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Comment by acters | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

Civil courts are a service. They have significant delays and backlogs in many places, to the detriment of people with legitimate reasons to use them. Probably in no small part due to frivolous and nuisance suits.

Abuse of the court system is a criminal offence in many jurisdictions.

Using the courts “for fun” is an abuse and misuse of the system. As the grandparent said, I hope people don’t act like this.

You are not damaged by losing a username. You will lose no money, no status, no clients, nothing. If you choose to print your username on the side of your car that's your choice and GitHub isn't responsible for that. Your case would be dismissed immediately, in some states with prejudice, and rightfully so.

> It is feedback in a professional manner for disrespecting one of their users/clients.

NO, this is emphatically not what the court system is for. You don't sue someone (or a company) to "provide feedback." Courts exist for when you are damaged, you need to be made whole, and the parties cannot come to an agreement without a neutral third party.

It really depends on how we treat digital properties, for example, a username on github will link to your identity and work, the same way a domain name might.

If a domain name was taken, it would have major consequences, trotting out “we never told you to spend millions on super bowl ads” would be a weird take.

Obviously it is based on the contract, but it is not far off.

I don't think a username on someone else's service is comparable to a domain name. You buy a domain name. People go directly to your domain name. I would bet 90% or more of navigations to a github profile are linked from some other source (e.g. easy and borderline immediate to change) as opposed to typed into the url bar directly.

To be clear I think it's shitty for GH to change someone's username, especially without a lot of communication first, but I don't think it rises to the level of having any sort of damages you could try to litigate even in the worst cases.

> On the contrary, this is playful, it is not evil or abusive.

Taking someone to court is not playful.

> Playful

That is a bad choice of words.

I will see you in court.

(See- joking about going to court is playful. Actually going to court is not)

If push comes to shove I would play ball and enjoy it, even if undesirable. I would like to say that I suggested OP should speak with Github support before court however people skipped that part because my comment mainly talked about the sueing aspect in deeper detail.

OP should talk to support and get Github communicate with the public more clearly through their policy/terms of service about forcing username changes with or without consent.

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