[scoofy]

I mean, yea, I can pass a message with the 418 if I just have:

return "this error, blah", 418

I understand your point, and it's a good one. I really don't need to use 418, I just find it useful. I think the key is that when I see that 418 error, I know it's something I put in there at once.

I also think a naked 418 is a bit cleaner if it did end up on my production server, just because I'm not tipping my hat too much by returning anything about what's happening behind the scenes.

It could be a lot cleaner if I did everything by the book, but where I use this is just my hobby project, and I'm just going for doing as much as I can quickly, and the mental energy that goes into error handling could easily add very significant time. Again, you're not wrong, and it would be better if i clearly articulated these errors in the long run.