I like my websites to be free of any problems! Show me a webmaster for whom this is not true. However, sometimes I encounter a typo or different problem, and I can only wonder how long it's been there.
What is a webmaster, you ask? A webmaster is someone who maintains a website.
If you encounter a problem on a website, do you always let the webmaster who maintains that website know about it? If you do, then...thank you. If you don't, then...why don't you?
In this blog post, I will address all of the reasons I can think of.
Reason #1: You feel embarrassed about causing the error
Let me get the most important point out of the way first. You did not cause the error!
If you encounter any kind of error on a website, then it's either because the webmaster did something wrong or something changed that is even out of the webmaster's control. Either way, I'm sure that every webmaster out there would appreciate it if you would let them know what you found.
You're not going to get told off for it, because it's not your fault.
Reason #2: You don't feel knowledgable enough
Believe it or not, the moment you encounter an error on a website, there's a good chance that you know more about the problem than the webmaster does. If you'd like to do something about it, send them an e-mail about what happened. I'm sure I speak for every single webmaster in saying that we would appriciate it.
Reason #3: You believe that the webmaster already knows about the error
Here's the problem with that assumption.
What if everyone thinks as you do? Then no one will ever tell the webmaster about the error, and the webmaster will only solve it when they happen to come across it...and you never know when that might be.
That kind of depends on the error message you're getting. I'll show you two examples from my own website and I'll go into what I'd like you to let me know when you see one of them.
Example 1: broken link (404)
Whenever you encounter a broken link, there are two things I'd like to know.
You can find the answer to both of these questions, right? Well, then you have all the information I need to repair the link. All I need now is a message from you, to let me know about the error you encountered.
Example 2: internal server error (500)
I'll be honest. I used to hate 500 errors, because I always had to look for a needle in a haystack. I say "used to" because I have since found a log that tells me quite a bit more than I could find previously.
An internal server error can be caused by all manner of things. So, the more you can tell me about the moment you encountered this error message, the easier it will be for me to find the cause. Some examples of what I might need to know are...
If you're not sure if you should include some information, then please include it. I'd rather have information I don't need, than not have information I do need.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. If you have any questions or comments, then please let me know in the form down below.
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