101

I'd like to have amusing but on-topic images for our 404 Page Not Found page on:

  • Stack Overflow
  • Server Fault
  • Super User
  • Meta

By on topic, I mean the 404 image on Stack Overflow should be a programmery "not found" of some kind, and the Super User one should be a power user's "not found", and so forth.

These images would be shown in addition to the existing 404 page text, so nothing is getting lost, we're just trying to inject a little fun into the process.

I'm having trouble coming up with anything. Any good suggestions? Post them as answers!

If your submission or suggestion is highly voted and meets the criteria outlined, it's likely to be deployed as the "official" 404 image for one of the trilogy sites …

EDIT: 404 page winners!

  • Mark Rushakoff : Stack Overflow
  • squillman : Server Fault

The other two I selected myself.

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11
  • 7
    Are you saying the power user sysadmin kitty cat of programming doesn't cover for all?
    – random
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:10
  • 2
    we already have per-site images for error pages. 404 is 100% text at the moment.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:12
  • If someone wants to add images to my text, you're welcome to, since I didn't find any good ones.
    – Ólafur Waage
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:17
  • Are the images themselves required, or is a concrete description of an image enough?
    – retracile
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 1:31
  • 1
    You could put in some ideas for images using keywords for google search.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 5:10
  • 3
    Seems a bit odd to have a bounty here, when I assume there will be 4 "chosen" 404 pages (one for each site), but only one will get a bounty.
    – TM.
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 18:45
  • When I saw that headline, I misread it as "For the triolets.org site"
    – Paul McMillan
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 19:11
  • area51 needs one, too meta.stackexchange.com/questions/53030/404-site-for-area51
    – Tobias Kienzler
    Commented Jun 9, 2010 at 7:35
  • why the bounty @PopularDemand?
    – studiohack
    Commented Dec 31, 2011 at 20:07
  • 1
    @studiohack just because I like Mark's code. I didn't know it was created specifically for SO's 404 page until recently. I know it's only MSO rep, but I felt like doing something.
    – Pops
    Commented Jan 6, 2012 at 18:48
  • 1
    Status-no-longer-completed :(
    – Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 20:38

28 Answers 28

Reset to default
139
+1050

I'd like to see some kind of polyglot for Stack Overflow's 404 page. Here's a little polyglot for Befunge-93, Brainf*ck, Python, Ruby, Perl, and C that simply prints 404 to stdout. It probably works in whatever other scripting languages that use # as a line comment and accept the keyword print. Could possibly add Whitespace as well, but that doesn't show up very well in images.

# define v putchar
#   define print(x) main(){v(4+v(v(52)-4));return 0;}/*
#>+++++++4+[>++++++<-]>++++.----.++++.*/
print(202*2);exit();
#define/*>.@*/exit()

There were a couple things I didn't care for in the version that's up on the 404 page now, so I propose this modified version. It still works in Perl/Python/Ruby/C/Befunge/BF (at 143 chars), but I got rid of the exit stuff since it didn't really add anything, and technically the BF output a \0 that I didn't originally mean to have in there.

# define v putchar
#  define print(x) main(){v(4+v(v(52)-4));return 0;}/*
#++++++++4[>++++++<-]>++++.----.++++<*/
print(202*2)
#undef /*>.@*/v

I'm actually not sure if Perl needs a semicolon after print(202*2) — I can recall Perl requiring a semicolon after each statement, but Perl 5.10.0 on my machine doesn't complain, even with the -W flag.

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7
  • 30
    good stuff, will use this for the SO 404 page
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 9:34
  • 18
    Just saw the 404 page when I logged out at work today -- that made my week! Thanks for picking it!
    – Mark Rushakoff
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 22:35
  • correct me if I'm wrong, but in BF93 specification, it's up to interpreter how to handle undefined characters such as 'e'. So it's possible (and probable) that a befunge interpreter only print a single 0 and exits.
    – Ali1S232
    Commented May 16, 2014 at 19:28
  • Perl requires a semicolon between statements, not after them, so if you've got only one statement you can do perfectly well without.
    – hobbs
    Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 6:57
  • This doesn't work in Befunge at all, given there's only a single . on the path to the @
    – Jo King
    Commented Jan 28, 2018 at 21:33
  • What Befunge interpreter does this work in?
    – MD XF
    Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 4:12
  • 1
    @MDXF, Found it. The author says they used the Visual Befunge Applet. Unfortunately, it seems to be unavailable now. That implementation uses e to push the ASCII of 101 and multiplies it by 4 (note that this behaviour does not appear in any Befunge spec)
    – Jo King
    Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 0:47
107

Here's another for SF. Found it here, not sure about permissions.

404: Server not found

enter image description here

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9
  • 29
    holy crap that's a lot of ethernet cabling!
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 1:37
  • 97
    Someone should be shot. Not fired. Shot.
    – squillman
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 1:40
  • 26
    But once they are shot, no-one will ever be able to untangle it.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 2:34
  • 1
    As one comment on the original blog post noted, it almost looks like straw balls...
    – Arthur Reutenauer
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 7:29
  • 7
    englishrussia.com/?p=1836
    – LiraNuna
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 6:24
  • 20
    His noodly appendage hath blessed the machinery: venganza.org
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 15:17
  • 1
    Permissions would be the kicker on something like this. Sure, we have all seen it a few times, but that doesn't make it public domain. For a "professional" site like SO, using unlicensed images can get them in trouble.
    – Jim McKeeth
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 4:03
  • 4
    this will be used on SF. I awarded to Mark because he wrote actual code!
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 9:35
  • 3
    Yeah, best I had was a pic. If I created that I would have had to shoot myself :)
    – squillman
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 19:27
57

For Stack Overflow (or any of the sites; it's a Star Wars reference).

404

404: These are not the Droids you're looking for.

Or:

404: We couldn't find the Droids you were looking for. Try Google?

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9
  • 22
    might be ok for Super User, but not programmery or sysadminy enough for SO/SF
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 3:41
  • 6
    @Jeff - but geeky enough...
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 7:09
  • 5
    Perhaps I don't have enough sense of humour, but I don't understand why this would come up with a 404 error.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 25, 2009 at 13:12
  • 1
    @Kinopiko .. "These are not the droids you're looking for" .. sounds like "droids not found" to me :)
    – warren
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 6:20
  • 1
    Cool but too much free advertisement.
    – Daniel Daranas
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 14:55
  • Advertising for Google/ I'd be surprised if Google needed advertisement at this point.
    – George Stocker
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 14:59
  • 13
    Hey - who's this Google company? Never heard of them, look interesting.
    – Dominic Rodger
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 15:54
  • 7
    This one needs to go on scifi.stackexchange.com
    – gobernador
    Commented Jun 25, 2012 at 23:13
  • 1
    It's actually an advertisement for Linux, note the bar at the bottom.
    – Nathan Merrill
    Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 2:20
40

As usual I'm late to the party... :-) The inline image sucks (auto sizing and all that)...

Error 404

EDIT: Actually given some more thought to this (even though the bounty is over, I would do the 404 page as an actual question. Asked by "Community" or "StackOverflow.com". The text of the question would be the text/links on the current 404 page (and maybe the winning image from this question). And for fun I would allow users to actually answer the question. Imagine the chaos that could ensue... :-)

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2
  • 3
    WTF? Are you logged in as community?
    – Kredns
    Commented Nov 5, 2009 at 5:27
  • 2
    No just some creative cut & paste suing Firebug... :-)
    – beggs
    Commented Nov 5, 2009 at 7:14
25

For any of the sites:

"Despite his best efforts, Joel Spolsky was unable to locate the item in question"

or, more neutrally,

"Despite our best efforts, we were unable to locate the item in question"

Vintage image.

(Original source from Google Image search for "IBM punch cards")

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5
  • Which site is this better aimed for?
    – random
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 2:08
  • I think it would go well with any of the sites.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 2:32
  • I once found a Burroughs adding machine in an abandoned warehouse. It was integrated into a stand that seemed a little bigger than this but it was also rusted in place.
    – dlamblin
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 18:37
  • This machine is an "IBM 29 card punch", according to the original website.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 1:07
  • 4
    s/Joel Spolsky/Jon Skeet/
    – alexanderpas
    Commented Jun 19, 2010 at 14:41
24

For SO

It seems you're trying to access a page that doesn't exist. You should totally drop that and try jQuery.

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2
  • 4
    This is kind of a memme that the people most likely to find a broken link on SO wouldn't understand, I'm afraid. Is more meta material.
    – perbert
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 17:53
  • 8
    @voyager: For Meta you need: "You should totally drop shadows..."
    – Ladybug Killer
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 8:30
24

Stack Overflow: 

function lookForPage(url) {
  if (pageExists(url)) {
    return page(url);
  } else {
    return lookForPage(url);
  }
}
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24

For Meta.

Unfortunately, there are no waffles here.

[Ed- Image no longer exists.]

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9
  • 11
    I think it needs more ponies.
    – Ether
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:28
  • 1
    Someone PS a pony somewhere in there.
    – Ólafur Waage
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:35
  • add freehand circles with dropshadows!!
    – Kip
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 4:37
  • -1 Eyes are bleeding from the compression and for piggy-backing on the votes for the first edited version.
    – random
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 5:08
  • would it be better as a separate answer? i thought it would be douchy if i "stole" the image as a separate answer, so i presented it as an alternative form of this answer
    – Kip
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 5:21
  • After the amount of votes already on it, the change is way drastic and personally would rather see it as a new answer since it for all intents and context is a new candidate. You can have the au naturel or the so-lossy-you're-making-a-brown-sound versions to choose between.
    – random
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 5:27
  • okay I made it a separate answer: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/27112/…
    – Kip
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 5:31
  • 4
    see meta.stackoverflow.com/free-waffles
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Nov 4, 2009 at 9:54
  • woo do I get waffles as a prize?
    – Ólafur Waage
    Commented Nov 4, 2009 at 10:03
23

For ServerFault:

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

or

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't find that."

http://www.drucker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/hal9000.gif

(from google image search for "hal 9000")

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20

This could work on Super User:

Burnt Server

Error 404

Just for kicks, we tried:

sudo "make me a sandwich";

It didn't work. We'll be back up in a minute.

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3
  • 1
    This one made me laugh!
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 20:02
  • 8
    Probably best not to intimate a 404 is a temporary thing, but otherwise funny! :)
    – Phoshi
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 11:57
  • 1
    @Phoshi: Oh yeah... wow... good call. Epic fail on my part. Maybe good for a error 500 though!
    – KyleFarris
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 15:48
18

For SO.

It seems you've followed a dangling pointer.

original image (dead)

substitute image

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3
  • a screenshot of code would work, in this case, I think.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:22
  • I found some example code for a dangling pointer. Can be replaced.
    – Ólafur Waage
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:29
  • 2
    BSOD? ... (obligatory spaces)
    – Ether
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 0:30
17

enter image description here

This is for Super User

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1
  • 3
    +1, this is usually how I feel inside whenever I get ANY 404 for something I was really looking for. It's actually making me think about it now, and making me upset.
    – snicker
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 14:20
17

For Super User:

"Your input could not be processed"

(This is from a Google Image search for "cat keyboard")

Original: http://dontclickthis.whatingods.name/cat-on-keyboard.jpg

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5
  • 3
    why is that person holding a network cable (or straw?!?!) near the cat's buttockal region?
    – warren
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 6:21
  • 28
    @warren: connecting some cat 5?
    – AnonJr
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 21:08
  • 1
    @warren: it's the handle of whatever dangly toy they used to entice the kitten onto the keyboard in the first place.
    – Zac Thompson
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 3:23
  • maybe i'm overly morbid, but it looked like the guy was about to do an autopsy on the cat... :)
    – Kip
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 4:54
  • 7
    @Kip: may be he was debugging the cat after its process died unexpectedly.
    – perbert
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 16:14
17

In honor of Geocities, called home by the Lord today at much too young an age:

"under construction"

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1
  • 3
    The very first website I contributed to was there. Ah, we are nothing.
    – Daniel Daranas
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 14:56
16

Oscar the grouch

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1
  • 9
    +1 for hand-drawn circles.
    – snicker
    Commented Nov 4, 2009 at 7:13
13

Here's a play on a qmail bounce, for SF:

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4
  • @ShadowWizard Aside from Internet Archive being slow, it's highly unlikely to completely go down any time soon, so I don't see much point in making more duplicates of it.
    – EvgenKo423
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 12:08
  • 1
    @EvgenKo423 they may change the image name format, breaking all links to it. It's not meant to be hot linked, I'm 1000% sure of that. Please always copy all images to the dedicated image hosting of SE in imgur, that's exactly what it's meant for. And yes, there is much point in making as much duplicates of images, so they won't be lost. This is the policy in Stack Exchange, if you disagree feel free to start a discussion or feature request asking to change this policy.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 12:20
  • @ShadowWizard Sure, in most cases the dedicated hosting is handy and more robust, but in general image hostings are being created and shut down every 1-2 years. They also change link formats and what not even though they're meant to be hot-linked. So we can't really be sure that the Imgur is more fire-proof than others; the Internet Archive is 1.5-2 times older. As for the duplicates, unless they're linked to the post somehow they won't be useful 'cause it won't be possible to find them. ;-) Haven't heard of this being a policy, though.
    – EvgenKo423
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:33
  • @EvgenKo423 not talking about imgur.com itself, i.e. uploading directly on imgur. I mean uploading here inside the editor of SE. They did not change format even one time, in all the years it exists, and even if they will, they will also automatically change all the links as it's their responsibility, unlike external image hosts.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 13:36
12

Here's a couple for SF/SU:

As suggested in comments

For Linux users:
Not Found - Windows http://www.sqeq.com/image/SF_404.jpg

For Windows users:
Not Found - KDE http://www.sqeq.com/image/SF_404_KDE.jpg

Someone will have to pick me up on the Mac Finder shot, I don't have a Mac lying around here...

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8
  • 11
    Now if that would only show for non-Windows users, and come up with something similar for Linux/BSD/OSX/something that only shows for Windows users, I could get behind it. ;)
    – retracile
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 1:35
  • What about finder for Apple users.
    – Brad Gilbert
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 6:16
  • 2
    This would also work well on SU.
    – Arthur Reutenauer
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 7:30
  • 1
    The OS reversal was on purpose?
    – perbert
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 23:19
  • 1
    Yes, based on retracile's comment. But doesn't have to be.
    – squillman
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 23:27
  • Port 22 ?!?!
    – uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
    Commented Jul 15, 2010 at 21:14
  • @George: it's SSH...
    – squillman
    Commented Jul 15, 2010 at 22:26
  • @squill: Oops... didn't see the "Enter a name for this Secure Shell..." part
    – uɐɯsO uɐɥʇɐN
    Commented Jul 15, 2010 at 22:30
11

Sorry, we can't find your page. You may have mistyped something.

A monkey typing

(from google image search for "monkey keyboard")

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2
  • That just looks like a chimp at a keyboard. Where's the magical monkey keyboard with a banana as the space bar?
    – random
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 7:41
  • 2
    This is a visual joke about "monkeys typing Shakespeare". There is a better image on Google image search, but this one had a hotlinking block on it: maxpower.ca/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/monkeytypes.jpg
    – delete
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 8:26
9

For Meta

I took Ólafur Waage/random's answer and added freehand circles with dropshadows and unnecessarily high JPEG compression. (Properly compressed version here.)

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/160/404comp.jpg

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1
  • 2
    Beautiful. I promised myself I wouldn't cry.
    – Maxpm
    Commented Jun 29, 2011 at 5:42
8

For StackOverflow: punch cards scattered across the floor and the text: "Error: We didn't find that hole."

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1
  • 2
    Error: unable to find correct <s>punchcard</s>data
    – Brad Gilbert
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 6:14
7

For SuperUser: A generic super-hero's costume (incorporating the logo colors?), on either hanger or a mannequin, with the text "404 Hero not found".

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2
  • Really needs images in an images discussion.
    – random
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 1:36
  • Fair enough; I'll bow out.
    – retracile
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 1:55
4

For Meta: a picture of that "Thinker" statue in a ditch of dirty water; "404: Amazingly, that's one thing we didn't find here."

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3

For StackOverflow: reams upon reams of green-bar paper with (presumably) code printouts, along with the text "What line did you say that was again?"

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1
  • 1
    Too bad I threw out all that green-bar with the COBOL code from college... I could have totally used that for a visual.
    – AnonJr
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 21:11
3

This isn't a picture but it's still a funny 404 message. Unfortunately you will have to click the link: Depressed Server. If someone knows how to make it show up here without having to click the link please edit my post so it will.

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2
  • 3
    Although it's funny, it wouldn't make a very good 404 page for real errors, since the already-frustrated user would not want to sit there watching someone's joke message scroll past.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 24, 2009 at 8:29
  • 2
    But it is a real 404 page. The Marvin-robot is one of my favorites. But it's been done- need something new here.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Oct 27, 2009 at 2:08
3

Originally from http://my.yougov.com/App_Portals/yougov/templates/en/images/error_404.jpg

This is for Server Fault.

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1
  • From iStockPhoto?
    – random
    Commented Nov 1, 2009 at 3:08
2

404, the waffles are outdoors today.:
Waffles and Dinges http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/webassets/.pond/Newtruckpostcard5.jpg.w560h527.jpg

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2
  • 3
    Sorry, again, I don't understand the joke.
    – delete
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 1:27
  • 6
    The joke is that when Spider-Man tried to save Gwen Stacy from falling off the bridge, he ended up snapping her neck and killing her.
    – random
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 11:39
2

Here is a nice collection of images for inspiration. An amusing image is a good idea, but I would take the "URL as part of the UI" metaphor one step further. Turn the juicy bits of the miss-typed URL into a search.

If they type something starting with

You could put some other parsing in there to make a more educated guess for what they were going for. Apply the same pattern to any site in the trilogy, or for that matter on Stack Exchange.

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2
  • a serious answer to a not-serious request, though...
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 9:32
  • Well, I opened with the link to the collection of 404 pages so that I wouldn't end up too serious.
    – Jim McKeeth
    Commented Nov 2, 2009 at 17:31
-3

We made you a question ... but we eated it.

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1
  • 9
    The grammar is acceptable for a LOLCAT message, but the spelling is far too accurate.
    – David Thornley
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 14:35

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