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We all know the 404 Error page that appears when one follows an invalid link. Short and succinct, it says "We could not find the page you requested" and then follows with a little programmer humour.

Normally that is all that is needed.

However, in the case of a deleted question, the error message does not make much sense. The server found the question after all, otherwise it could not display the reason for its deletion.

So I would suggest we replace the current "404 not found" page:

Page not found

This question was voluntarily removed by its author.

We couldn't find the page you requested. We did, however, find this program.

[404 error joke program]

with a new "Question removed" page that looks like this:

Question removed

This question was voluntarily removed by its author at 2014-05-25 11:30

A possible duplicate of the question can be found here (only if the question had been closed as duplicate)

[insert joke here]

My main objection with the current error page are:

  • The caption and the following text contradict the removal message. The server cannot really claim to "not find" something and at the same time claim that it was deleted.
  • The notice that and why the question was removed is not very prominent.
  • the 404 joke does not fit the situation, and further distracts from what actually happened.

The statement that the page was not found is clearly false. The server did find the page in question, and knows exactly what happened to it; the server is merely refusing to show the page to anyone with less than 10k reputation or mod privileges. We do not need to go into that much detail in the error page, simply stating that it was "removed" instead of "not found" should be enough

The joke also makes little sense here, since this is not really a 404 situation. And an user that just refreshed the page to find out it is gone may not appreciate the humour.

So my suggestion is:

  • a custom error page for deleted questions, visually distinct from the default 404 error page, and without contradictory information
  • (optionally) find a more fitting in-joke for the situation
  • (optionally) provide additional information like
    • link to the duplicate, (if the question had been closed as duplicate)
    • date of removal
      (useful for example if you share the link to a question via email or chat. If the recipients can see when the question was removed, they will be less confused as to why you sent them a non-working link.)
    • name of the parties responsible for removal
      (to provide the same level of accountability we get for closed questions)
  • (optionally) change the 404 status code into something more fitting like
    • 303 See Other (nothing to see here, but check our FAQ for deleted questions),
    • 403 Forbidden (you lack the required reputation) or
    • 410 Gone (for spam questions permanently deleted by a mod).
      (There may be SEO reasons against that change, search engines may not know how to deal with uncommon status codes)
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  • meh overall, but the "user reading this may feel mocked" and "remove the joke program or replace it with some more appropriate joke for that situation" pushed me towards the downvote.
    – OGHaza
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 15:24
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    I can't imagine how the date removed would be useful in any way to anyone who wouldn't normally be able to see the deleted post.
    – BoltClock Mod
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:06
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    Also, no question is "permanently" deleted per se - not even we could guarantee that a question we delete stays deleted forever. 410 Gone seems much too permanent for that.
    – BoltClock Mod
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:09
  • @BoltClock I admit the use of the date is limited, but when I open a bunch of questions in tabs, or bookmark them, then later come back and find out that they are gone, seeing the time of removal would alleviate my confusion. Or imagine me sending a link to a question to someone else, or mentioning it in a chatroom. If the question is removed before the recipent opens the link, the date would tell him that the link was correct. Without the date he is left wondering.
    – HugoRune
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:12

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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A question which gets deleted does get a different 404 page.

It gets a page that says

This question was removed for reasons of moderation

Here is an example question

So I think we're fine for now.

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  • Indeed, for a question deleted because of moderation, the notice is a little more prominent than for a voluntarily removed question, and it at least contains a link to the faq. It still contains the incorrect message "We couldn't find the page you requested. We did, however, find this program." and looks visually very similar to the default 404 error page, despite not really being a 404 error. My suggestion is to make it much more visually distinctive and remove the incorrect parts
    – HugoRune
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:33
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    For anyone other than 10k+ users, that question is considered to be deleted, and as such, not found. Even if it still remains in the system, as a resource, it is not found. We'd rather say "It's gone" rather than "You can't view it". There's a reason for that.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:35
  • I am not sure I would agree with the reason you seem to allude to, but that is not my point. "Not found" is saying something entirely different from "it's gone". It just does not make sense to say "We deleted this page. Therefore, we cannot find it". Imagine a shop saying "We are out of stock for this particular product; so we do know what product your are talking about". The error message is at best confusing and at worst annoying.
    – HugoRune
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:43
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    More like "I don't want you to even know that we can even have this product, so we don't know what product you are talking about".
    – Madara's Ghost
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:44
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    Well, if the intent of the 404 page is indeed to mislead the user into thinking there never was anything here to begin with, then the page is obviously not misleading enough. I see two logical options: If we want users not to know about the question, we should remove the notice "This question was removed for reasons of moderation". If we want users to understand what happened, we should remove the notice "We could not find the page you requested". As it is, the mixed message just sounds confused.
    – HugoRune
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 14:59
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    I don't agree 100% with this. It would more informative (IMO) if it was This question was removed for reasons of moderation by Second Rikudo, HugoRune, user000001 for example.
    – user000001
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 15:36
  • @user000001: How is that information relevant to anybody who wouldn't normally be able to see the deleted question?
    – BoltClock Mod
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:10
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    @BoltClock For the same reason that we show it on closevotes. It would add some accountability. When I was below 10K it was really annoying to land on a 404 and have no clue who/why deleted it.
    – user000001
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:13
  • @user000001 well, that's a different feature-request and you should post it as such.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Commented May 25, 2014 at 16:52

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