code: public static String serializeEncodedRequest(String username) {
      MiniMessagePack.Packer packer = new MiniMessagePack.Packer();
      packer.pack(1);
      packer.pack('q');
      packer.pack(username);
      return ASCIICodec.encode(packer.getBytes());
    }
docs: Create a request string from a username. Request is too trivial for it to make it into a class
  of it's own a this stage.
  
  @param username the username to encode
  @return an encoded request message