5 ms·

GitHub manage to do it. Most URLs you'd think of are either redirects to other bits of the site, or accounts owned by GitHub themselves. It just takes a bit of

by dgl 7mo ago

GitHub manage to do it. Most URLs you'd think of are either redirects to other bits of the site, or accounts owned by GitHub themselves. It just takes a bit of planning.

deaux 7mo ago
> It just takes a bit of planning. Haha, no it just takes forcing user account name changes. github.com/copilot, github.com/claude, github.com/models, basically everything you can think of for the last few years has been through this approach.
- stavros 7mo ago
  "Hey, remember the username you've had for twenty years? Yeah we want it now"
  - account42 7mo ago
    It's what you get for being a tenant rather than owning your own site.
    - stavros 7mo ago
      And yet it's worth it for the network effects, sadly. These companies should be regulated, the moats are just too deep. I like that the EU recognised this and did start to regulate that these companies need to interoperate.
- efilife 7mo ago
  I wonder how they prompted these users to change their usernames. Was it just a "we need your username for our business, so comply" notice? https://web.archive.org/web/20210702114132/github.com/copilot https://web.archive.org/web/20210702114132/github.com/copilo... some proof this was an actual user
  - varun_ch 7mo ago
    Looks like he's now https://github.com/ogcopilot https://github.com/ogcopilot
    - varun_ch 7mo ago
      Some more discussion on similar things: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38380344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38380344
nkrisc 7mo ago
You can plan every "top level" path you'll ever want on the site from now until forever? Or do you mean planning as in plan to force account name changes on users when someone's username conflicts with a new feature name?
- account42 7mo ago
  You could probably get away with banning all common english words as usernames if you wanted to.
  - nkrisc 7mo ago
    Or put all user pages under some top level path and then you never need to ban anything as this problem becomes completely moot.
  - teddyh 7mo ago
    Even if you don’t ban all words, there are some you should filter: • <https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to-reserve https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to-reserve> • <https://xkcd.com/1963/ https://xkcd.com/1963/>
  - datawars 7mo ago
    Until you invent a product or concept name that is taken by one of the users ;-)
    - account42 7mo ago
      In that case it's not really different if the usernames are prefixed to be clearly identifiable as usernames - most companies still wouldn't want any user accounts that look like official company accounts.

by dgl 7mo ago

GitHub manage to do it. Most URLs you'd think of are either redirects to other bits of the site, or accounts owned by GitHub themselves. It just takes a bit of planning.

deaux 7mo ago

> It just takes a bit of planning. Haha, no it just takes forcing user account name changes. github.com/copilot, github.com/claude, github.com/models, basically everything you can think of for the last few years has been through this approach.

stavros 7mo ago
"Hey, remember the username you've had for twenty years? Yeah we want it now"
- account42 7mo ago
  It's what you get for being a tenant rather than owning your own site.
  - stavros 7mo ago
    And yet it's worth it for the network effects, sadly. These companies should be regulated, the moats are just too deep. I like that the EU recognised this and did start to regulate that these companies need to interoperate.
efilife 7mo ago
I wonder how they prompted these users to change their usernames. Was it just a "we need your username for our business, so comply" notice? https://web.archive.org/web/20210702114132/github.com/copilot https://web.archive.org/web/20210702114132/github.com/copilo... some proof this was an actual user
- varun_ch 7mo ago
  Looks like he's now https://github.com/ogcopilot https://github.com/ogcopilot
  - varun_ch 7mo ago
    Some more discussion on similar things: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38380344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38380344

nkrisc 7mo ago

You can plan every "top level" path you'll ever want on the site from now until forever? Or do you mean planning as in plan to force account name changes on users when someone's username conflicts with a new feature name?

account42 7mo ago
You could probably get away with banning all common english words as usernames if you wanted to.
- nkrisc 7mo ago
  Or put all user pages under some top level path and then you never need to ban anything as this problem becomes completely moot.
- teddyh 7mo ago
  Even if you don’t ban all words, there are some you should filter: • <https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to-reserve https://ldpreload.com/blog/names-to-reserve> • <https://xkcd.com/1963/ https://xkcd.com/1963/>
- datawars 7mo ago
  Until you invent a product or concept name that is taken by one of the users ;-)
  - account42 7mo ago
    In that case it's not really different if the usernames are prefixed to be clearly identifiable as usernames - most companies still wouldn't want any user accounts that look like official company accounts.