Master/Slave

[W@ttson]

Hello all,

Is master/slave terminolgy still being used widely in the industry? If not, what is the contemporary equivalent people have switch to?

 

[gadfly56]

Hello all,

Is master/slave terminolgy still being used widely in the industry? If not, what is the contemporary equivalent people have switch to?

My focus is fire alarms and I still use this terminology and so do my techs, who are a good 40 years younger than me.

 

[dvcochran]

Yes, it is quite common.

 

[SceneryDriver]

"Leader/follower" is becoming more common nomenclature.


SceneryDriver

 

[augie47]

"Leader/follower" is becoming more common nomenclature.


SceneryDriver

I'm surprised even that is acceptable today.

 

[Little Bill]

"Main device"
"Specialty assistant to Main device"

 

[W@ttson]

"Main device"
"Specialty assistant to Main device"

This cracked me up.

 

[W@ttson]

My focus is fire alarms and I still use this terminology and so do my techs, who are a good 40 years younger than me.

Yes, in my circles it is still also very common, but I have received a comment to update my terminology on 1 project so I wanted to poke my head up and see what others may be using.

 

[infinity]

Since slavery has been abolished for over 150 years in the United States I don't have an issue with master/slave. Same goes for master bedroom.

 

[winnie]

I can see the reason for making such a change, and honestly for many applications other terms might be more descriptive might be clearer. ('Bus master' and 'bus responder' are IMHO clearer than simply 'master/slave'.)

At the same time when such topics are brought up, a little part of me wants to come up with replacement terms that are even more offensive.

I mean when you consider that the central item controlling a bunch of distributed sensors is itself responding to upstream requirements, 'pimp' might be a better fit than 'master'.....

-Jon

 

[wwhitney]

Since slavery has been abolished for over 150 years in the United States I don't have an issue with master/slave. Same goes for master bedroom.

Yet it is entirely understandable that some people for whom many of their ancestors were enslaved do have an issue with the terminology. And I see no downside to adopting leader/follower terminology instead.

Of course, if you don't want to be considerate of others, go ahead and continue using the terminology.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[LarryFine]

Transmitter and receiver? Controller and responder?

 

[James L]

I actually thought about this about a week ago.

Main/remote is what I'm saying on stuff like Caseta with Pico.

 

[infinity]

Yet it is entirely understandable that some people for whom many of their ancestors were enslaved do have an issue with the terminology. And I see no downside to adopting leader/follower terminology instead.

Of course, if you don't want to be considerate of others, go ahead and continue using the terminology.

I din't have problem with others using other terms but I'm not getting caught up in the current zeitgeist which parallels the every child get a trophy syndrome.

 

[Strathead]

Yet it is entirely understandable that some people for whom many of their ancestors were enslaved do have an issue with the terminology. And I see no downside to adopting leader/follower terminology instead.

Of course, if you don't want to be considerate of others, go ahead and continue using the terminology.

Cheers, Wayne

Self edited. No politic, even on the fringe here. I suggest the moderators move this to campfire chat at the least as it isn't really an electrical topic.

 

[GoldDigger]

Since slavery has been abolished for over 150 years in the United States I don't have an issue with master/slave. Same goes for master bedroom.

I do not have a problem with master bedroom, but I think you would agree that slave bedroom would be inappropriate.
Not sure how I feel about "servants' quarters."

 

[wwhitney]

I don't have problem with others using other terms . . .

What it comes down to is do you want to use the term that reasonably offends maybe 5% to 10% of people you deal with, or do you want to use the term that is never offensive?

Cheers, Wayne

 

[James L]

What it comes down to is do you want to use the term that reasonably offends maybe 5% to 10% of people you deal with, or do you want to use the term that is never offensive?

Cheers, Wayne

That can be pushed much too far, because there are certain people who are offended by terminology that relates to electrical fact.

But to a certain degree I'm on board.

Just this week I made the same joke twice, which historically for me has been received well. But I clearly offended women, and I'm rethinking some things

 

[wwhitney]

That can be pushed much too far, because there are certain people who are offended by terminology that relates to electrical fact.

Not sure what you might be referring to, but sure anything can be pushed too far. E.g. if you had a colleague that objected to the word "red" for whatever reason, that would obviously present difficulties when talking about wire color. : - ) But in this case, I see no such difficulties.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Strathead]

What it comes down to is do you want to use the term that reasonably offends maybe 5% to 10% of people you deal with, or do you want to use the term that is never offensive?

Cheers, Wayne

I don't really care. Push it up to 35% I will consider it, but 5% will always look for a way to be offended. Personally I wish we would get completely over the words. Words only have power when they are given power by the recipient.