? What is the meaning of the word &quot;master&quot; in this context?<p>Is it like a master key? A master key operates all locks in a set. Other keys can each open one lock. The master key doesn&#x27;t own or otherwise control the other keys. It &quot;lets you in everywhere&quot; directly.<p>A master password is a password used to control access to other passwords. The other passwords are slaves. This is a master-slave metaphor.<p>Also, changing which word you use to refer to a thing is really not that hard.

&quot;‘Master-slave’ is a metaphor that perpetuates racism.&quot;<p>No, it does not. What a pathetic, pandering crock of BS.<p>Also &quot;master-slave&quot; doesn&#x27;t make sense; that would be a slave that&#x27;s a master.<p>Firefox was my go-to alternate browser (after Safari), but not any more.<p>Meanwhile, are people down-ranking the post of this article because they don&#x27;t like what it says? Wow. I thought more of HN users, but this site seems to be going the way of Reddit.

From the online etymology dictionary:<p>&gt; Master-key, one that will open (&quot;master&quot;) a number of locks so differently constructed that the key proper to each will open none of the others&quot; is from 1570s<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.etymonline.com&#x2F;word&#x2F;master" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.etymonline.com&#x2F;word&#x2F;master</a>

HN commentary exactly matched what I expected.<p>Master means master, that’s the point - that for you there is no lord&#x2F;serf, owner&#x2F;owned, etc is irrelevant.<p>For a fairly large, non-zero portion of the world there is a strong negative connotation, and there is literally zero cost to using terminology that lacks any negative connotation.<p>The only reason to be resoundingly opposed to this is the standard reactionary anti-wokeness people have come to expect from people who see acknowledgement that others have been subject to such as being an attack on their identity.