404 errors

*PeterMcC* wrote:
[Custom 404s]
 > It really is that easy - and you can be imaginative:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp</font" target="_blank">http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp</font</a>>

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/systemisdown.html" target="_blank">http://www.homestarrunner.com/systemisdown.html</a> [Caveat: Flash]
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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

Andrew Urquhart wrote in
<W58Sc.1652$FA4.1449@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net>

 > *PeterMcC* wrote:
 > [Custom 404s]
  >> It really is that easy - and you can be imaginative:
<font color=green>  >> <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp</font" target="_blank">http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp</font</a>>
 >
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/systemisdown.html" target="_blank">http://www.homestarrunner.com/systemisdown.html</a> [Caveat: Flash]

Thanks for that - bookmarked

My &deity; though, I do hate talented people.

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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

PeterMcC wrote:
 > Create you own "Can't find it" web page and direct visitors to it with the
 > following line in your .htaccess file with the path/file name suitably
 > amended:
<font color=purple> > ErrorDocument 404 <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.example.com/my404.html</font" target="_blank">http://www.example.com/my404.html</font</a>>
 > It really is that easy - and you can be imaginative:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp</font" target="_blank">http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp</font</a>>


Ive already done that, I was referring to something like
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.sweet-prince.com/asdasdf," target="_blank">www.sweet-prince.com/asdasdf,</a> where <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.sweet-prince.com/asdasdf" target="_blank">www.sweet-prince.com/asdasdf</a> is
actually written in the body.
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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

"Joe" <newsgroups DeleteThis @NOSPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cfat3a$n6f$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
 > I have seen on other sites - if you go to a non existant page eg:
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.xyz.com/12345," target="_blank">www.xyz.com/12345,</a> the custom 404 will display a message like "Sorry
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.xyz.com/12345" target="_blank">www.xyz.com/12345</a> does not exist (or whatever" and the address bar
 > remains at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.xyz.com/12345," target="_blank">www.xyz.com/12345,</a> rather than changing. How can I do this on
 > my site?

A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to automatically
redirect to the websites front page.....My thinking is that a large
percentage of people will get pissed off and navigate away if they find a
404 page.....But by redirecting them back to my home page, I stand a better
chance of keeping them on the site.....

Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....

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Fat Sam wrote:

 > "Joe" <newsgroups DeleteThis @NOSPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
 > news:cfat3a$n6f$1@sparta.btinternet.com...
 >
  >>I have seen on other sites - if you go to a non existant page eg:
  >>www.xyz.com/12345, the custom 404 will display a message like "Sorry
  >>www.xyz.com/12345 does not exist (or whatever" and the address bar
  >>remains at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.xyz.com/12345," target="_blank">www.xyz.com/12345,</a> rather than changing. How can I do this on
  >>my site?
 >
 >
 > A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to automatically
 > redirect to the websites front page.....My thinking is that a large
 > percentage of people will get pissed off and navigate away if they find a
 > 404 page.....But by redirecting them back to my home page, I stand a better
 > chance of keeping them on the site.....
 >
 > Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....

I do similar here:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.koivi.com/somethingthatdoesnotexist/" target="_blank">http://www.koivi.com/somethingthatdoesnotexist/</a>

Of course, I don't use it just for 404s...

ErrorDocument 400 /index.php?error=400
ErrorDocument 401 /index.php?error=401
ErrorDocument 403 /index.php?error=403
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php?error=404
ErrorDocument 405 /index.php?error=405
ErrorDocument 406 /index.php?error=406
ErrorDocument 407 /index.php?error=407
ErrorDocument 408 /index.php?error=408
ErrorDocument 409 /index.php?error=409
ErrorDocument 410 /index.php?error=410
ErrorDocument 411 /index.php?error=411
ErrorDocument 412 /index.php?error=412
ErrorDocument 413 /index.php?error=413
ErrorDocument 414 /index.php?error=414
ErrorDocument 415 /index.php?error=415
ErrorDocument 416 /index.php?error=416
ErrorDocument 417 /index.php?error=417

Each has it's own little message.

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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 21:22:25 +0100, Fat Sam <username DeleteThis @domainname.com>
wrote:

 > A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to
 > automatically redirect to the websites front page.
 >
 > Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....

Not only are you hiding the fact you have a broken link, but you're adding
customer confusion on top of it? Crazy!

Any site I work on, I have a nice 404 page which explains that the page
could not be found. This page also sends me an email containing the
details of the request so I can see if I have some repair work to do.

You might think that you'd get many many many emails if you put this
system into effect, and at first, you do!

But by fixing the broken links and setting redirects in your .htaccess (or
what-have-you for Windows) you'll whittle down the emails until your site
is running tight as a... er... drum, yesh, a drum. In fact, this system
is the best for quickly alerting you if you've added content containing a
broken link. Who better to be your editor than your own army of customers?

My own site gets ~13,000 unique visits per month (430/day) and after many
months of a tweak here and a fix there, only 3 or 4 404's per day. Out of
a total of ~180,000 requests per month that's less than .06% !!!

As an example, I recently updated three zip files I have available for
download at my site. In updating them, I changed their names and changed
some rules in my .htaccess file so the latest ones would be downloaded. I
tested the links, they worked, voila. However, over the weekend I began
getting 404 emails containing requests pointed at the old files! These
requests should've been automatically forwarded to the new filenames and
when I'd updated them they'd worked. Now they didn't! I went back to
check, and sure enough, my host had restored a previous backup of my
..htaccess file somehow and the new rules were no longer there. I re-added
the rules and all was well again.

Grey

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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

Fat Sam wrote:

 > A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to automatically
 > redirect to the websites front page.....My thinking is that a large
 > percentage of people will get pissed off and navigate away if they find a
 > 404 page.....But by redirecting them back to my home page, I stand a better
 > chance of keeping them on the site.....
 >
 > Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....

I find it *much* more annoying to be redirected back to the home page.
For my site, I have a custom 404 that asks people to please contact me
and let me know which link is broken - that let's people know that I
care about whether my site works - and has a link back to the table of
contents.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

GreyWyvern wrote:

 > ...
 > my host had restored a previous backup ...

been having far too much fun with your host lately.

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GreyWyvern wrote:

 > On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 21:22:25 +0100, Fat Sam <username DeleteThis @domainname.com>
 > wrote:
 >
  >> A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to
  >> automatically redirect to the websites front page.
  >>
  >> Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....
 >
 > Not only are you hiding the fact you have a broken link, but you're
 > adding customer confusion on top of it? Crazy!
 >
 > Any site I work on, I have a nice 404 page which explains that the page
 > could not be found. This page also sends me an email containing the
 > details of the request so I can see if I have some repair work to do.
 >
 > You might think that you'd get many many many emails if you put this
 > system into effect, and at first, you do!

I can vouch for that... However, these have died down considerably
over time. Also, without telling people to contact me, messages
regarding this have dropped to about 5% of the initial volume.

 > My own site gets ~13,000 unique visits per month (430/day) and after
 > many months of a tweak here and a fix there, only 3 or 4 404's per
 > day. Out of a total of ~180,000 requests per month that's less than
 > .06% !!!

Hmm... I don't think I get quite that much traffic, but it was close. I
just lost all my previous data last month, but oh well.

 > As an example, I recently updated three zip files I have available for
 > download at my site. In updating them, I changed their names and
 > changed some rules in my .htaccess file so the latest ones would be
 > downloaded. I tested the links, they worked, voila. However, over the
 > weekend I began getting 404 emails containing requests pointed at the
 > old files! These requests should've been automatically forwarded to
 > the new filenames and when I'd updated them they'd worked. Now they
 > didn't! I went back to check, and sure enough, my host had restored a
 > previous backup of my .htaccess file somehow and the new rules were no
 > longer there. I re-added the rules and all was well again.

Heh.. At least I don't have to worry about my "host" changing things
without me knowing...

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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

MGW wrote:

 > Fat Sam wrote:
 >
  >>A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to automatically
  >>redirect to the websites front page.....My thinking is that a large
  >>percentage of people will get pissed off and navigate away if they find a
  >>404 page.....But by redirecting them back to my home page, I stand a better
  >>chance of keeping them on the site.....
  >>
  >>Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....
 >
 > I find it *much* more annoying to be redirected back to the home page.
 > For my site, I have a custom 404 that asks people to please contact me
 > and let me know which link is broken - that let's people know that I
 > care about whether my site works - and has a link back to the table of
 > contents.

I had a message that was along those lines, but all the epople who
contacted me were visiting pages that had been gone for *years* (like 3
or more)... I still get contacted about bad links to my site, etc., but
much less than before. This allows me to spend more time creating the
content for my site. Of course, mine is just a little hobby thing,
not a money-maker (or that popular for that matter).

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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

MGW wrote:

 > Fat Sam wrote:
 >
  >> A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to
  >> automatically redirect to the websites front page.....My thinking is
  >> that a large percentage of people will get pissed off and navigate
  >> away if they find a 404 page.....But by redirecting them back to my
  >> home page, I stand a better chance of keeping them on the site.....
  >>
  >> Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....
 >
 > I find it *much* more annoying to be redirected back to the home page.

Agreed - it makes more sense to provide a 404 with links to a site-map, a
search facility and possibly an index of major areas on the site.

 > For my site, I have a custom 404 that asks people to please contact me
 > and let me know which link is broken

surely you already know.


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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

William Tasso wrote:

 > MGW wrote:
 >
  >>Fat Sam wrote:
  >>
   >>>A thought I've had on 404 pages.....I've set my 404 page up to
   >>>automatically redirect to the websites front page.....My thinking is
   >>>that a large percentage of people will get pissed off and navigate
   >>>away if they find a 404 page.....But by redirecting them back to my
   >>>home page, I stand a better chance of keeping them on the site.....
   >>>
   >>>Has anyone got any thoughts on this?.....
  >>
  >>I find it *much* more annoying to be redirected back to the home page.
 >
 > Agreed - it makes more sense to provide a 404 with links to a site-map, a
 > search facility and possibly an index of major areas on the site.

Well, in my case, the home page is more like a site map...

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 >> Stay informed about: 404 errors 

On 10 Aug 2004 21:06:16 GMT, William Tasso <SpamBlocked RemoveThis @tbdata.com>
wrote:

  >> For my site, I have a custom 404 that asks people to please contact me
  >> and let me know which link is broken
 >
 >surely you already know.

No, because my site is a collection of links to internet resources and
they sometimes get changed without my being aware of it (agencies go
out of business, other sites decide to delete articles or change their
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