We're developing a Visual Force application with Custom Apex Controllers. One of the fields that we are using is a text field and we are getting the following error when trying to change the field type to a picklist:

Validation Errors While Saving Record(s)
There were custom validation error(s) encountered while saving the affected record(s). The first validation error encountered was "Generic Exception Creator".
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Note that we have no data records for the object in question. We also have no validation rules. I suspect that this is an erroneous message that isn't leading us to the true cause of the problem. Interestingly, a Google search shows a discussion on this topic (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.sforce.com%2Fsforce%2Fboard%2Fmessage%3Fboard.id%3DVisualforce%26thread.id%3D2050&ei=uoRaSIWiE52qiAH88syHDA&usg=AFQjCNHDdOqhsIvyrwF6oUGxpAx77BjoEA&sig2=LZx9A1b-WT1FxUczjVDZFQ), but that thread appears to have been deleted for some reason. We're going to remove the field and add it again, but I am concerned that we found a bug that could affect us again. Any ideas what is causing this error?

Thanks.
-Tom Scott
Appirio