New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Why Implement "Something Went Wrong" Error Messages?
Ask HN: Why Implement "Something Went Wrong" Error Messages?
4 by MollyRealized | 6 comments on Hacker News.
I've noticed a common trend across many tech platforms that's puzzling to me: the ubiquitous "Something went wrong, please try again" error message. As a user, I find myself curious about the reasoning behind this approach. From my perspective, this message doesn't provide much actionable information. It doesn't indicate whether the issue is on my end or the service's side, nor does it suggest any specific steps I could take. Often, simply "trying again" yields the same result. What puzzles me most, however, is that it seems it'd be equally as unhelpful to the developers who presumably implemented that error messaging. Why would they? It seems like this lack of detail wouldn't be particularly helpful for the technical teams either. Without specifics on what went wrong, how do they track down and fix issues effectively? I'm genuinely curious to understand the rationale behind this practice. Are there benefits to this approach that aren't immediately obvious to end users? Is it a matter of simplicity, or are there technical or business reasons for keeping error messages vague? I'd love to hear insights from the other side of this, the people who must've written, implemented, and let those error messages go live.
4 by MollyRealized | 6 comments on Hacker News.
I've noticed a common trend across many tech platforms that's puzzling to me: the ubiquitous "Something went wrong, please try again" error message. As a user, I find myself curious about the reasoning behind this approach. From my perspective, this message doesn't provide much actionable information. It doesn't indicate whether the issue is on my end or the service's side, nor does it suggest any specific steps I could take. Often, simply "trying again" yields the same result. What puzzles me most, however, is that it seems it'd be equally as unhelpful to the developers who presumably implemented that error messaging. Why would they? It seems like this lack of detail wouldn't be particularly helpful for the technical teams either. Without specifics on what went wrong, how do they track down and fix issues effectively? I'm genuinely curious to understand the rationale behind this practice. Are there benefits to this approach that aren't immediately obvious to end users? Is it a matter of simplicity, or are there technical or business reasons for keeping error messages vague? I'd love to hear insights from the other side of this, the people who must've written, implemented, and let those error messages go live.
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