Policy on termination on inactive personal accounts

[lammabing]

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Question

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I would like to change my github username to something that has already been taken by someone else. However, from that profile page, I can see that there's been no user activity with that account for over eight years and only a few fragmented projects. Is there any chance of me taking over that username?

[maheerCodes]

hey @lammabing 👋 .
short answer ,,,unfortunately this is very unlikely to happen automatically ,,, but there is an official process worth trying.
github does have a name squatting policy that covers exactly this situation,,,accounts that are inactive and not actively used can sometimes have their usernames released. the policy says github mayy reclaim usernames in cases where someone is"squatting"on a name without any legitimate use .

how to actually request it :

• go to support.github.com-> contact support->and explain that you'd like to request a username that appears to be inactive(8 years with no activity is a strong case).mention the username specifically and note the inactivity period.
• github support evaluates these on a case-by-case basis ,,, theres no guaranteee they'll release it,but 8 years of inactivity is significantly longer than the threshold they typically consider .

realistic expectations:

• github generally doesnt automatically delete inactive accounts even after many years,,, they preserve repos and data even on dormant accounts,
• if the account has any repos with stars ,forks ,or external links pointing to it,,thats considered "active enough" to not reclaim,
• if all the repos are truly fragmented and have no meaningful commmunity use,,,,the case is stronger.
• even if approved,, the timeline can be slow(weeks)and theres no guaranteed outcome,

worth submitting the request though given how long thats been inactive,,,8 years is a solid data point in your favor💙💙💙💙💙.