Dear valued user, You have reached the error page for the error page (opens in new tab)

(imgur.com)

207 pointsAlex391711mo ago49 comments

Just got to this error page by refreshing my Gmail tab, seeing the Gmail error page, and then refreshing the error page and getting this. Never seen this posted on the Internet before, but I thought it was interesting.

49 comments

28 comments · 9 top-level

crgk11mo ago· 7 in thread

I’m getting an imgur error page, but it seems this post is meant to be an image of a Google error page?

I’ve reached the error page of the image of the error page for the error page. We’re too deep.

Tiberium11mo ago

Imgur really hates VPNs, and will show that bogus error page if you're not using a "nice" connection.

andrepd11mo ago

Lol, so meta.

Also: very sad, but it would be great if it was just imgur doing this; it's the whole internet.

bhaney11mo ago

Now to refresh this comment until HN randomly goes down

bryanrasmussen11mo ago

You have reached the error reply to your valued comment. Please send this comment in an email to all your relatives or a bunny will die.

1 more reply

xigoi11mo ago

The internet on my phone stopped working when trying to view these HN comments.

layer811mo ago

“We're having some trouble serving your request. Sorry!”

miyuru11mo ago

Mirror: https://beeimg.com/view/m8002460503/

larrymcp11mo ago· 4 in thread

The funny thing is, this error message is hardly less useful than the recent trend of error messages which say only, "Something went wrong".

hinkley11mo ago

Have you never dealt with customers reporting errors?

Something went wrong is what they will tell you and expect an answer. Doesn’t matter how fancy and detailed the error, you will get back, “it’s broken fix it.”

hnlmorg11mo ago

Back in the early days of my career and supporting end users, I used to constantly get people say:

   “xxx doesn’t work. I just get an error”

They would never tell me what the error message actually was. And when I asked, the reply often was

   “I don’t remember. I’ve closed it now”.

It used to wind me up rotten. I can forget non-technical people not understanding the error message. But common sense should have kicked in that the error message is important to share with the person trying to fix said error.

2 more replies

pphysch11mo ago

What would you expect? IME these are mostly unforeseen 500 errors, logged internally, and not something a client can do anything about (or should know anything about, for security reasons).

layer811mo ago

At least it’s not https://twitter.com/cherrikissu/status/972524442600558594.

SchwKatze11mo ago· 3 in thread

You found the easter egg gem!

The fact that google's engineers cared about doing that it's pretty funny

henry70011mo ago

Probably done over a decade ago. Today we wouldn't see this

pi_22by711mo ago

oh, for sureee

hnlmorg11mo ago

That explains why we aren’t talking about it today then.

1 more reply

rc_mob11mo ago· 3 in thread

You have 7 different gmail accounts eh?

Alex3917OP11mo ago

Yeah unfortunately they are tricky to get rid of once you have them. In theory I can forward the email from one account to another, but in practice it's hard to think through all the weird security issues that might arise from doing so.

dpedu11mo ago

I've got one I made as a teen, a more professional sounding mature address, one for school, two for two separate google apps domains, and one for work. They pile up over time.

Jotalea11mo ago

I have made a lot of accounts in a 5 year period:

- main account, used for anything — made in 2018

- secondary account

- personal account for 2021

- personal account for 2024

- account for parental controls

- throwaway account with random numbers and letters

- throwaway account with a purpose

- account for using on VMs

- account to share with my friend

- account for my brother

edit: fixed newlines

exiguus11mo ago· 1 in thread

Error page of the error page made me smile. Somehow, this makes total sense to me. Consider a reverse proxy where the origin is down and displaying the 'real' error page is not possible because of that. Alternatively, imagine a CloudFront function or Lambda experiencing the same issue, or encountering so many redirects that it interrupts and simply shows the error page of the error page. Nonetheless, I agree that you shouldn't see this issue very often.

shanemhansen11mo ago

I had this for a reverse proxy I developed that did some transformations. At about two critical points if there was an error there was literally nothing we could do except 500 barf.

zaik11mo ago· 1 in thread

Confuse your coworkers by telling them you "won Gmail once".

RandomBacon11mo ago

They'll just think you're going senile and politely agree, telling you to go back and surf the information superhighway.

yegle11mo ago

This was added in 2004. Before this change, the error message was:

> If too many of these happen, someone will be paged. If you still see this after half an hour, send mail to xxxxxxxxxxx@google.com

(For curious folks working for Hooli, the magic number is 472481)

mister_mort11mo ago

Always leave a message in "impossible" code paths, you never know who might read it in the end.

ChrisArchitect11mo ago

Ask HN: GCP Outage?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44605732

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

49 comments

28 comments · 9 top-level

crgk11mo ago· 7 in thread

I’m getting an imgur error page, but it seems this post is meant to be an image of a Google error page?

I’ve reached the error page of the image of the error page for the error page. We’re too deep.

Tiberium11mo ago

Imgur really hates VPNs, and will show that bogus error page if you're not using a "nice" connection.

andrepd11mo ago

Lol, so meta.

Also: very sad, but it would be great if it was just imgur doing this; it's the whole internet.

bhaney11mo ago

Now to refresh this comment until HN randomly goes down

bryanrasmussen11mo ago

You have reached the error reply to your valued comment. Please send this comment in an email to all your relatives or a bunny will die.

1 more reply

xigoi11mo ago

The internet on my phone stopped working when trying to view these HN comments.

layer811mo ago

“We're having some trouble serving your request. Sorry!”

miyuru11mo ago

Mirror: https://beeimg.com/view/m8002460503/

larrymcp11mo ago· 4 in thread

The funny thing is, this error message is hardly less useful than the recent trend of error messages which say only, "Something went wrong".

hinkley11mo ago

Have you never dealt with customers reporting errors?

Something went wrong is what they will tell you and expect an answer. Doesn’t matter how fancy and detailed the error, you will get back, “it’s broken fix it.”

hnlmorg11mo ago

Back in the early days of my career and supporting end users, I used to constantly get people say:

   “xxx doesn’t work. I just get an error”

They would never tell me what the error message actually was. And when I asked, the reply often was

   “I don’t remember. I’ve closed it now”.

2 more replies

pphysch11mo ago

What would you expect? IME these are mostly unforeseen 500 errors, logged internally, and not something a client can do anything about (or should know anything about, for security reasons).

layer811mo ago

At least it’s not https://twitter.com/cherrikissu/status/972524442600558594.

SchwKatze11mo ago· 3 in thread

You found the easter egg gem!

The fact that google's engineers cared about doing that it's pretty funny

henry70011mo ago

Probably done over a decade ago. Today we wouldn't see this

pi_22by711mo ago

oh, for sureee

hnlmorg11mo ago

That explains why we aren’t talking about it today then.

1 more reply

rc_mob11mo ago· 3 in thread

You have 7 different gmail accounts eh?

Alex3917OP11mo ago

dpedu11mo ago

I've got one I made as a teen, a more professional sounding mature address, one for school, two for two separate google apps domains, and one for work. They pile up over time.

Jotalea11mo ago

I have made a lot of accounts in a 5 year period:

- main account, used for anything — made in 2018

- secondary account

- personal account for 2021

- personal account for 2024

- account for parental controls

- throwaway account with random numbers and letters

- throwaway account with a purpose

- account for using on VMs

- account to share with my friend

- account for my brother

edit: fixed newlines

exiguus11mo ago· 1 in thread

shanemhansen11mo ago

I had this for a reverse proxy I developed that did some transformations. At about two critical points if there was an error there was literally nothing we could do except 500 barf.

zaik11mo ago· 1 in thread

Confuse your coworkers by telling them you "won Gmail once".

RandomBacon11mo ago

They'll just think you're going senile and politely agree, telling you to go back and surf the information superhighway.

yegle11mo ago

This was added in 2004. Before this change, the error message was:

> If too many of these happen, someone will be paged. If you still see this after half an hour, send mail to xxxxxxxxxxx@google.com

(For curious folks working for Hooli, the magic number is 472481)

mister_mort11mo ago

Always leave a message in "impossible" code paths, you never know who might read it in the end.

ChrisArchitect11mo ago

Ask HN: GCP Outage?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44605732

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse