6 ms·

@reset here. Always reply when I get @‘d because I love the laugh and also genuinely find the joy in looking at what people are building afterwards. Never stop,

@reset here. Always reply when I get @‘d because I love the laugh and also genuinely find the joy in looking at what people are building afterwards. Never stop, it’s a great part of my day

smcl 3y ago
Your reply to the linked PR is great! One could either be really annoyed or really entertained by this, I’m glad you’ve got a sense of humour about it.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
iamthejuan 3y ago
Mine was @username and GitHub just suddenly changed it to usernamex.
- acters 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - Philpax 3y ago
    I think you have a different definition of fun to most people!
    - acters 3y ago
      I have a strange fascination with meetings, legalize, and other boring business stuff.
      - jliptzin 3y ago
        *legalese
    - mcv 3y ago
      Some people do. Imagine the hilarity of all that paperwork!
      - acters 3y ago
        Lol, imagine how confused people will be. They will think that there is a mistake somewhere when infact this guy rightfully owned the username username!
        kreeben 3y ago
        Johnny Two-Times called, he wants you to go get the paper get the paper.
  - throwawaylinux 3y ago
    Sounds like a good way to get banned from github.
  - DC-3 3y ago
    I have no great fondness for big tech companies, but equally I do believe that society is made worse by people who behave like this.
    - acters 3y ago
      I am unsure how society is "made worse" On the contrary, this is playful, it is not evil or abusive. also helps keep companies on their toes. Changing someone's username without notifying them AND consent should be frowned on. Taking a large company to small claims will not make the company worse or hurt anyone. Most of the time it is helpful and sometimes brings about the creation of needed regulations. It is feedback in a professional manner for disrespecting one of their users/clients.
      - mcdonje 3y ago
        I agree with providing feedback to companies, and sometimes the court is the correct avenue. You raise a good point about how that can help to further everyone's interests. I just think that there is often a solution that's less painful for both sides before going to court. I suppose if you're dealing with a large company that has lawyers on staff but doesn't care about user support, then this is a good avenue. Small companies and non-VC backed startups on the other hand wouldn't see it as playful. So, contextually, I can see a situation where your perspective makes sense. Like those situations where you can imagine a corporate lawyer laughing at you for taking them to small claims over a username. You just need to read the room and know when it'd be good fun vs when it would cause problems. Oh, and you also need to have enough money for expensive hobbies. The subset of users who are in a position to engage with companies this way probably differs significantly in many ways from the total population of users, assuming a popular product.
        acters 3y ago
        True, which is why it should be a considered a fun activity. Not everything is a hobby but a tool to exercised when needed or wanted. I mentioned in a different comment how Github's policy and terms of service has no mention of changing an account's username with or without notice. Unless they can prove that they are "squatting" by holding an username considered "inactively held for future use." It is inappropriate behavior for Github to do this to OP. I also mentioned to talk to support first but I failed to mention why. Instead my comment made it seem as though OP should immediately sue them. I do not condone that kind of behavior and would have edited my earlier comment to reflect this after some of the comments made it clear I made a mistake.(I can not edit it now) Thank you for bringing this to my attention and grateful for your understanding. Hopefully I can leave this comment behind me as it seems to have run its course.
  - blibble 3y ago
    and you'll be suing them for what exactly?
    - acters 3y ago
      It will be done in arbitrage before anything like that. It is perfectly ok to sue a business for inappropriate actions that are not clearly stated or wrongfully done. After closely reviewing Github's policy and terms of service. They do not state they will change your username(with or without notice). Unless the account is "inactively held for future use." I highly doubt OP had been inactive enough to be considered a squatter. Either way, Github needs to update their policies describing why and how someone like OP had to have their username changed without notice. If this happened to me with a username that I carefully crafted and was unjustifiably acted on. I would certainly speak with support then sue them if there is no resolution, hoping to settle out of court because going through the court process is a giant pain for both parties.
      - blibble 3y ago
        they don't have to update their policies, it's their website and they can do what they want with it unless you've paid them (which @usernamex doesn't seem to), then there's not even a contract with them they will call your bluff, you'll go to court, then you'll lose and you'll have their legal fees to pay
        acters 3y ago
        If Github has the power to change usernames or account details without notice then I would like them to communicate that to me clearly and upfront. Also, you dont have to pay github to have legal grounds. If the account is used for business purposes(business card, or other forms), then github could cause you financial damages no matter how small. As a business, they should try to be more open and communicative with the users. OP clearly does not have much of a case, which makes that a lame example to bring up this court stuff. This is my bad, however if OP was using his account as we both mentioned then he would have a good case. Overall, Github should update their policy to communicate more clearly with us. This is something we should demand from them. We can just throw up our hands and say github can do whatever they want. If that was the case and Github came out to say that, I would never do business with them or use their services/platform.
  - OJFord 3y ago
    What is the claim? In the UK at least SCC requires that your claiming for some kind of (small) financial harm. What's that here? Even if that's not the case in the USA (small civil claims against un-pursued crime?) it's still not clear to me what the issue is, or what 'right' they've violated. The judicial system isn't there for 'how displeased you are'.
    - VWWHFSfQ 3y ago
      > requires that your claiming for some kind of (small) financial harm. There may be very small differences, but I believe it is also exactly the same in USA. Judge Judy is not going to give you a dime just because GitHub changed your username. You might still get on the TV show though but only so that she can yell at you publicly for wasting everyone's time.
      - imdsm 3y ago
        In a more illustrative example, twitter.com/x was up until a few days ago, a protected account owned by someone? and now it is Twitter... X's handle. I bet he wasn't paid a dime either. Be careful, Devon. https://github.com/x https://github.com/x
        acters 3y ago
        that is what the previous owner of the twitter x handle said. No compensation or warning. However, Twitter(or X) was exercising their trademark policy. Github just changed OP's username without any warning or breach of any policy. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over-x-username-handle-original-owner-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over...
    - arcbyte 3y ago
      Maybe I have my github account printed on business cards or even plastered on my car as advertising for my consulting practice. Or its embedded on marketing pages for consulting support for my open source project that now I need to pay a dev or dedicate time to update. Or any other scenario where o have customers and potential customers that discover or interact with me at least partly through my github account.
  - rlpb 3y ago
    You don't own your username on someone else's service. They don't owe you anything.
  - KMnO4 3y ago
    As a non-American I’m just curious: where does this ideology start to be pushed? The whole idea of “I don’t like this, so I will sue” isn’t really present to nearly such an extent in the rest of the world. I’m just wondering if it’s something they teach in school (like a civics class), or if it’s introduced in a more causal fashion (making jokes like “don’t do that or I’ll sue you”), or is it just popular on the news or TV?
    - civilitty 3y ago
      I say this only somewhat in jest: > The whole idea of “I don’t like this, so I will sue” isn’t really present to nearly such an extent in the rest of the world. The US is a capitalistic dystopian hellscape where every organization is a parasite trying to extract every dollar of rent it possibly can, regardless of what it does to the host. Without lawsuits, we'd all be serfs. > I’m just wondering if it’s something they teach in school (like a civics class), or if it’s introduced in a more causal fashion (making jokes like “don’t do that or I’ll sue you”), or is it just popular on the news or TV? Civics education in the US is crap. We'd honestly be better off if we did teach these things in school.
    - acters 3y ago
      It is not pushed; it is a right. It is just a difference in culture. We americans have a strong legal system that is made for small and large cases. On top of that, we are allowed to do it privately by settling matters outside of the legal system when possible. It is not meant to be a “I don’t like this, so I will sue” however a lot of bad actors have popularized this. In fact, if a business acted in a way that was offensive, we have a right to defend ourselves. If there is no way to do that then we are losing something necessary to prevent a dystopian future. I do believe the american schooling system has become to naive and only teach the abstract general education classes. I believe a lot of it came down to how much American companies had to be sued in the past and presently are because of the lack of regulations. Especially for a lot of newer technologies, or reduction of cost for previously discovered technologies. With current lobbying practices and ease of influence on our government, many people are forced to take things to court to cementify regulations or rights. Sometimes we are forced to take a business or individuals to court because many americans are uncaring for one another and some have tried to screw each other over. It is not to say this does not happen all around the world. America seems to very loud. It is easy to see and hear about all kinds of things that happen to a large nation like america. While other larger nations either shut down the press or news coverages and are blatantly corrupted. Some of the large nations in europe are not all roped into one another under a single name like "Europe." It is all odd and complex. I have jumped the gun too early on telling him to sue. I should have asked if he spoke to github before making that suggestion. my bad.
- ipaddr 3y ago
  There use to be a site called batcave.net that gave free space and a subdomain. I had the name search.. search.batcave.net until one day when they decided to take back the search subdomain name and use it for themselves. From that point I've avoid great common usernames that one day might be too great
  - _huayra_ 3y ago
    > From that point I've avoid great common usernames that one day might be too great https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over-x-username-handle-original-owner-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over...
  - thayne 3y ago
    That's one reason why if you give out subdomains to users, you should do so on a different base domain than you use for your own subdomains.
    - WorldMaker 3y ago
      It's the exact reason that GitHub moved to github.io for GitHub Pages hosting. At first there were a few individual users still grandfathered in to be allowed to use <username>.github.com for their GitHub Pages, but I don't remember who they were and I don't know if that still works for them this many years later.
      - yencabulator 3y ago
        The real reason is avoiding user-generated content from stealing authentication cookies. If worldmaker.github.com can run a little bit of javascript to add @worldmaker as admin to all the user's repositories on github.com, well, that's a problem.
        WorldMaker 3y ago
        Both reasons are true. Also, relatedly, "stealing perceived authenticity": if a user sets up "help.github.com" or "about.github.com" or "wwww.github.com" and then runs a scam from it, it looks like GitHub is running the scam.
- bad_username 3y ago
  > Mine was @username It's not bad.
prpl 3y ago
I got sshole for the same reason.

@reset here. Always reply when I get @‘d because I love the laugh and also genuinely find the joy in looking at what people are building afterwards. Never stop, it’s a great part of my day

smcl 3y ago

Your reply to the linked PR is great! One could either be really annoyed or really entertained by this, I’m glad you’ve got a sense of humour about it.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

iamthejuan 3y ago

Mine was @username and GitHub just suddenly changed it to usernamex.

acters 3y ago
[flagged]
- Philpax 3y ago
  I think you have a different definition of fun to most people!
  - acters 3y ago
    I have a strange fascination with meetings, legalize, and other boring business stuff.
    - jliptzin 3y ago
      *legalese
  - mcv 3y ago
    Some people do. Imagine the hilarity of all that paperwork!
    - acters 3y ago
      Lol, imagine how confused people will be. They will think that there is a mistake somewhere when infact this guy rightfully owned the username username!
      - kreeben 3y ago
        Johnny Two-Times called, he wants you to go get the paper get the paper.
- throwawaylinux 3y ago
  Sounds like a good way to get banned from github.
- DC-3 3y ago
  I have no great fondness for big tech companies, but equally I do believe that society is made worse by people who behave like this.
  - acters 3y ago
    I am unsure how society is "made worse" On the contrary, this is playful, it is not evil or abusive. also helps keep companies on their toes. Changing someone's username without notifying them AND consent should be frowned on. Taking a large company to small claims will not make the company worse or hurt anyone. Most of the time it is helpful and sometimes brings about the creation of needed regulations. It is feedback in a professional manner for disrespecting one of their users/clients.
    - mcdonje 3y ago
      I agree with providing feedback to companies, and sometimes the court is the correct avenue. You raise a good point about how that can help to further everyone's interests. I just think that there is often a solution that's less painful for both sides before going to court. I suppose if you're dealing with a large company that has lawyers on staff but doesn't care about user support, then this is a good avenue. Small companies and non-VC backed startups on the other hand wouldn't see it as playful. So, contextually, I can see a situation where your perspective makes sense. Like those situations where you can imagine a corporate lawyer laughing at you for taking them to small claims over a username. You just need to read the room and know when it'd be good fun vs when it would cause problems. Oh, and you also need to have enough money for expensive hobbies. The subset of users who are in a position to engage with companies this way probably differs significantly in many ways from the total population of users, assuming a popular product.
      - acters 3y ago
        True, which is why it should be a considered a fun activity. Not everything is a hobby but a tool to exercised when needed or wanted. I mentioned in a different comment how Github's policy and terms of service has no mention of changing an account's username with or without notice. Unless they can prove that they are "squatting" by holding an username considered "inactively held for future use." It is inappropriate behavior for Github to do this to OP. I also mentioned to talk to support first but I failed to mention why. Instead my comment made it seem as though OP should immediately sue them. I do not condone that kind of behavior and would have edited my earlier comment to reflect this after some of the comments made it clear I made a mistake.(I can not edit it now) Thank you for bringing this to my attention and grateful for your understanding. Hopefully I can leave this comment behind me as it seems to have run its course.
- blibble 3y ago
  and you'll be suing them for what exactly?
  - acters 3y ago
    It will be done in arbitrage before anything like that. It is perfectly ok to sue a business for inappropriate actions that are not clearly stated or wrongfully done. After closely reviewing Github's policy and terms of service. They do not state they will change your username(with or without notice). Unless the account is "inactively held for future use." I highly doubt OP had been inactive enough to be considered a squatter. Either way, Github needs to update their policies describing why and how someone like OP had to have their username changed without notice. If this happened to me with a username that I carefully crafted and was unjustifiably acted on. I would certainly speak with support then sue them if there is no resolution, hoping to settle out of court because going through the court process is a giant pain for both parties.
    - blibble 3y ago
      they don't have to update their policies, it's their website and they can do what they want with it unless you've paid them (which @usernamex doesn't seem to), then there's not even a contract with them they will call your bluff, you'll go to court, then you'll lose and you'll have their legal fees to pay
      - acters 3y ago
        If Github has the power to change usernames or account details without notice then I would like them to communicate that to me clearly and upfront. Also, you dont have to pay github to have legal grounds. If the account is used for business purposes(business card, or other forms), then github could cause you financial damages no matter how small. As a business, they should try to be more open and communicative with the users. OP clearly does not have much of a case, which makes that a lame example to bring up this court stuff. This is my bad, however if OP was using his account as we both mentioned then he would have a good case. Overall, Github should update their policy to communicate more clearly with us. This is something we should demand from them. We can just throw up our hands and say github can do whatever they want. If that was the case and Github came out to say that, I would never do business with them or use their services/platform.
- OJFord 3y ago
  What is the claim? In the UK at least SCC requires that your claiming for some kind of (small) financial harm. What's that here? Even if that's not the case in the USA (small civil claims against un-pursued crime?) it's still not clear to me what the issue is, or what 'right' they've violated. The judicial system isn't there for 'how displeased you are'.
  - VWWHFSfQ 3y ago
    > requires that your claiming for some kind of (small) financial harm. There may be very small differences, but I believe it is also exactly the same in USA. Judge Judy is not going to give you a dime just because GitHub changed your username. You might still get on the TV show though but only so that she can yell at you publicly for wasting everyone's time.
    - imdsm 3y ago
      In a more illustrative example, twitter.com/x was up until a few days ago, a protected account owned by someone? and now it is Twitter... X's handle. I bet he wasn't paid a dime either. Be careful, Devon. https://github.com/x https://github.com/x
      - acters 3y ago
        that is what the previous owner of the twitter x handle said. No compensation or warning. However, Twitter(or X) was exercising their trademark policy. Github just changed OP's username without any warning or breach of any policy. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over-x-username-handle-original-owner-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over...
  - arcbyte 3y ago
    Maybe I have my github account printed on business cards or even plastered on my car as advertising for my consulting practice. Or its embedded on marketing pages for consulting support for my open source project that now I need to pay a dev or dedicate time to update. Or any other scenario where o have customers and potential customers that discover or interact with me at least partly through my github account.
- rlpb 3y ago
  You don't own your username on someone else's service. They don't owe you anything.
- KMnO4 3y ago
  As a non-American I’m just curious: where does this ideology start to be pushed? The whole idea of “I don’t like this, so I will sue” isn’t really present to nearly such an extent in the rest of the world. I’m just wondering if it’s something they teach in school (like a civics class), or if it’s introduced in a more causal fashion (making jokes like “don’t do that or I’ll sue you”), or is it just popular on the news or TV?
  - civilitty 3y ago
    I say this only somewhat in jest: > The whole idea of “I don’t like this, so I will sue” isn’t really present to nearly such an extent in the rest of the world. The US is a capitalistic dystopian hellscape where every organization is a parasite trying to extract every dollar of rent it possibly can, regardless of what it does to the host. Without lawsuits, we'd all be serfs. > I’m just wondering if it’s something they teach in school (like a civics class), or if it’s introduced in a more causal fashion (making jokes like “don’t do that or I’ll sue you”), or is it just popular on the news or TV? Civics education in the US is crap. We'd honestly be better off if we did teach these things in school.
  - acters 3y ago
    It is not pushed; it is a right. It is just a difference in culture. We americans have a strong legal system that is made for small and large cases. On top of that, we are allowed to do it privately by settling matters outside of the legal system when possible. It is not meant to be a “I don’t like this, so I will sue” however a lot of bad actors have popularized this. In fact, if a business acted in a way that was offensive, we have a right to defend ourselves. If there is no way to do that then we are losing something necessary to prevent a dystopian future. I do believe the american schooling system has become to naive and only teach the abstract general education classes. I believe a lot of it came down to how much American companies had to be sued in the past and presently are because of the lack of regulations. Especially for a lot of newer technologies, or reduction of cost for previously discovered technologies. With current lobbying practices and ease of influence on our government, many people are forced to take things to court to cementify regulations or rights. Sometimes we are forced to take a business or individuals to court because many americans are uncaring for one another and some have tried to screw each other over. It is not to say this does not happen all around the world. America seems to very loud. It is easy to see and hear about all kinds of things that happen to a large nation like america. While other larger nations either shut down the press or news coverages and are blatantly corrupted. Some of the large nations in europe are not all roped into one another under a single name like "Europe." It is all odd and complex. I have jumped the gun too early on telling him to sue. I should have asked if he spoke to github before making that suggestion. my bad.
ipaddr 3y ago
There use to be a site called batcave.net that gave free space and a subdomain. I had the name search.. search.batcave.net until one day when they decided to take back the search subdomain name and use it for themselves. From that point I've avoid great common usernames that one day might be too great
- _huayra_ 3y ago
  > From that point I've avoid great common usernames that one day might be too great https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over-x-username-handle-original-owner-2023-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-takes-over...
- thayne 3y ago
  That's one reason why if you give out subdomains to users, you should do so on a different base domain than you use for your own subdomains.
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    It's the exact reason that GitHub moved to github.io for GitHub Pages hosting. At first there were a few individual users still grandfathered in to be allowed to use <username>.github.com for their GitHub Pages, but I don't remember who they were and I don't know if that still works for them this many years later.
    - yencabulator 3y ago
      The real reason is avoiding user-generated content from stealing authentication cookies. If worldmaker.github.com can run a little bit of javascript to add @worldmaker as admin to all the user's repositories on github.com, well, that's a problem.
      - WorldMaker 3y ago
        Both reasons are true. Also, relatedly, "stealing perceived authenticity": if a user sets up "help.github.com" or "about.github.com" or "wwww.github.com" and then runs a scam from it, it looks like GitHub is running the scam.
bad_username 3y ago
> Mine was @username It's not bad.

prpl 3y ago

I got sshole for the same reason.