[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Happy 404 Day. Whats your favorite 404 error...
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Ask HN: Happy 404 Day. Whats your favorite 404 error page?
Many of the best, most clever, 404 error pages have disappeared
over the years. What are the current highlights, or ones that
survived the test of time?
Author : donohoe
Score : 168 points
Date : 2024-04-04 11:27 UTC (11 hours ago)
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| Shared here a few days ago (and not by me - I'm stealing someone
| else's stuff here): https://www.ft.com/errors/page/404
| ninju wrote:
| The text at the top is rather standard boilerplate 'page not
| found' verbiage, but the justifications according to the
| different economic theories listed afterwards is the hidden gem
| of this page!
| BlameKaneda wrote:
| I'm a fan of this 404 page of dancing construction workers. I
| think the original page got taken down, but it's available on
| YouTube:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRkJk303ppw
| ninju wrote:
| Don't let the music start playing (after 5 seconds) because
| soon after that you will be hooked
| joshxyz wrote:
| https://http.cat/404
| hiAndrewQuinn wrote:
| These images would actually make fantastic Anki cards, for
| anyone looking to log these in their memory banks.
| ninju wrote:
| Cats for other HTTP status codes can be found (or not found
| :-)) one level up
|
| https://http.cat
| ceving wrote:
| I like this: https://http.cat/status/411
| ProfessorZoom wrote:
| is this the first ever 404 page that isn't actually a 404?
| mdaniel wrote:
| Well, given what the site is doing I don't think they could
| really return all those status codes for the various pages
| and still show the images in all browsers. I think
| httpbin.org may be closer to what you're looking for
|
| Also, I've been on the Internet long enough to know that
| there are unquestionably other sites misusing status codes,
| made worse by our graphql friend cheerfully packaging server
| errors in 200 responses
| icen wrote:
| It returns it for 404 as well:
| https://http.cat/does/not/exist
| jjice wrote:
| I enjoyed the new SuperMega website's 90s web styling, including
| their 404 page: https://funnybrothers.com/foobar
|
| The hit counter is my favorite part.
| rob74 wrote:
| Still this old classic: https://github.com/abc/xyz
| vdfs wrote:
| Why did they remove the parallax effect?
| Springtime wrote:
| Parallax effect Github 404 was the best. I even had a coffee
| mug of the design they officially sold (with the text to the
| effect of 'This isn't the drink you're looking for') but
| someone took it and they no longer sell them, which was very
| disappointing.
| SamBam wrote:
| Wow, yeah. I hadn't seen a GitHub 404 page in a while (new
| job, don't code much anymore) and my first thought on seeing
| it was that the 404 page was broken. That would have been an
| odd recursion.
| Cloudef wrote:
| Here's mine https://sivu.jp/404
| hiAndrewQuinn wrote:
| Oh, this is charming. Nice work.
| bromuk wrote:
| 404s and heartbreaks https://support.spotify.com/us/404/
| nerdjon wrote:
| I do particularly enjoy Amazon's https://www.amazon.com/404
|
| Someone else mentioned Github which is always funny until you
| realized you followed a bad link to a repo you were looking for.
|
| Thingiverse has a great one when you can force it to happen:
| https://www.thingiverse.com/nonexistant404page/designs
| gardenhedge wrote:
| Amazon's looks blurry
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| > Thingiverse has a great one when you can force it to happen:
| https://www.thingiverse.com/nonexistant404page/designs
|
| Hold LMB on it.
| akdev1l wrote:
| I've always thought that this implies that somewhere in
| Amazon's systems there is an API that serves pictures of dogs.
|
| And I just like knowing that.
| maiyacmard wrote:
| https://www.fabrikod.com/not-found
| mgomez wrote:
| NPR's is one of my favorites: https://www.npr.org/404
| macintux wrote:
| I suspect I've seen that multiple times over the years without
| ever reading the fine print. Nice.
| HPsquared wrote:
| Financial Times has my favourite: https://www.ft.com/404
|
| A range of spurious economic explanations for why they couldn't
| serve the page.
| nerdjon wrote:
| What is interesting, until you called it out I did not look
| past the beginning and I wondered... why is this impressive?
|
| It just kinda blends in like many other sites have a site map
| on the 404.
|
| That is well done, simple but a good fun if you look at it for
| more than a couple seconds.
| nashashmi wrote:
| And probably the reason why no one at FT blinked an eye and
| said "you can't have fun on our site like this because it is
| very unprofessional"
| deltarholamda wrote:
| That is hilarious.
| FredPret wrote:
| Out of all the fun 404 pages, this is the best I've seen
| btbuildem wrote:
| It's like they're calling themselves out.. delicious
| ijijijjij wrote:
| they didn't ask LLMs yet?
| tumidpandora wrote:
| Fun crash course in economics while you're looking for a
| missing page
| jimbokun wrote:
| I learned so much about economic systems!
| alexb_ wrote:
| This is extremely awesome, love this
| olddustytrail wrote:
| I particularly like:
|
| "Liquidity traps We injected some extra money into the
| technology team but there was little or no interest so they
| simply kept it, thus failing to stimulate the page economy."
|
| As I imagine tech teams across the world thinking, "Wait! We
| could have just _kept_ the money?! "
| unkulunkulu wrote:
| Ok, you win! I gave up at some point and started scrolling
| impulsively to check if this is an infinite feed generated by
| some llm query. Turns out it was finite.
| saewitz wrote:
| https://figma.com/404
| gadders wrote:
| Amazon and the employee dogs that are featured:
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/blah
| p00dles wrote:
| "maybe go try some wasabi pea dust ice cream."
|
| I can't recreate the error now, but going to www.moosejaw.com in
| the EU used to give me the error "we can't offer products in
| EU... We're working on it. but until then, maybe go try some
| wasabi pea dust ice cream." I have a screenshot, thank god.
| julien-may wrote:
| I really like the one from gamespot:
| https://www.gamespot.com/404/
| btbuildem wrote:
| The ray-of-vision thing is really cool! And the found item
| names are delightful.
| masswerk wrote:
| Shameless self-promotion: https://www.masswerk.at/404
|
| ( There were several others over the years, here's the previous
| one: https://www.masswerk.at/status/?404 )
| dkindler wrote:
| I'm able to trick your page into going twice :)
|
| https://ibb.co/qkhjv9R
| masswerk wrote:
| A prankster! Help! :-)
|
| (What did you do?)
| abhinavstarts wrote:
| Really good. Also your website is too awesome. Thanks for
| sharing.
| masswerk wrote:
| Thanks! (As for the 404, there may be something other, soon.)
| abentspoon wrote:
| I like the slider puzzle Mercury built into their 404 page:
|
| https://mercury.com/404
|
| My high score today is 33.
| 2d8a875f-39a2-4 wrote:
| https://www.thesistersofmercy.com/error404page.html
| card_zero wrote:
| Huh, the Sisters are into IF and Frotz. I would have expected
| point & clicks instead, must be hard to type under only UV
| light.
| elashri wrote:
| My favorite and most creative 404 page I saw is for ROOT CERN
| software *
|
| https://root.cern/404/
|
| It is the error you wish was true in your life.
|
| * Used as C++ interpreter with devilish syntax to help physicists
| do data analysis.
| nullpt_rs wrote:
| I used to frequent a site titled "The Best 404 Page Ever" that
| played a random flash file on refresh.
|
| Seems like someone's recreated it here
| https://thebest404pageeverredux.com/
| nickt wrote:
| I love the World of Spectrum 404 page [1], which had a mention
| here last week [2].
|
| [1] https://worldofspectrum.org/404.html
|
| [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39870902
| rob74 wrote:
| Wow, it's even responsive!
|
| (My browser window is one half of a 4K monitor, so the Spectrum
| screen is shown in "portrait mode")
| enstyled wrote:
| Always loved a good 404 page :D Here's mine:
| https://enstyled.com/404
| 404mm wrote:
| Thank you.
| branon wrote:
| Moparisthebest's 404 where the web server has an existential
| crisis: https://www.moparisthebest.com/404
|
| Cleaned up some of the spelling and grammar and took this for my
| own site :)
| lsiunsuex wrote:
| In Florida, we have an actual 404 on I75 exit
|
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_I75nb_Exit_4...
| dspillett wrote:
| I always really liked this one, now no longer in the original
| place after that site shut down:
|
| https://doubleyoudoubledoubleewe.www.dash.deeohhtee.dash-das...
|
| There are longer versions of that variant of the poem, and
| versions with cleaner references, that can be easily found, but I
| think this is the original - it is certainly the first instance
| of it that I saw.
| zote wrote:
| I somehow took a liking to this one, really simple and a bit
| funny as Anthony is the patron saint of lost things.
| https://diopitt.org/404
| cratermoon wrote:
| One time I lost something important at work. I asked a co-
| worker about it and she suggested we do the St. Anthony prayer,
| so more-or-less to humor her and to take my mind off the worry
| I went along.
|
| The important thing was found later that day, in a very
| unlikely place.
|
| YMMV.
| OhMeadhbh wrote:
| My vote is for meh.com's "something went terribly wrong" song:
|
| https://meh.com/404
| mdaniel wrote:
| They really should have saved that for their 500 page, since of
| the "terribly wrong" outcomes, 404 is pretty mild
| andylynch wrote:
| Bloomberg's old 'guy yeeting the monitor' one. Sadly missed.
| happyrock wrote:
| Easily the best one ever. Back when the Web was still fun.
| mdaniel wrote:
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22bloomberg%22+%22404%22&t=ffab&i...
| lainga wrote:
| There was a separate one for Businessweek with an endless
| Droste-effect of a lady reading a Businessweek issue, headlined
| "When will Bloomberg get its sh#t together?"
|
| I wish I were a fly on the wall when the decision was made to
| get rid of those 404 pages.
| webscalist wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/404
| paxys wrote:
| Slack's 404 page (https://slack.com/404) is a throwback to
| Glitch, the MMO game that its founders pivoted from.
| dewey wrote:
| IMDb has random movie quotes: https://www.imdb.com/404
| nullpilot wrote:
| Tumbeasts still have a place in my heart.
| gkoberger wrote:
| This is ours! https://readme.com/test
| adamrezich wrote:
| The original Flash version of https://homestarrunner.com/404
|
| Even though the sound doesn't play anymore, you can still hear it
| in your head.
| tithe wrote:
| Any one that doesn't say "Oops!"
| niksmac wrote:
| We stand with a cause :D https://lightrains.com/404
| mooreds wrote:
| This is ours: https://fusionauth.io/404
|
| Darn storm troopers can't find a droid to save their life.
| byyll wrote:
| No legal issues?
| mooreds wrote:
| None yet :fingers crossed:.
|
| Actually, in some ways getting a cease and desist from
| Lucasfilms would be a sign we'd arrived :) .
| datascienced wrote:
| What about from Amazon ;-)
| scns wrote:
| The old one from Beyerdynamic.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fl...
| Oras wrote:
| Ahrefs https://ahrefs.com/404
|
| They explain what is a broken link!
| dxbednarczyk wrote:
| Discord has a hidden snake game if you enter the Konami code:
| https://discord.com/404
| nathell wrote:
| https://www.thesistersofmercy.com/error404page.html (written by
| Andrew Eldritch himself, like the whole site!)
|
| Also: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pron
| surfed, weak and weary, Over many a strange and spurious
| site of 'hot xxx galore', While I clicked my fav'rite
| bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, And my heart was
| filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour. "'Tis not
| possible!", I muttered, "give me back my free hardcore!"
| Quoth the server, 404
| 4ndrewl wrote:
| Never thought I'd see a Sister's reference on HN. Well played.
| donohoe wrote:
| Rest of World has a custom fortune cookie
|
| https://restofworld.org/404
| tithe wrote:
| Expect the good vibes around you to take you in unexpected
| directions!
|
| (Aside: "vibes" is misspelled in `consultThePowersThatBe`).
| donohoe wrote:
| +1 Thx for flagging. I'm sure there are others.
| threwawayayear wrote:
| https://www.wendys.com/404
|
| Wendys has a video game, it's amusing.
| aquova wrote:
| That's fun. I wonder if Wendy's had to license the name
| Burgertime from Data East
| WayToDoor wrote:
| Nothing ever bets https://pudding.cool/404
| jmholla wrote:
| Is there an end?
| p1mrx wrote:
| I'm surprised that the "!!1" title on https://google.com/404 has
| survived so long without some manager making it more corporate.
| ct0 wrote:
| could take months and at least 2 google product closures to get
| that fixed
| bombastry wrote:
| Adult Swim's 404 page always has a dark, sometimes surreal,
| shaggy-dog story that ends with a reference to the page being
| 404.[1]
|
| The page seems to return the same story each time you access it
| (at least on the same day). I'm not sure when they change from
| one story to another. The author has posted some of the other
| stories on other sites.[2][3][4][5] I still vividly recall
| reading this one in particular (although this reproduction is
| missing the bolding of the text in the second to last
| paragraph).[6]
|
| [1] https://adultswim.com/404
|
| [2]
| https://www.reddit.com/r/adultswim/comments/l48nii/the_sites...
|
| [3] https://www.jchristopherarrison.com/crash
|
| [4] https://www.jchristopherarrison.com/bar
|
| [5] https://www.jchristopherarrison.com/departuredate
|
| [6]
| https://www.reddit.com/r/adultswim/comments/9efd3s/adult_swi...
| nashashmi wrote:
| What is annoying is how there is no other indication it is a
| 404.
| imzadi wrote:
| https://http.cat/404
|
| http.cat is one of my favorite resources. I get to find out what
| the status code means and see a cute cat.
| alexb_ wrote:
| This let me know about HTTP 451. Very clever, also very cute
| website
| scyclow wrote:
| My own 404 page has served me well for years
| https://steviep.xyz/404
| panosfilianos wrote:
| Please note that this page has flashing lights, for anyone that
| may be sensitive.
| jedberg wrote:
| I wish I could find a copy of the old reddit 404, but the current
| one is still pretty good:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/j/foo
|
| Ironically if you try https://www.reddit.com/404, that actually
| resolves because it takes you to the post with that ID. :)
| tumidpandora wrote:
| Bravoboard's 404 Page - https://www.bravoboard.xyz/404
|
| Bravoboard's 404 page is truly unique and innovative! It features
| an interactive message board where visitors can see posts and
| messages left by others, inviting them to join in and leave a
| message themselves. This creative approach to a typically mundane
| page highlights Bravoboard's core capabilities in a fun and
| engaging way. Bravo to Bravoboard for such a clever idea!
| champagnepapi wrote:
| https://www.lego.com/en-us/404
|
| https://www.pixar.com/404
|
| https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/404
|
| https://www.imdb.com/404
| ss64 wrote:
| 404 pages should have a different favicon so that when opening
| multiple tabs in the background you will notice something
| different. Here's mine with a little easter egg when hovering
| over the numbers: https://ss64.com/404
| lovegrenoble wrote:
| Sleeping dragon: https://tabletopy.com/404
| lagniappe wrote:
| I'm going to ask a stupid question at my own peril.. please go
| easy on me
|
| Does serving a 404 page still allow the response of 404 as the
| response code? or is it technically a 200 since it is serving the
| custom 404 page successfully?
| bntyhntr wrote:
| If you think about it, any response you get is a "200" by that
| definition since the server successfully gave you...something.
|
| The browser usually has no special handling for most response
| codes, so serving a 404 page with a 404 status code is
| fine/expected and lets things (browser, scraper, etc) respond
| appropriately. I don't think the browser treats it specially
| but if you were scraping, you'd obviously want to ignore that
| result.
|
| It is frustrating to work with APIs that return something like
| 200 { meta: { status: 404 message: "field <x> not found" } }
|
| and browsing is no different.
| shrewm wrote:
| I had a similar debate with coworkers about returning 404 when
| a DB webhoook query found no rows. It added extra complexity to
| client code trying to figure out if it was a bad URL, bad
| query, or just no rows.
| everfree wrote:
| 404 means the server cannot find the requested resource. In
| the case of a database, the "resource" is the database
| endpoint.
|
| So, 404 would be used in case the database endpoint does not
| exist at the URL you tried to access it at. A query returning
| zero rows would be a "success" in HTTP terms.
| bruce343434 wrote:
| Yep, for that 204 (OK, but no results) exists. But if you
| serve a browser a page with 204 in the header, it refuses
| to render anything since 204 mandates an empty body, so the
| browser doesn't even look at it.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| Brave offers to check the Wayback Machine for a cached version
| of the page.
|
| Basically: 404 tells crawlers that the URL is invalid.
|
| The HTTP server also has to return _something,_. It could
| simply return 0-length content and allow the browser to show
| its error page, but that wouldn 't be "on brand."
| nashashmi wrote:
| Thanks for this. Chrome extension can be found here.
| https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/web-cache-
| viewer/pb...
| richardwhiuk wrote:
| It's a 404 with a body.
|
| By convention, if you don't return enough content, the browser
| will render it's own not found, but if you do it'll render it.
| everfree wrote:
| In very simplified terms, "404" is just a number that's
| included in the "invisible" HTTP header of the web page you're
| visiting. Whether this number is "200" (success) or "404" (not
| found), it doesn't affect how your browser renders the web
| page.
|
| Technically you could have a website where you serve real web
| pages full of content using the (wrong) 404 code, or serve web
| pages that tell the user "not found" using the (wrong) 200
| code. It would massively mess up bots, search engines, browser
| extensions, and any other software that needs to know whether a
| page actually exists - but it would be fully browsable like
| normal by a human with a web browser, since humans don't see or
| read HTTP headers.
| ss64 wrote:
| If you request a page like www.ycombinator.com/monkeybusiness
| There is no page called MonkeyBusiness so the webserver will
| throw a 404 error and either display a default page generated
| by the web server software or optionally a custom page. In
| reality the 404 page will have a different url that you never
| see.
|
| If you happened to know that the page was
| www.ycombinator.com/error404.html Then you could load that page
| directly and it would return 200 OK
| Climato wrote:
| Http codes are the codes of the application not a technical
| transfer code.
|
| Btw there is a status code 204 which means ok but no response
| body.
| datascienced wrote:
| It is a good question! The 404 status code is useful context.
| The browser (or user agent, crawler, your code!) can act
| however it likes in response to the 404. A browser will render
| the page still, thus all the funky 404 pages since sites can
| apply their branding to the error. If this were not the case
| the browser might show a generic message to the user (people
| would get used to this).
|
| An example of where the browser might ignore the body is in a
| 301 redirect.
| turadg wrote:
| The requested URL was not found on the server. -- Old
| Apache saying
|
| (I forget where I got it from for http://aleahmad.net/404 )
| dragon96 wrote:
| Someone made a puzzle about 404 pages once:
|
| https://2020.teammatehunt.com/puzzles/puzzle-not-found
|
| For those who aren't sure how to get started (ROT13): Svaq gur
| sbhe bu sbhe cntr svefg
| npongratz wrote:
| I can't wait to see the responses on Happy 418 Day.
| geraldcombs wrote:
| Ours contains a Banana Splits reference:
| https://www.wireshark.org/404.html
| rikroots wrote:
| My poetry site's 404 - you get presented with a randomly selected
| poem as an apology. You can refresh the page to read different
| random poems. If you refresh too many times your eyes will bleed.
| You're welcome!
|
| https://rikverse2020.rikweb.org.uk/404
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Here's mine: https://cmarshall.net/Error_404.html
|
| The idea is not original. I stole the JS from another site (way
| back in the last century, I think).
| neom wrote:
| I watched yours, so you should watch mine:
| https://h4x.zip/404.html :)
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That's fun!
| erellsworth wrote:
| Here's my 404 page of existential rambling:
| https://erellsworth.com/404
| sjh wrote:
| RTE (Ireland's national broadcaster) has a 404 page with a
| nostalgic touch for anyone who grew up here in the 1980s:
| https://www.rte.ie/404
| Retr0id wrote:
| Here's mine: https://www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/404
| hanche wrote:
| Back around 1996, MIT had this haiku as their 404 page:
|
| I ate your Web page.
|
| Forgive me. It was juicy
|
| And tart on my tongue.
| adultSwim wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20000128162812/mit.edu/404
| hanche wrote:
| Ah, so it was there until some time in the fall of 2004,
| then.
| andoma wrote:
| I think it's a missed opportunity that Roland doesn't have a
| https://www.roland.com/global/products/sp-404mk2/ on their 404
| page.
| zero_kool wrote:
| https://os.me/not-found
| whatamidoingyo wrote:
| An NPM themed 404 page, here:
| https://blog.javascripttoday.com/404
| jolj wrote:
| Pretty intense https://www.tabletmag.com/404
| madeofpalk wrote:
| I enjoyed The Australian's. Fake quotes from various Australian
| politicians about the missing page.
|
| It's been around for a while, and I'm plesently surprised it
| seems like they've still been updating it.
|
| https://www.theaustralian.com.au/404
| AlwaysNewb23 wrote:
| I like the design of Heinz's 404 page. Mostly because of the
| clever use of ketchup in the design. https://www.heinz.com/404
| calyhre wrote:
| I put the search engine on mine -> https://eshop-prices.com/404
| madsr wrote:
| I like the Norwegian Army's: https://www.forsvaret.no/en/404 The
| version in Norwegian language looks more like a bullet hole for
| some reason: https://www.forsvaret.no/404
| tomek_ycomb wrote:
| Grooveshark panda
| hawski wrote:
| I wonder how many admins/devops/whatever will get alarmed by an
| inexplicable bump in 404s served thanks to this post :)
| gpvos wrote:
| Not an actual 404 error page, but: for a short while, I ran the
| web site for an Amnesty International writing group in the
| Netherlands. We were assigned group number 404. The home page had
| a similar layout to the standard 404 error message but with a
| text like "Error 404: person not found", and a link to the actual
| home page. Let's just say people were confused and didn't find
| us.
|
| At least _I_ had fun.
| kilroy123 wrote:
| https://randomdailyart.com/404
| relaunched wrote:
| The former weapons of mass destruction 404 message comes to mind
| - https://w3dev.net/stuff/error/404.html
| Dragonai wrote:
| Taco Bell's has always made me laugh. The taco's face in the
| split second before falling on its face kills me.
|
| https://www.tacobell.com/404
| WildGreenLeave wrote:
| Maybe a geolocation issue, but this one keeps on redirecting me
| to a whole different URL [0] with no taco face :(
|
| 0:
| https://www.yum.com/wps/portal/yumbrands/Yumbrands/company/o...
| Tommah wrote:
| Here's mine: https://www.amecy.com/404
| itisthyself wrote:
| https://bgaeta.com/hola
| p3rls wrote:
| If you're a kpop fan I'll nominate my own:
| https://kpopping.com/404
|
| Next up is figuring out how to do a 500 page...
| datascienced wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/404
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(page generated 2024-04-04 23:02 UTC)