What's up with some 404 pages?

[Cleo]

It seems that some webmasters feel that making a 404 page that is a console hell is in their best interest.

I know that some places teach that you should "beat the surfer into buying something" I'm not by any means convinced that this works. I know that when all kinds of shit starts popping up in my face I just start closing windows real fast without reading them.

If I go someplace to buy something and they try to stop me from leaving and keep on forcing my to try to buy something I just get pissed off and leave.

Anyway the reason that I mention this is often it is the reviewer that discovers your 404 page while doing reviews. People make coding errors, forget to upload files, etc.

Nothing pisses me off more then to get a shit load of consoles while doing my reviews and losing all the ones that I have already reviewed because of someone's console hell 404 page.

Just something to think about when deciding on how you are going to deal with your 404 traffic.

[Fuseblown]

I personally don't pull console hell on any surfers to my sites and pages...maybe 1 exit or blur depending on what it is, but not more than that. Most of the time, my 404's, etc. just redirect to my root domain, which is usually a TGP site and I try to pick them up as a bookmarker or pass them off somewhere else.

[Cleo]

Originally posted by Fuseblown
I personally don't pull console hell on any surfers to my sites and pages...maybe 1 exit or blur depending on what it is, but not more than that. Most of the time, my 404's, etc. just redirect to my root domain, which is usually a TGP site and I try to pick them up as a bookmarker or pass them off somewhere else.

Same exact thing here.

I have a few consoles, nothing nasty, on some of my internal stuff. When I do use a console it is usually an On-Blur. My 404 page is the root of my link list and my link list doesn't use any consoles at all.

Most of the new browsers coming out have popup blockers built in so spending a lot of time building consoles is becoming a waste in time.

[Brav]

By chance are you talking about my submission the other day?

I do have four on my 404, I think I am going to limit it down to one though. I just thought 4 on a 404 seemed to match....:p

I have to agree though, I have never actually experienced my 404 till the other day when you told me of that bad link, I thought how I set it up wasn't that bad (one at a time when closing previous page) but I was wrong, I managed to annoy myself.


What do you think of one On-load console loading in behind the 404, then one On-exit on that console when being closed?

[DangerDave]

What Cleo said...!!

I too get the console hell 404s while reviewing, and I have never understood why...

Give them a nice "sorry about that.." page and direct them back to the front or give them some links to click..

http://www.dangerdave.com.au/thispagedoesnotexist.html
http://www.link-o-rama.com/thispagedoesntexist.html

Don't abuse them cause they wont be back

DD

[Cleo]

Sadly this is mostly due to the fact that some webmaster boards teach that you should treat the surfers like cattle and beat them into submission, WTF, like that is going to make me buy something. :banghead:

What DangerDave said.

[dareutwo]

I have never had any consoles on a 404 page. Hell I can't type most of the time either.
http://www.markslinks.com/error.html

(this page doesn't actually exist, so it's the 404 page - which reminds me that it's been awhile since I edited any of those.. LOL)
Check out the title of the page... some surfers actually read that part too.

[Cleo]

The worst 404 page that I have ever come across was one from a small TGP that I got hit with while using the RS. It installed a dialer into my PC, changed my home page and basically hosed my system. I couldn't get rid of it and it just keep on trying to dial out, my PC does not have a modem, and keep on popping consoles ever time I booted. :banghead:

Lucky for me my "PC" is just a file on my Mac's hard drive so I just deleted it and grabbed a fresh copy. http://cleocrap.com/pc-list.jpg

I'm still not sure what TGP did this to me, but if I ever find out I'm going sick Luna on them. :badidea:

[WarBot]

Good post

[sue-fl]

Well thanks, I've learned my lesson for the day, how to design my 404 pages....

[Sexvilly]

actually just posted about my 404 experience on netpond...

in short, I have a setup - all my freesites categorized by niche - one niche
/ one domain. all 404 goes to the root of domain with the rest of my free sites in that niche. I once tried to redirect 404 from all domains to my link-list... result about 20% loss in total revenue for the time of the experiment.

[Cleo]

Wow this is an old thread that, like the Phoenix, has risen from the dead.