[burntsushi]

> Before you do something like that, always ask yourself: "What if everyone else started doing this?"

No, I don't think so. There is no universality implied in my comment or in the specific practice here. You can make value judgments based on specific circumstances. For example:

* How many people try 'cargo install rg' and have it do the wrong thing? I'd say "probably a lot."

* Is 'rg' on its own something that is a likely useful or desirable name on its own? No, I don't think so.

This doesn't have to mean that everyone should do it for every possible alias of every crate out there. You can say things like "yeah I think it makes sense to squat a name here to improve failure modes for folks."

Other than that, I have squatted a few names before. I don't see anything wrong with the practice in and of itself. It's when it gets abused that it starts to become a problem.