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Comment by Daviey | Hacker News Reader

This is a community, not an end user facing error message for a product for the public used by millions of people.

I can use profanity in my communication, but I would never put foul language in an error.. same as I wouldn't in documentation or a formal letter.

Just imagine a pop-up dialogue box on Windows or OSX showing an error with "Weird Shit!" in it. Could you?

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It would be less scary than "...has performed an illegal operation" was to non-technical users.

I can, and it'd be pretty funny. Better than "Something went wrong!".

Why does it upset you so?

It wasn't me that raised the original bug, but a user. I didn't say it upsets me, but I do consider it unprofessional for a product.

So tell me, why would it be "funny"? Are you, or have you ever been responsible for content end users might see?

I don't think it's funny , but I do feel it's entirely more palatable than "WOOPS SOMETHING WENT WRONG <cute_dog_picture.jpg>" scheme that Amazon and other dotcoms use.

Regardless, the Lennart tirade added into the anecdote really just convinces me that the anecdote is there purely for axe-grinding.

Because it's practically identical to "Something went wrong!" but different and unexpected, which makes it funny. I don't know. Can you really explain what exactly makes something funny?

> Are you, or have you ever been responsible for content end users might see?

Yes. I don't do such things because of curmudgeons like yourself. But as a user I wouldn't mind at all, and think it's funny.

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