For example, I can change my username here on this instance. So long as my email id remains the same, my account is operable.
But GitHub doesn’t allow me to change my username. On top of that, GitHub forces an identifier on you when you create your username.
Open source does not require the inclusion or absence of any specific feature.
Open source is simply licence terms which allows code to be legally modified and redistributed.
It would be entirely possible for the worst piece-of-shit, user-hostile spyware-filled data-snooping DRM-stuffed garbage software to be released as open source - except given the license terms, people would be free to quickly create a variant of it that stripped those anti-features out.
So although open source does not require any given feature, it often correlates with positive ones due to its open nature.
Didn’t get that big paragraph in between :)))
I think they’re just saying that open source doesn’t prevent crappy behavior by the creator. However, because it is open source, capable users can take the code, fix what they don’t like, and release their fixed version under the same license.
I don’t think not being able to change your user name is at the same level of “crappy” as the examples mentioned in that paragraph. However, the point applies: you, or anyone, could take the source code and add the ability to change usernames.
In previous discussions on the subject, I’ve read that the way Lemmy works makes it a very difficult feature to add.
My comment was mostly hoping only to make a generalised point; although open source software often has certain (good) features, simply being open source doesn’t mandate or guarantee any feature at all.
On the username subject in particular then absolutely; an inability to change your username is not the same level of ‘bad’ as things like lock-in or spying. As other commentors have mentioned I’m sure it’s not intentional at all, and simply a consequence of the implementation difficulty with federating that sort of change.
Like the same way you can’t ‘change’ your email address. The email address is your identity - if you want a different one, you need to make a new one.