5 ms·

It's easy, basic, and very important for clarity to use the correct terminology in this case. A MIME type is really something different.

• p49k 5y ago
  It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to be able to know and use terminology perfectly. The description itself was well-written and that’s what’s important in terms of finding/fixing the issue.
  • rjmunro 5y ago
    The bug reporter merely copies the incorrect error that gitlab gave him; The issue here is that someone working in login / security of gitlab doesn't know what a mime type is. That is extremely worrying - it's not a part of the code where you can afford to be sloppy. It's a very odd error. Apparently .nro is a file extension used by the Nintendo Switch video game console; .o is obviously the output of compilers, so I'm not sure why my username wasn't rejected. Maybe it would be if I tried to register now.
  • DonHopkins 5y ago
    It's foolish to use a standard well defined very precise but incorrect term of art like like "MIME Type" that is actively misleading to a technical audience of github users who are more likely than most people to know the standard official definition, and which is LESS commonly known than a correct widely understood vernacular term like "file name extension", if your goal is to be understood by everyone. I'd rather a technically oriented site like github be "unrealistic" and correct and instructive, than foolish and wrong and misleading. Are you really saying it's better to use the wrong term because github users might not understand the more widely known correct term? Just how does leading the user on a wild goose chase looking up the definition of "MIME Type," causing them to waste their time and misunderstand the error message, when it's really a file name extension (a term which more people understand anyway), help the user achieve their goals? The bottom line is that github disallowing "MIME Types" or "file name extensions" in user names, just like a bank disallowing "select" and "drop" and "from" and "null" and "delete" and "bobby" and "tables" in passwords, is a symptom of a much larger more terrible problem, and whoever wrote that stupid error message instead of fixing the underlying bug that caused it has much worse problems than poor English language writing skills.
    • p49k 5y ago
      Sorry, I thought you were referring to the bug reporter rather than the author of the error message itself, in the latter case I agree.
    • carl_dr 5y ago
      Muphry's law strikes again! The bug affected Gitlab, not GitHub.
• a-dub 5y ago
  "ERROR: The Gitlab server has rejected the proposed username, as it ends in the same suffix as a file extension that is registered to a MIME type in the Ruby runtime under which the server runs. This list is quite long, and possibly difficult to retrieve, so we will not list it here, but you can find a list of extensions commonly used if you Google for MIME. Alternatively, if this makes no sense at all, ask a local alpha geek and they should be able to help. We understand this is weird, but the reasons for doing so are currently embargoed as they potentially have wide ranging security or stability consequences for a large number of installs. If you wouldn't mind, please do us a small one and keep quiet while we have a chance to prepare and distribute a patch without forcing anyone to forego any nights of sleep 18 months into a global pandemic complete with associated societal fracturing and potential economic collapse. Thank you for your cooperation on this easy, basic and very important matter." fixed it!