[hathawsh]

The relevant paragraph in the article bothers me a bit:

"I re-uploaded a version with improved error handling, but image uploads were failing without any feedback. You see, normally code screams its errors at you in red text - silence is the goal. Here silence was the problem."

Silence is not quite the goal. Too many developers think silence is the goal, but the goal is actually accuracy. If there's no error, yes, it should be silent. If there's an error that affects the user, there should be a big red alert box. I believe developers should come to love error messages. Well written error messages reveal causes quickly and save everyone a lot of time.

I hope this developer has learned to show error messages more often. That would be a great outcome.

[GrinningFool]

I would say it should be a big red alert box with a simple error code that the end user can reference when trying to find help.

The applications (CLIs, native, web, etc) I've seen that present me with non-actionable errors is a perpetual source of irritation.

"Failed to open file"

"File could not be uploaded"

etc

Not only are these useless to the user who can't do a thing about them except try the same thing again, they're useless to the developer or support engineer who might be trying to help them.

[sojournerc]

Related, the "oops, something went wrong" error messages absolutely infuriate me. Something about the tone, like a child spilling milk, and the uselessness of the message get under my skin.