In preparation for a new post, I logged in to GitHub recently. I created my account two years ago in anticipation of being able to open-source more code and I wanted to reserve my name; I had a couple of forked repos but that's it. A new baby and a wife with major back surgery will do that to you.

Imagine my surprise when I logged in today and found that my account had been renamed. No longer was I known as github.com/rbishop. Instead, I was now relegated to github.com/rbishop-xx.

How curious.

I next noticed a warning about verifying my SSH key.

"Why self, I don't remember uploading an SSH key just yet"

"Well self, that's because you haven't"

Now I was even more curious. Had my account been hacked? Had I made a mistake somewhere? That's when I checked Account Settings, Security, Security History and behold two months ago:

Whoever this rathjenc character was, he had not only renamed my account but he uploaded an SSH key, thus allowing him to modify my repos at-will.

Just who was this rathjenc fellow?

Now I am merely left with questions.

Why is an official Github representative renaming accounts and modifying people's SSH keys without so much as an email to the account holder?

There is now a new owner of the rbishop name: Richard B; is he a friend of Chris? Was Chris doing his buddy a favor by kicking me off?

Or perhaps it's because Richard B is a member of their Developer program. Maybe people who pay more or develop Github integrations have priority on names?

Maybe it's just policy that you can take someone else's name if you ask real nice ?

Whatever the case, I certainly couldn't find any documentation of this forced-renaming policy on Github's website, and as we all know they're a professional organization. They certainly don't have founder's non-employee wives running around intimidating employees.

As I said earlier, how curious.