49

So, SO is down at the moment, and so when I try to load a question I get an error page with a URL like this:

http://stackoverflow.com/error?aspxerrorpath=/questions/...

That page has a title of "Oops! Something Bad Happened", some explanatory text (nice job on that BTW, it's very clear), and a funny picture with the caption "WORKIN ON UR PROBLEMZ".

After the first failure, I refreshed the page to see if the problem was transient. Nope, same error page, but hey! A different funny picture! Fun.

I have mild OCD. Not Sheldon Cooper-level OCD, but it's noticeable. So I refresh to see if there's another picture. Yup! I continue refreshing, and I've seen maybe twenty different pictures, and then I get a duplicate. Oh no, it's random! But my OCD means I want to see them all, so I keep refreshing. At this point most are duplicates, but occasionally I get a new one.

I checked the source for a few of the funny pictures and didn't notice any sort of predictable URL pattern that would allow me to harvest them on my own.

I have enough restraint to stop myself, but I'd sure love it if there were a way for me to see all of the funny pictures, and I'd love it even more if I could do it without spamming your error logs. Since OCD tends to make good programmers, a lot of us have it to varying degrees, so I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

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  • 3
    You can view it without triggering anything in our error logs by just visiting stackoverflow.com/error manually
    – Kasra Rahjerdi StaffMod
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 15:56
  • Those are funny pictures on that page (some funnier than others). I've noticed that there's a glitch in the script, though, that quite often causes two pictures to come in one after the other in rapid succession.
    – RobH
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 16:34
  • there is a way to get all the images. ill sort it out tomorrow for you
    – user221081
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 21:36
  • @RobH Not a glitch, the script is based on a pair of randomly-generated values.
    – Manishearth
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 14:30
  • What's the point of having one picture come up and then replacing it with another one?
    – RobH
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 16:21
  • I've gotten a couple downvotes on this question. As I'm fairly new as a contributor around here, it's resulted in a 20% decline in my reputation. Sad face! Would the downvoters care to explain?
    – JakeRobb
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 19:23
  • 1
    @blue looks like status tags are not migrated, this was status-declined - leaving it out means you reconsider the request? ;)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 24, 2015 at 7:18

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
68

OK, here are all 34 error cats! (click to enlarge)

Community User Exposed At Last

Adam's cat lolling around

Brent Ozar (thanks Martin for cracking this one up!)

Benjamin Dumke-von der Ehe aka balpha

Oded

Emmett

Nick Craver

David Fullerton

Nick and balpha creating code together

Marc Gravell

Jarrod Dixon

Kevin Montrose

Kyle Brandt

You can see random dev-cat here if you like, and in case they add new picture, feel free to edit it in here too. :)

Thanks Manishearth for the great help with names!

Following special request, here is Mr. Marco Cecconi workin on ur problemz:

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    Talk about dedication.
    – Josh Crozier
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 22:04
  • 1
    @JoshC I couldn't resist the challenge!
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 22:06
  • 1
    Naturally the follow up question is, do you know how the JS actually works? :) (that is all the current error-cats, FYI; nice job)
    – Kevin Montrose
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 1:31
  • 2
    Okay now name all of them :)
    – Kasra Rahjerdi StaffMod
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 1:37
  • @Kevin after half hour of staring at your marvelous code I gave up! Guess I could crack it by spending some more time but it would just ruin the mystery! :(
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 7:49
  • @Kasra now that's a challenage! Hmm... face detection code anyone?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 7:50
  • 4
    @Kasra harder than I thought... first one I checked turned out to be bolshevik muppet!
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 8:14
  • 2
    I've been called a muppet before, but never a bolshevik!
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 10:25
  • So you're just saying it never happened before @Oded?
    – Bart
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 10:42
  • @Bart - Indeed that is what I am saying. I'm just part of the community.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 10:49
  • 1
    @ShaWizDowArd 34 is all there is, I managed to partially deobfuscate and derandomize the code here
    – Manishearth
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 11:01
  • @Oded I had a suspicion it's you - but don't you work from home in England, far away from the office at NY? Anyway blame Google, not me! :-P
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 11:21
  • 1
    The one you both haven't figured out is Brent Ozar I think.
    – Martin Smith
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 12:33
  • 2
    +1 to @Martin - he knows his SQL people as well as his SQL ;)
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 12:53
  • 1
    @aalaap meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/309105/…
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jan 22, 2018 at 13:26
22

The element of surprise on that page is very much intentional, so (despite the fact that I also spent some time refreshing https://stackoverflow.com/error this morning), I have to decline this.

On the upside, https://stackoverflow.com/error allows you to get the next (random) picture without generating an actual error.

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  • 2
    I think I hate you for shutting me down so unequivocally, but OK. :( :)
    – JakeRobb
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 16:06
  • 5
    Prepare yourself for scripts written to hit /error repeatedly until they have reached a five 9s probability that they have seen all unique error images.
    – Michael Pryor Staff
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 16:19
  • It already seems very slow. Any tips on how to get the cat to stay when the loading is complete?
    – Bill Woodger
    Commented Oct 30, 2013 at 16:20
  • Hmmm @Anna, your "decline" appears to have been declined, so I've changed my accepted answer. :P
    – JakeRobb
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 19:21
  • @JakeRobb Totally fair. :)
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 19:25
  • Hmm.. so is this status-disputed? ;-)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jan 9, 2014 at 22:17

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