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Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

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Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#101

Post by monkeypizza »

scott_s wrote: post #58
fusiongyro wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An interesting article about human behavior. How nice. However, I don't see a categorical disproof in there of the idea that saving lives is something worth spending time and money on, so could you take a minute and connect the dots for us plebs? Thanks.

I assume zmj's point is that we implicitly make this trade-off all the time. For example, cars could be safer, but then they would be more expensive. Anytime we opt for a cheaper car with less safety features, we are making a cost-benefit analysis involving our own lives and the lives of the people who will travel in our car. (Who are probably the most important people to us.) There becomes a point where the actual g…

We could easily make cars way, way safer - put a giant, sharp spike sticking out of the center of the steering wheel, pointed at the driver's heart, and forbid seatbelts. Nobody would ever go over 5mph, or put themselves at risk of crashing into anything.

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#102

Post by pootch »

The point of any website is to never have a 404 happen in the first place. In which case, I would feel guilty burying a missing child link in a site that would almost never show a 404 error. Might be good for a big site like facebook though. That being said "milk cartoning" is a little controversial, since it was introduced decades ago the results have been near zero.

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#103

Post by vectorpush »

icebraining wrote: post #75
vectorpush wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would depend entirely on the cost of the initiative and what other things, Um, obviously. The point is that the cost is just about nothing, especially if your current 404 is an apache default or a joke page. Nobody is suggesting some type of moral obligation, but if a repurposed 404 does bring a missing child home, the cost was clearly worth it. including potentially more effective ways of rescuing kidnapped chi…

You're thinking of time and money costs; those are just a small part. What about the costs of being reminded of such a terrible thing every time you hit a 404? And what about those costs for people who lost their child five or ten years ago, and for whom those are just terrible memories, with no hope left?

You make an interesting point. I could see how these 404s could be in poor taste depending on the tone of the site, but I'm not really moved by the "someone might feel bad about something they saw on the internet" argument.

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#105

Post by aaron695 »

Total junk.

Campaigns like this are what's wrong with this world and the acceptance of them in general is troubling.

For the 'players' as a draw card to get customers ($), it might bring in a few I guess since the public is easily fooled by theses sort of self serving campaigns that cause more harm than good.

But ethically I couldn't do it.

If you 'really' want to help kids donate $40 to a 3rd world charity, save a real life and make you 404 professional instead.

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#106

Post by pwniekins »

bmm6o wrote: post #66

See related discussion from 3 years ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1148200 And as I said then: I think the intentions behind the idea - trying to do some societal good with your web site - are great. It's just seems odd to me that the way you handle not being able to find what the user wants is by showing them something unrelated that is guaranteed to be not what they were looking for. What is the attractio…

BUT BUT BUT 404 PAGE NOT FOUND IS SORT OF LIEK CHILD NOT FOUND GET IT? huehuehue

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#107

Post by pwniekins »

bmm6o wrote: post #66

See related discussion from 3 years ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1148200 And as I said then: I think the intentions behind the idea - trying to do some societal good with your web site - are great. It's just seems odd to me that the way you handle not being able to find what the user wants is by showing them something unrelated that is guaranteed to be not what they were looking for. What is the attractio…

BUT BUT BUT 404 PAGE NOT FOUND IS SORT OF LIEK CHILD NOT FOUND GET IT? huehuehue

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#108

Post by anonymous543 »

autophil wrote: post #33
chimeracoder wrote: post #13

I appreciate the noble motives behind this, but programs like the AMBER alert have not proven very effective[1]. Furthermore, abductions by strangers are incredibly rare; most abductions are by people that the child knows well (such as an estranged parent/relative, etc.). These are the cases for which the AMBER alert is most likely to have success, but they're also the cases for which it is the least likely to be nec…

If even ONE SINGLE CHILD is found and returned back into the loving arms of a parent due to a repurposed 404 page, the initiative is a great success. Don't you think?

Why doesn't Google stick a random missing child photo next to their logo on every page view? Surely it would be seen by millions in a matter of an hour. Why doesn't Windows display a little message in the corner of every desktop, linking to an important charitable cause? Why don't you place a bunch of 5x5 signs of missing kids in your lawn? You value the appearance of your lawn more than the possibility of saving a life? Why do you watch TV when kids are dying? You could be working, and saving money to send them food. You could have saved hundreds of lives if you didn't watch that last season of Breaking Bad.

Want more initiative? Hey, let's stick missing kid stickers on the rear window of cars. Or what if every Friday, instead of going out for lunch, everyone in the country donates 5 or 10 dollars to save starving kids. Or what if grocery stores had a basket next to each checkout, and you buy extra food while shopping, then place it in there to be donated? These ideas are a dime a dozen, and this 404 concept is one of the worst I've seen.

In short, everyone needs to draw the line somewhere. If someone isn't interested in changing their 404 pages, don't send the guilt trip party, because there are a million ways you could be doing more in your life. Everyone chooses to help to a different degree.

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#109

Post by sliverstorm »

pharrington wrote: post #65
inportb wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We think human lives are priceless because we like to believe that everyone is unique. There is no warranty replacement for children born defective; nor could you replace them when they break, go missing, etc.

Well obviously everyone is unique in that there's only one of any given life, regardless of whether or not anyone's life is qualitatively unique. But it seems obvious (at least to me) that what's much more relevant is that as self-reflective human beings, we have a responsibility to protect other human lives, within reason. Of course, what "within reason" means is a whole subject on it's own.

That "within reason" is the key.

Re: Turn your 404s into lost children alerts

#110

Post by jcampbell1 »

monkeypizza wrote: post #101
scott_s wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume zmj's point is that we implicitly make this trade-off all the time. For example, cars could be safer, but then they would be more expensive. Anytime we opt for a cheaper car with less safety features, we are making a cost-benefit analysis involving our own lives and the lives of the people who will travel in our car. (Who are probably the most important people to us.) There becomes a point where the actual g…

We could easily make cars way, way safer - put a giant, sharp spike sticking out of the center of the steering wheel, pointed at the driver's heart, and forbid seatbelts. Nobody would ever go over 5mph, or put themselves at risk of crashing into anything.

You have completely botched this example. This example is useful to explain why airbags increase collisions. Putting a spear in cars would not make cars safer.
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