The music equipment world needs to do some work to eliminate "master/slave" terminology from its vocabulary. Primary and secondary are fine words to use.

This mini-rant was inspired by the MiniBrute 2S manual.

@mo That's the power of metaphor – and when it's not applied to people, that's all "master" and "slave" are. Words always gain meaning beyond the original use. We also still see "daemon" to describe a process that works in the background, but no Christians should be alarmed.

Now, that said: 1) I'm a white dude, so don't listen to me. 2) "Primary" and "Secondary" *ARE* just as good.

@fishidwardrobe people see these terms every day. Metaphor that uses terms associated with kidnap, subjugation, murder, and treatment as property still has the power to hurt.

I’m happy to see the end of daemon as a term in use. Background process is more than okay for use!

A benefit of changing terms is that it also helps non-native English speakers. Background process makes sense. Daemon does not.

@mo Well, daemon is a reference to maxwell's deamons of thermodynamics. Makes perfect sense to a physicist. And who exactly is going to be offended there?

@mo 1) again: this is a physics thing, not pagan. 2) why on earth would an actual Christian care? 3) who is actually hurt here? 4) if it was pagan – which it isn't – why would you prioritise Christian feelings over Pagan ones?

Sorry. There are real solid reasons to move away from master/slave – if we can. But this one is just silly.

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@fishidwardrobe It came up as a comparison you made, where you said Christians wouldn’t be alarmed by the use of the term daemon. Whether you intended or not, this implied that “if Christians can not be alarmed by daemon then what’s wrong with master/slave?” I just sidestepped it by taking the approach that if a term may offend a group, even if I don’t understand it personally, then we can move beyond it.

That’s all I have to say on this.

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