Server Error Log Improvements

April 30, 2002 7:52 PM

I assume the server keeps error logs. So, is there any way to edit the error message itself so that it displays how many times it's happened? The idea is that hopefully, common sense will kick in when it shows that it's happened 150 times or something and we don't end up flooding Matt's mailbox when obviously just a few notes will do.
posted by Su to feature requests at 7:52 PM (5 comments total)

On a related note, Matt, do you not actually use your matt(at)haughey address for personal purposes? I'm suprised there's not a generic admin address or something given in those errors. That's gotta be annoying.
posted by Su at 7:52 PM on April 30, 2002

And raise a flag somewhere on MeFi and MeTa saying Matt's been emailed so we don't need to.
posted by riffola at 7:58 PM on April 30, 2002

The error page could have a "Notify Webmaster" button that, when clicked, would automatically e-mail Matt the error-in-progress and would set a flag for the following 15 (or 30, or 60?) minutes that would display "The administrator of this site has already been notified of an ongoing error. There is no need to contact him again. Thank you for your patience." in bright red letters.

This would perform the added function of deterring people from immediately starting MetaTalk threads about such bugs only to receive a "Yeah, the problem is fixed." from Matt five minutes later.
posted by Danelope at 8:09 PM on April 30, 2002

i dunno, for something like "the front page is a huge error message" don't you think he would notice even without an email?
posted by rhyax at 9:11 PM on April 30, 2002

Rhyax: It's pretty safe to say Matt doesn't spend the entire day reloading the front page.
On the other hand, most e-mail programs have the option to make some sort of noise or at least blink at you when a message comes in. As far as I'm aware, most people make use of that option.

Danelope: I think the MeTa threads about errors coming up are fine. Every once in a while, one has turned into a discussion about what happened, and how to fix/prevent it, and sometimes those suggestions have been implemented.
posted by Su at 12:52 AM on May 1, 2002