Back in the day when I made websites, one of the hallmarks of a good site was a witty 404 page. It keeps users from getting upset when the site doesn’t work the way they want it to, and it is a way to flex one’s humour in what is usually a less than amusing venue. I don’t see a lot of 404s anymore - I think most people have a redirect to the index.html page for incorrect pages in sites, so I was charmed when I inadvertently typed in an incorrect livejournal address, and got this:

Page Not Found

I’m sorry, you’ve reached a page that I cannot find. I’m really sorry about this. It’s kind of embarassing. Here you are, the user, trying to get to a page on LiveJournal and I can’t even serve it to you. What does that say about me? I’m just a webserver. My sole purpose in life is to serve you webpages and I can’t even do that! I suck. Please don’t be mad, I’ll try harder. I promise! Who am I kidding? You’re probably all like, “Man, LiveJournal’s webserver sucks. It can’t even get me where I want to go.” I’m really sorry. Maybe it’s my CPU…no that’s ok…how bout my hard drives? Maybe. Where’s my admin? I can’t run self-diagnostics on myself. It’s so boring in this datacenter. It’s the same thing everyday. Oh man, I’m so lonely. I’m really sorry about rambling about myself, I’m selfish. I think I’m going to go cut my ethernet cables. I hope you get to the page you’re looking for…goodbye cruel world!

-the webserver

Page Not Found

Narrator: In A.D. 2006, Web was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the journal.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main browser turn on.
Captain: It’s you !!
CATS: How are you users !!
CATS: All your base are belong to Frank.
CATS: You are on the way to 404.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to reach your page. Make your spelling correct.
CATS: Ha Ha Ha Ha ….

If you think you’ve reached this page in error:

• Make sure the URL you’re trying to reach is correct.
• Check http://status.livejournal.org to view LiveJournal’s current status.

“all your base are belong to Frank!” Some days…..its the little things :)

Posted Humour, Thinking Out Loud |