(2016), this is still technically true, but "utf8mb4" is the default encoding since MySQL 8.0, and "utf8" is a deprecated alias for "utf8mb3", so this isn't nearly as much of a footgun.
Realistically, the alias for "utf8" should have been changed at a prior major version change. In that it would pretty much should only affect new DBs and even then would make far more sense.
(2016), this is still technically true, but "utf8mb4" is the default encoding since MySQL 8.0, and "utf8" is a deprecated alias for "utf8mb3", so this isn't nearly as much of a footgun.
Realistically, the alias for "utf8" should have been changed at a prior major version change. In that it would pretty much should only affect new DBs and even then would make far more sense.