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30 Creative 404 Error Pages

Posted by samzenpus on from the creative-technical-difficulty dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It's frustrating when you explore the web and encounter the famous message: 404 Error – Page Not Found. What could make it a little better is a customized 404 message. Here are some really good ones that should inspire other web designers."

25 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Database Error by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Error establishing a database connection

    1. Re:Database Error by [Marvin] · · Score: 5, Funny

      Error establishing a database connection

      Yeah, that's a classic.

    2. Re:Database Error by erroneus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, that's one of them... where are the other 29?

    3. Re:Database Error by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Can't say I didn't get what I came for, but I do feel disappointed. Kind of like going to a Rick Astley concert, and you show up, and it's just a low-quality youtube video of "Never Gonna Let You Down" on repeat on a TV.

    4. Re:Database Error by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      You didn't wait long enough. After about 30 seconds, the "error" page dissolves into a mass of whizzing space ships, burning bridges and spouting great white whales.

    5. Re:Database Error by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

      To get the intended effect, you have to read it like Kirk:

      Error......Establishing

      A........

      Database
      Connect....
      TION!

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. Harder to... by jfclavette · · Score: 4, Informative

    make a creative 500 page.

  3. Github by softWare3ngineer · · Score: 4, Informative

    GitHubs 404 is great. cartoon rendition of a scene from a new hope with the title 'this is not the page you are looking for'

    1. Re:Github by jeffmeden · · Score: 2

      I didn't pay attention to the figure in the image once I realized that the image itself has mouse-sensitive layers that shift around. Wait, what was I looking for again? Oh well. Nevermind. It's been a while since I checked slashdot.org. I better go do that.

    2. Re:Github by booch · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not only that, but the scene has several layers that move in parallax as you move your mouse pointer.

      github 404 page

      --
      Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
  4. My internet sense is tingling... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do I get the sneaking sense that taking web-design guidance from a site at "flashuser.net" that managed to get its DB hosed while attempting to serve up a slab of largely static content is probably not the best of ideas?

    1. Re:My internet sense is tingling... by Necroman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Like all content management systems, what could be static content is stored in a database (I'm looking at you Wordpress). Many people running these type of sites don't go through the steps of setting up some type of caching.

      --
      Its not what it is, its something else.
    2. Re:My internet sense is tingling... by SharpFang · · Score: 2

      Plain text "Error establishing a database connection" in default H1 style.
      That's not a very creative error page they have in there.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    3. Re:My internet sense is tingling... by Necroman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh, I know. I ran a site on Wordpress for a little over a year (fan site for a video game). My top traffic in a day was 20,000 unique visitors and 150k page views. During that peak day I was getting 6-7 hits a second, and without caching I would have been dead in the water.

      Having a simple theme that could apply across an entire site is amazingly nice. I really like CMSes and will use them again for future endeavors. But not understanding the tools (wordpress) you use when hosting a site yourself is just asking for trouble.

      --
      Its not what it is, its something else.
  5. Since that site is /.'ed, try this one by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Plinko labs. They've been doing this for years.

    1. Re:Since that site is /.'ed, try this one by mooingyak · · Score: 2

      I can understand someone thinking they didn't need to clean up their 404 links.

      --
      William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    2. Re:Since that site is /.'ed, try this one by PPH · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Is this the one you were referring to? http://www.plinko.net/asdfgh

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  6. Sometimes custom 404 is bad for employment by Keruo · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was helping our HR to sort few applications to an open position in our company once.
    Otherwise promising CV had cover letter containing a link to his work examples online.
    Too bad, the link was truncated by our HR software and split into two rows, of course the software created link to the first half of the url only.
    The applicant was quickly ruled out as a candidate since the 404 page from the incomplete link had goatse on it.
    I did check the actual link by fixing it manually but our HR had already shredded the files by then.

    --
    There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
  7. Re:Here's Mine by justsayin · · Score: 2

    Good one, she always seems to be just out of reach. Damn princesses, that's why I finally lowered my standards and married a mere mortal.

  8. Webcache... by BadPirate · · Score: 5, Informative

    To the rescue http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.flashuser.net%2Finspiration%2F30-creative-404-error-pages.html

    --
    - Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
  9. I think the utility of this has passed by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Years ago 404 errors were not that uncommon when people were looking for something based on a poorly written link or whatever else. At that time, it was cute to have a custom 404 error for the misdirected.

    However, by my experience with my home web server at least, >>99% of 404 errors are the result of script kiddies trying to find vulnerabilities in my web site (usually looking for phpmyadmin or similar). They won't read the 404 error anyways, so whether it is cute, vulgar, or plain, it doesn't matter because their automatic system that is trolling for vulnerabilities will discard the error message anyways.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  10. Re:Sigh... by drb226 · · Score: 2

    I heard u like 404 errors, so I put a 404 in ur 404s so u can err whilst u err.

  11. Re:My 404 page by Intron · · Score: 2

    My company has a name one character off from another company, so our 404s are frequently people mistyping an address for the other one. So our 404 page has links to both company's main page and a who's who.

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  12. Weebl! by Shark · · Score: 2

    How could they omit Weebl's most incredible 404!?

    http://www.weebls-stuff.com/404

    It's groovy ;)

    --
    Mind the frickin' laser...
  13. My favorite one: by deisama · · Score: 2

    Once upon a midnight dreary, while I websurfed, weak and weary, ...Over many a strange and spurious website of 'hot chicks 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 cheap hardcore!" -
    Quoth the server, "404".