diff --git a/src/applications/repository/xaction/PhabricatorRepositoryEncodingTransaction.php b/src/applications/repository/xaction/PhabricatorRepositoryEncodingTransaction.php
index ef129da832..203b98abec 100644
--- a/src/applications/repository/xaction/PhabricatorRepositoryEncodingTransaction.php
+++ b/src/applications/repository/xaction/PhabricatorRepositoryEncodingTransaction.php
@@ -1,68 +1,68 @@
 <?php
 
 final class PhabricatorRepositoryEncodingTransaction
   extends PhabricatorRepositoryTransactionType {
 
   const TRANSACTIONTYPE = 'repo:encoding';
 
   public function generateOldValue($object) {
     return $object->getDetail('encoding');
   }
 
   public function applyInternalEffects($object, $value) {
     $object->setDetail('encoding', $value);
   }
 
   public function getTitle() {
     $old = $this->getOldValue();
     $new = $this->getNewValue();
 
-    if (strlen($old) && !strlen($new)) {
+    if ($old !== null && $new === null) {
       return pht(
         '%s removed the %s encoding configured for this repository.',
         $this->renderAuthor(),
         $this->renderOldValue());
-    } else if (strlen($new) && !strlen($old)) {
+    } else if ($new !== null && $old === null) {
       return pht(
         '%s set the encoding for this repository to %s.',
         $this->renderAuthor(),
         $this->renderNewValue());
     } else {
       return pht(
         '%s changed the repository encoding from %s to %s.',
         $this->renderAuthor(),
         $this->renderOldValue(),
         $this->renderNewValue());
     }
   }
 
   public function validateTransactions($object, array $xactions) {
     $errors = array();
 
     foreach ($xactions as $xaction) {
       // Make sure the encoding is valid by converting to UTF-8. This tests
       // that the user has mbstring installed, and also that they didn't
       // type a garbage encoding name. Note that we're converting from
       // UTF-8 to the target encoding, because mbstring is fine with
       // converting from a nonsense encoding.
       $encoding = $xaction->getNewValue();
       if (!strlen($encoding)) {
         continue;
       }
 
       try {
         phutil_utf8_convert('.', $encoding, 'UTF-8');
       } catch (Exception $ex) {
         $errors[] = $this->newInvalidError(
           pht(
             'Repository encoding "%s" is not valid: %s',
             $encoding,
             $ex->getMessage()),
           $xaction);
       }
     }
 
     return $errors;
   }
 
 }