Last modified: 2014-04-11 08:27:43 UTC
URL: http://toro.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&action=submitlogin&type=signup Description: Error messages for user name do not adequately describe the reason for the failure. This could make it difficult to know what to fix. Example: 1 - Enter the following user name: !@#$%^&*()_+-={}[]|\:";'<>?,./ 2 - populate other required fields 3 - click Create Account button note: User receives the following validation message Login error You have not specified a valid username. note: there is no description of why the username is not valid.
Yes, it's very unfriendly. When extensions such as TitleBlackList and AntiSpoof reject a name they sometimes display a more friendly error, but the core User.php code returns no useful information as to why it rejected a name, so the error message ('noname') is unavoidably vague. In this case, '#' isn't allowed in page titles, so not allowed in user names. (Remember that every user has a User:<username> page on the wiki, so usernames must be OK as titles.) Next $wgInvalidUsernameCharacters is checked, it defaults to '@', so that's a no-no. Then there's a check for "invalid due to empty, IP, slash, length, or lowercase starting letter". Etc., etc. -- 11 years of accreted ad hoc rules that resist summary. For what it's worth "!$%^&*()_+-=:"?,." is a valid username in a stock MediaWiki install, but the AntiSpoof extension rejects it. The form links to _Help me choose_ for user guidance, which on enwiki is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Username_policy . But that doesn't say much about things not to try..
Proper solution for this case is, IMHO, to make the username field AJAXy so that as soon as you enter an invalid character it becomes red (or whatever) and it's obvious what you've done wrong. However yes, there are several bugs about hardly actionable error messages produced by titleblacklist and friends, see e.g. bug 38303.
Interactive username validation is bug 21416. The "account creation user experience" experiment on enwiki had interactive username validation, but it wasn't ideal because of bug 40648 (can't validate username against blocking extensions like AntiSpoof). The extensions run *during* the creation of a new account, not *before* creating an account.
(In reply to comment #3) > Interactive username validation is bug 21416. Yes, thanks for linking it. I know it's a different issue, but if fixed completely it would supersede this. > The "account creation user > experience" experiment on enwiki had interactive username validation, but it > wasn't ideal because of bug 40648 (can't validate username against blocking > extensions like AntiSpoof). The extensions run *during* the creation of a new > account, not *before* creating an account. I that unfixable?
(In reply to comment #4) > (In reply to comment #3) > > Interactive username validation is bug 21416. > > Yes, thanks for linking it. I know it's a different issue, but if fixed > completely it would supersede this. > > > The "account creation user > > experience" experiment on enwiki had interactive username validation, but it > > wasn't ideal because of bug 40648 (can't validate username against blocking > > extensions like AntiSpoof). The extensions run *during* the creation of a new > > account, not *before* creating an account. > > I that unfixable? If there is someone willing to tackle fixing the extensions listed in bug 40648 (TitleBlacklist, AntiSpoof, maybe others), then it's not unfixable.
Adding many blockers of bug 38638 to the list of "easy" bugs, to mark them as candidates for [[mw:Google Code-in]] tasks (gci2013). If you think this bug is not suitable, remove the keyword.
