Error page notifications help you sleep better!

Not so much a method for receiving notifications but rather a solution to deal with them. My stats package collects status code data so I can check it whenever I choose, and broken links should hopefully be a rare occurence anyway. I have a custom 404 page which logs the broken URI and the referring page to a database. Whenever this 404 page is hit, it checks the broken link against a database table which contains the correct link if one exists, and then redirects without the user even knowing (aside from the URL changing, of course). This is also helpful for when you decide to rename a page or section on your site but don't want to go through the hassle of changing every link to the old page, or notifying all your referrers to the change.

Posted by coda on 2007/01/18

Forgot to mention, it's also a nice way of telling people that you don't want at your site (typical hack attempts or other) to politely go elsewhere. For example, a couple of years ago I was receiving a ton of hits via searches for 'arab porn' (funny story that). I got so sick of seeing these referrals in my stats that I added some wildcard checking to my 404 page and redirected those referrals to this page. ;)

Posted by coda on 2007/01/18

hehe 'arab porn' hey... you should have added some google ads to that page :) but back to the error thing, because not all the sites we host are build by Quirk, some of them are a real 'piece of work' they generate a lot of errors, a missing image here, a broken link there... we also host a lot of sites, all of that together is a lot of data :\ i'm pretty happy with the forms, it's a start :) happy friday :)

Posted by riaan on 2007/01/18

amazing how many businesses don't use custom error pages, like absa and standardbank :\

Posted by riaan on 2007/01/18

Thanks for the input coda. I am sure our team is looking at ways to improve error detection and solutions before the user gets to it. I am at nature a bit of a sceptic and like to plan for the worst. Some experience tells me that there will always be problems that arise out of the "code" (ala Ghost in the Shell anime) that require human intervention. I actually like this because it keeps the technology human and I would think customers perceive a value in the "personal touch". The ability to communicate and share information is why the internet has grown again. Technology is just the vehicle for what we want to achieve and not the end goal. Giving them the option to notify you easily when problems arise is key...cause the problems will always be there in one form or another.

Posted by Smallz on 2007/01/19