I think the reason so many people are encountering the
• The name "nameyougave" has been denied access.
message when they try to register, is that the instruction they get on the registration page (http://swni.org/user/register) says:
Username*
Your full name or your preferred username; only letters, numbers and spaces are allowed.
which is too vague, i.e. even if followed, can too easily result in a name that will be rejected by the server. The instruction needs to read something more like:
Username*
Please use your first and lastname with a single space in between. For three part names separate each part with a single space. If a name you try turns out to be already taken, then add a middle initial, letter or number to some part of the name. Only letters, numbers, and spaces are allowed.
Even though this is more specific than the system will accept, it is the kind of user name we want people to use... and if followed will NOT result in the "denied access" message.
A Drupal bug
Unfortunately, the text “Your full name or your preferred username; only letters, numbers and spaces are allowed” can only be changed by hacking Drupal HTML files. This can be done, but would need to be repeated with every Drupal update. Presently, that is more work than i care to take on.
But i agree with you that the wording is unfortunate. The best solution is to put a bug report in with the Drupal developers requesting that this text be configurable by the Drupal admin via the Drupal setup settings. There already is a similar setting, and it displays as the text between the tabs and “Account Information.” Please see the screenshot above.
It is possible that this has already changed in Drupal 5.x.