

Stackoverflow has a remarkable 'offline for maintenance' page - Luyt
http://sstatic.net/stackoverflow/app_offline.htm

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user9756
I don't get it. What is remarkable? Why are there six pictures of the same
error message in different color schemes?

I'm not trolling. I don't understand this...

EDIT: removed erroneous rhetorical question

~~~
gregschlom
That's 6 screenshots in different colors of an old version of Microsoft's C
compiler runtime error messages.

See for a list of those messages: <http://stanislavs.org/helppc/c_errors_-
msc-.html>

Recent programs have different, more user-friendly error messages, but for
example if you open ole2.dll or diskcopy.dll in your C:\Windows\system32
directoy with the notepad, and search for "overflow", you'll find those exact
error messages.

As to _why_ it's remarkable, that's because if you've ever opened a .exe or
.dll with an hex editor looking for some things to hack, you've almost
certainly came across those messages, or a variation of them.

EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, to get the exact same result as the
screenshot, you must open the executable with vi.

~~~
user9756
Thanks for the explanation.

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po
I feel like this kind of page goes a bit too far. I think it's reasonable that
even a somewhat technical user might see this page and think that stack
overflow just dumped rather than that this is some sort of inside joke amongst
the microsoft debugging community. A minor detail but at this point I don't
think it they need to be reaching out to the geeks with inside jokes as much
as building bridges to the average user.

 _Edit:_ downvote? Wouldn't you rather explain why you disagree with a civilly
expressed opinion?

~~~
Que
I didn't downvote, but I would like to know the difference between an "Average
User" and a "Somewhat Technical User" in the context of the StackOverflow
community?

~~~
po
You're right that Stack Overflow appeals to a technical user. My point is that
probably the majority of Stack Overflow users are not using microsoft tools
and won't get the joke. A site like github manages to make a joke with their
404 and 500 pages that will likely resonate with the vast majority of their
users, but even the ones that it doesn't won't be confused by it.

My point is that making a controlled outage look like dumped error code isn't
wise if you're trying to appeal to a diverse crowd who might not get it.

~~~
ascendant
I don't use Microsoft tools but I used my brain for a few seconds and figured
it out. This sort of argument is why everything ends up so bland and boring.
It's a site for programmers. Now we're worried about if certain programmers
will "get it?". I know, lets just put a plain text 500 error page up since
everyone "gets it".

Bah I say, bah.

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tszming
IMHO, A blue screen of death page would be even more remarkable.

~~~
ignifero
IMHO, including some malicious javascript that causes an actual stack overflow
would be even more remarkable.

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ignifero
The worst thing about stackoverflow is that it makes it impossible to google a
bug when you have an actual stack overflow.

~~~
smokestack
stack overflow -site:stackoverflow.com

Not perfect, but it helps

