Live data from Hacker News

418 I’m a teapot

developer.mozilla.org

31–40 of 146 posts

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#31
post #6

Please, never ever again add such features to standards as a joke. Some backend folks have started to return it as an indetermiante error code, which in turn means that all client-side libraries will have to handle it at some level.

They have to handle it anyway. There's nothing in the HTTP specifications that disallows a server from using whatever codes it wants to that aren't specifically specified. There is no "HTTP 527 Server Needs a Nap" but it is perfectly legal for my server to reply to clients with that HTTP status, and clients are expected to handle it like they would handle any other non-specific error in the 5xx class of response codes (server error).

Other perfectly legal responses:

242 - TOO MUCH COFFEE (Server is overcaffeinated and processing requests too quickly)

299 - SUCCESSFUL BUT SASSY (Request succeeded but the server is throwing shade about it)

333 - QUANTUM UNCERTAINTY (The server simultaneously succeeded and failed until observed)

452 - EXCESSIVE TOAST

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#32
post #6

Please, never ever again add such features to standards as a joke. Some backend folks have started to return it as an indetermiante error code, which in turn means that all client-side libraries will have to handle it at some level.

Imo, the real problem and where it went wrong is the people using it as an error code outside of its intended purpose(to signal being a teapot, not a coffee machine). I mean this 100% seriously, unironically.

I thought that at first, but then realized that it is, in fact, correctly a client error: the client erroneously directed a coffee-related request to a server that is, in fact, not meant to service such requests. :-P

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#33
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. We gotta have fun.

I counter-disagree. It is so easy in life to have fun. There's so much fun everywhere. If you're so starved for fun then this won't do it for you either. The higher the scale the more likely your easter egg becomes not an easter egg. I also think the supermajority of engineers prefer fun entirely outside of work, hence why open source can feel so lonely and without corporate funding would probably shrink to a patheti…

You're the perfect reason to learn new english words/phrases: Killjoy.. And now I finally know what "wet blanket" mean,s thanks for that!

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#35

I had Sonatype Nexus return to me once upon upload of an artifact. I was not impressed.

Other than the humor in it, makes you wonder why they'd pick 418. It does sometimes feel like some errors are missing from the http codes, prompting developers to either create their own, or repurpose some, like 418, where they feel relatively safe that it won't conflict with something.

It never ceases to amaze how http status codes can be misused. My favorite is still the customer who had built a service that would return "200 OK" and then in the response just be the text "500". We had asked if they could return a 500 error, if there was an error in the API, rather than a 200, so they swapped out the 200 in the response, but not the headers. "200 Created" is also up there, in terms of developers with limited understanding or weird framework limitations.

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#36

I had Sonatype Nexus return to me once upon upload of an artifact. I was not impressed.

Other than the humor in it, makes you wonder why they'd pick 418. It does sometimes feel like some errors are missing from the http codes, prompting developers to either create their own, or repurpose some, like 418, where they feel relatively safe that it won't conflict with something. It never ceases to amaze how http status codes can be misused. My favorite is still the customer who had built a service that would…

i think you may mean “never _ceases_ to amaze”, as in it never stops amazing

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#37
post #2

Discussions in: 2020 (153 points, 118 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24206899 2021 (193 points, 108 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28541327 2023 (206 points, 189 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36090344

I think we were due another

2022 was a sad year

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#38
I hate to be that guy, but just a reminder that if you’re implementing a production system - even if it’s an internal tool - please don’t return 418 as a joke unless you really are a teapot. As an SRE I’ve been on the receiving end of a broken system returning teapots over the weekend, and it’s not as funny then.

Re: 418 I’m a teapot

#39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than the humor in it, makes you wonder why they'd pick 418. It does sometimes feel like some errors are missing from the http codes, prompting developers to either create their own, or repurpose some, like 418, where they feel relatively safe that it won't conflict with something. It never ceases to amaze how http status codes can be misused. My favorite is still the customer who had built a service that would…

i think you may mean “never _ceases_ to amaze”, as in it never stops amazing

Fixed, thank you :-)
Post reply on HN