ArtLung

Slate: Crashed Hard

I tried to click through to a slate article just now. Big .NET error. Ugly. I figure the linker got the url wrong. I slice off the request and just leave http://www.slate.com/ — and still, ugly. Ten minutes later? Still down. This is what we call FAIL. Someone should be getting a page, someone should be implementing a static “be back soon” — I’m stunned to see a major site fail so spectacularly and nakedly.

Slate.com: Server Error in '/' Application.

UPDATE 25 minutes later: back up. Glad to see it. I hate that kind of downtime – as a web professional and as a reader. Can’t imagine how the Slate staffers feel.


posted this 15 years ago.
What else did he post in October 2007?

(Friday October 26th 2007 at 4:55am)

Comments: 5

eeek! that would not be a fun day at the office!
btw, hows your mom?? you all have been in my prayers 🙂

@Sassy I wonder if they were even aware. Seems simple enough to redirect to a downtime page. Anything’s better than giant error page.

@MAS — Initially part of MSN, now owned by Washington Post (according to Wikipedia)

Isn’t Slate owned my M$?

compilation debug=”false”

You can just see the chickens running around with their heads cut off on the slate web team.

One line in a config file to set up a friendly error page in ASP.NET… total newb maneuver over there.

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