Confusing message when username is already taken

[arp242]

I wanted to sign up, but guess I already did at some time in the past as my username arp242 is already taken.

However, the message that gets displayed is:

Please choose a different username that is at least 4 and maximum 20 characters long. They have to start with a letter, they have to end with either a letter or a number. In between the following characters may be used: . _ -

Which makes it sound like my username doesn't meet the character requirements.

I had to check the web inspector to verify that this is because the username is already taken; https://www.bewelcome.org/signup/checkhandle?field=&value=arp242 returns:

{"value":"arp242","valid":false,"message":"Username arp242 is already in use!"}

It would be much clearer if it would just display Username arp242 is already in use!

---

As an aside, it took me a bit to parse that message in the first place; IMO it would be better to display just what is wrong, rather than list all the requirements (e.g. "must be at least 4 characters", "must end in a letter or number", etc.)

[thisismeonmounteverest]

I expected this to be fixed on https://beta.bewelcome.org/signup/1 but unfortunately that's not the case. I check.

[tanerkay]

@thisismeonmounteverest Looks like the correct translation identifier is used, signup.error.username.taken, but in the migration 20181020153946_add_translation_ids, a different string (the one about the character requirements) has been inserted. Let me know if you think it's worth a PR to change the migration. I guess the main task is to edit it in the language text files that are imported.

[thisismeonmounteverest]

@tanerkay I checked the database on production it shows the correct text. So something else is not working as expected. The migration is only a vehicle to quickly bring the new translation items into the database and is obsolete afterwards; so no need to fix that.

[ghost]

If it can be any use, I checked the wordcode signup.error.username.taken in the translation tool and the wrong text is displayed in the English version (it's the text about syntax rules). I can ask in the translators group for somebody with English rights to change it, if that's enough to solve the issue.

[tillwenke]

This issue can be closed :)