If you have been on the web more than (fill in the blank with a short amount of time) you know the feeling when you click and find yourself greeted by a 404 Not Found message. It’s a standard response a web server returns when it cannot locate the content for the URL requested; it might mean the link is wrong or it might mean that the content once present there was removed.
The “default” Apache server response was at one time the only kind you ever saw; Room 404 is not very friendly, useful, or well decorated:
I am not sure if the number has a significance; among the whole building of rooms in the server building, the 4th floor is identified as “client errors”. That means YOU are to blame.
Fortunately, in modern times (at least a few minutes ago), people have gotten a lot more creative with the decor of their 404 rooms. I really enjoyed this one shared by Michael Berman for the UC Channel Islands Room 404
I haven’t seen any Univ with a better 404 page than mine! http://t.co/W94XjgGn0C – be sure to hit “play” for full cheesy effect
— A. Michael Berman (@amichaelberman) January 29, 2015
And in fact, there are sites like Best 404 Pages on the Web with prize ribbons and upvoting and stuff, e.g.:
This little tangent began while looking for a site on the Thompson Rivers University web site, and seeing:
Zoing! Much of the TRU site is pretty well behaved and has proper tone and such, but Room 404 makes me chuckle.
The funny thing was when I decided to go back to grab a screen shot, I got a differently designed Room 404:
I kept reloading to see what else I could find.
I don’t know how many there are, but as usually a feeling of sadness and rejection when I open a web click ane dend up in Room 404, kudos to the web gophers at TRU who made it interesting.
See what room you get http://tru.ca/404