What does HackerNews think of renaming?

Uh, no. This is false. It’s just part of a broader trend to stop using ‘master’ due to some people finding that term offensive.

https://github.com/github/renaming

Another potential issue with a change like this, for the reason that they give for doing it, is that it may communicate an inaccurate picture of what black people care about to non-black people. "Oh wow, black people are offended by and 'hurt by'[0] the use of this term. I didn't know this would make them feel hurt!"

Articles like this clarify that at least some black people in fact do not feel "hurt by" this use of this term.

I'm Jewish, if someone said "we have to take all the swastika imagery off this Hindu graphic because it will offend and hurt Jews," that would bother me. I'm not offended, much less hurt, by seeing a swastika in a cultural context unconnected to Naziism. To suggest most Jews would be "hurt" by this paints an inaccurate and extremely unflattering picture of my own resiliency and ability to contextualize words and imagery. I can't speak for black folks but I would be surprised if some didn't feel similarly about being informed that reading the word "master" would or should offend and hurt them.

0: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2020/jun/23/gitbranchname/ (this is the rationale linked to by github[1])

1: https://github.com/github/renaming

It is opt in.

It's easy to change and it's nice that old branch histories will do directs to new branch.

https://github.com/github/renaming