Crashing Responsibly

User-friendly error handling is not a new idea, but on the web it seems a bit scarce. Jeff at Coding Horror implores you to “crash responsibly” — when your site fails, as it inevitably will sometimes, make sure it happens in a good way. Explain what’s happening, as far as you can, with information about […]

Big Error

User-friendly error handling is not a new idea, but on the web it seems a bit scarce.

Jeff at Coding Horror implores you to "crash responsibly" -- when your site fails, as it inevitably will sometimes, make sure it happens in a good way. Explain what's happening, as far as you can, with information about what the user can expect. Crashes are unfortunate, but they're a chance to build, or destroy, your users' confidence in you.

Twitter crashing unhelpfully

Google crashing smugly

Who does this especially badly? Who does this well?

Image from TheDailyWTF

See Also: