Comments on: Who can create the coolest, funniest, smartest 404 page?

By: Vote for the best 404 page

Vote for the best 404 page — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:55:15 +0000

[...] the end of July, I opened a contest to see who had the coolest, funniest, smartest 404 page. I had hoped for a few more contestants, but instead I got to see 12 great submissions to the [...]

By: Justin Tadlock

Justin Tadlock — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:53:40 +0000

Thanks for all the submissions, everyone.

I’m currently putting everything together for a round of voting. Look for a new post on the blog in the next few days.

By: Coolest, funniest, smartest 404 page Themehybrid Contest

Coolest, funniest, smartest 404 page Themehybrid Contest — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:31:12 +0000

[...] July 29, 2009 Justin Tadlock who created hybrid wordpress theme framework has held “Who can create the coolest, funniest, smartest 404 page with your 404 page template?” [...]

By: Andrei Gheorghiu

Andrei Gheorghiu — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:25:34 +0000

I tried to see things from your perspective and to sum up the results of this contest.
I believe it has reached its purpose since everyone now noticed [...] Hybrid theme has a unique 404 template and what that template does.
But I believe this wasn’t the only reason behind the contest. I chance supposing you weren’t entirely satisfied by the way Hybrid dealt with 404’s and you were looking for new ideas.

Here’s one:
It would be nice if you included in Hybrid Settings page (under WP Dashboard) a new paragraph close to this:

Hybrid lets you easily customize your 404 page by treating the 404 page as widget area. Just drag and drop widgets in your 404 Template in Widgets, under Appearance and they’ll show up every time a user gets lost between the pages and posts of your blog.
The widgets will be enclosed by two paragraphs of your choice:
Before widgets: [textarea]
After widgets: [textarea]

Shortcodes:
[blog-title] – inserts the title of your blog/website
[request-uri] – inserts the request-uri that generated the 404

Also, in the before widgets textarea you should include the current message:
You tried going to [blog-title][request-uri], and it doesn’t exist. All is not lost! You can search for what you’re looking for.
This would give an example of how your shortcodes could/should be used. And also, if possible, the search box should be already in your 404 Utility by default.
I suppose the theme checks if there are any widgets in your 404 and generates the default Hybrid 404 message if there are none.
This is a bit confusing.
People are reluctant to add the search box to their 404 area since they believe it’s already there.

I’d do it myself but I’m afraid adding things in the admin area is above my level of expertise. I’m better at disabling stuff from themes.
I only hope my intentions and my choice of words were clear enough (I’m not a native English speaker).

p.s.: Sorry I used quote tags for portions of text that weren’t quotes. I could have used code tags but I was afraid of the nasty scrollbars they generate and I didn’t want that. Just wanted to differentiate between paragraphs and there were no indications on permitted tags so I took a chance with quotes. Please feel free to style my comment as you see fit.

By: Andrei Gheorghiu

Andrei Gheorghiu — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:55:20 +0000

I’ve given up on the special language idea and remade the 404’s. Just the coding, the output is the same.
Not because i didn’t like it, it was just not needed anymore when I used the 404 widget area.
Didn’t know how to get the REQUEST_URI from WP (or Hybrid for that matter) although I’m sure there is a shortcode out there (not sure if usable in the text widget tho’), so I installed PHP_Code_widget to be able to display the request_uri in my message.

I also noticed you edited the original post and have mentioned something about letting us vote. Should the votes be normal comments or will you make a poll?
I myself would like the commented votes, but I guess it’s not up to me.

By: TJ @ Smart Blog Tips

TJ @ Smart Blog Tips — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:41:27 +0000

too bad… i am down with health problems and cannot participate in this contest. All the best for other participants.. i loved the 404 pages.. some were pretty awesome..

i had a great idea for my site but can’t implement in time to compete… so sad… but best of luck to guys who have created the pages and entered the contest..

Regards
TJ

By: Steupz

Steupz — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:06:04 +0000

Here’s mine from my site at frompstomp.com

http://www.frompstomp.com/widgy

By: Lika Starr

Lika Starr — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:58:04 +0000

Oops… Forgot the link to the second image

http://likastarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/s-happens-404-001.png

By: Lika Starr

Lika Starr — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:56:09 +0000

Here’s my 404 page for

http://tejasvapin.com/404

Nothing fancy, just an image I made in PS. I figure the recipients of 404 error pages have the site search functions and browsing capabilities since the full site remains in view thanks to Justin’s 404 template. No need to really add a bunch of stuff to the template since it’s already there elsewhere.

I thought about using this image but some might find it offensive and it’s certainly not appropriate for all blogs.

By: Andrei Gheorghiu

Andrei Gheorghiu — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:41:25 +0000

Just made another one.
It’s all CSS. Tested it in FF 3, IE 6, 7 and 8. Should work in Opera and Safari too, but I don’t have them here.
It has no br tags, so it falls down gracefully into a single line when CSS is disabled.
It’s made to fit in a 520px wide column, but it can be scaled down easily.
Hope you like it.
I didn’t want to replace my previous submission for websiter.ro, so I made a subdomain. Is that ok?

http://404.websiter.ro/404