I think "consistent" is the operative word there. On a desktop app, if I change something it changes the entire experience and only for me. On the other hand,

I think "consistent" is the operative word there. On a desktop app, if I change something it changes the entire experience and only for me. On the other hand, if on my theoretical distributed github host I decide that I hate markdown and I want my comments to use textile instead, then not only do I not solve my own itch (I still have to deal with markdown on everyone else's repos) but I've created friction for everyone else who comes to my repo and wants to comment like they do everywhere else. Multiply that by several thousand hosts and the friction involved in using, let alone contributing to a project goes up considerably. Having a world where every repo uses the same visual and interaction metaphors and supports the same features is a huge UX win, almost regardless of the quality of that interface. We used to have something sort of federated for source management. Before Github basically won everyone had their own bugtracker and repo set up. It was not uncommon to spend an hour trying to figure out where they hid the pull URL, then installing whichever version control tool they were using, then fighting with whatever half functional import tool you needed to convert their repo to whatever version control your project had. Then spend another half hour creating yet another account and then fighting with whatever half functional plugin they had installed or trying to figure out the difference between "Critical" and "Severe" just to submit a bug.