404 messages are confusing #16

New Issue

spivee · 2025-06-23T13:00:58+09:00

spivee commented

2025-06-23 13:00:58 +09:00

One of our users was facing issue #15, and so tried to import a new root certificate authority thingy from another user's computer, and instead of getting #15 now has weird 404 errors when accessing GRIDS URIs:

He tried reinstalling gajudesk, made a new key, and then tried the GRIDS login a third time, and this new issue continued to happen.

[EDIT] removed outdated logs and speculation, see next comment for what happened.

One of our users was facing issue #15, and so tried to import a new root certificate authority thingy from another user's computer, and instead of getting #15 now has weird 404 errors when accessing GRIDS URIs: ![image.png](/attachments/1fd46e6c-72ac-4bce-8203-4acea3d17d5b) He tried reinstalling gajudesk, made a new key, and then tried the GRIDS login a third time, and this new issue continued to happen. [EDIT] removed outdated logs and speculation, see next comment for what happened.

image.png

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spivee added the

help wanted

label 2025-06-23 15:04:30 +09:00

spivee commented

2025-07-10 11:48:12 +09:00

He went through the process again, with guidance in a call, and everything worked, so I assume this isn't cert related, but was a genuine, valid 404 error. This does give us a lead on what a more useful error message might be, though, maybe something like

"GRIDS URL not found. Have you used this URL already?"

The reasoning for this message:

GajuMine, GajuDesk, and simple web browsers, all give 404 messages, so we can't write "if you get a 404 message, then do [...]" in any user facing documentation, or they'll just start doing that all the time, especially since 404 already has a place in the layman's mind as "the web browser error".

And for this specific case of 404, my guess is

90% of the time they used the same GRIDS URI twice in a row, e.g. if they saw "It seems like you have not purchase any mining license[...]" (sic) and so they wanted to try again, but didn't copy a new URL successfully
5% of the time it is a timeout because the user went for a walk and came back before hitting Ok
4.9% of the time they failed to copy the URL correctly - added or removed some characters in the GajuDesk text box, or didn't select the whole thing when they copied it, etc.
0.1% of the time it means they just copied some random URL they thought might be fun, that somehow didn't result in a bad_url error...

so according to my made up numbers, 99.9% of the time the correct course of action is to get a new GRIDS URL and copy it properly. 0.1% of the time they will copy random crap into the box regardless of what we say, and so they will eventually get a bad_url message, so we shouldn't bother polluting the 404 error message for them.

He went through the process again, with guidance in a call, and everything worked, so I assume this isn't cert related, but was a genuine, valid 404 error. This does give us a lead on what a more useful error message might be, though, maybe something like "GRIDS URL not found. Have you used this URL already?" The reasoning for this message: GajuMine, GajuDesk, and simple web browsers, all give 404 messages, so we can't write "if you get a 404 message, then do [...]" in *any* user facing documentation, or they'll just start doing that all the time, especially since 404 already has a place in the layman's mind as "the web browser error". And for this specific case of 404, my guess is - 90% of the time they used the same GRIDS URI twice in a row, e.g. if they saw "It seems like you have not purchase any mining license[...]" (sic) and so they wanted to try again, but didn't copy a new URL successfully - 5% of the time it is a timeout because the user went for a walk and came back before hitting Ok - 4.9% of the time they failed to copy the URL correctly - added or removed some characters in the GajuDesk text box, or didn't select the whole thing when they copied it, etc. - 0.1% of the time it means they just copied some random URL they thought might be fun, that somehow *didn't* result in a bad_url error... so according to my made up numbers, 99.9% of the time the correct course of action is to get a new GRIDS URL and copy it properly. 0.1% of the time they will copy random crap into the box regardless of what we say, and so they will *eventually* get a bad_url message, so we shouldn't bother polluting the 404 error message for them.

spivee added

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and removed

help wanted

labels 2025-07-10 11:50:13 +09:00

spivee changed title from ~~Weirder 404 issue with partially installed certs~~ to 404 messages are confusing

2025-07-10 13:09:43 +09:00

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Reference: QPQ-AG/GajuDesk#16