How things move on... our "Page not found" page - HTTP error 404 - showed a picture of our home, as we live at No. 404, many years ago. We moved on to running our search engine there, taking the words people had entered as parts of the URL and offering alternatives, but in time the type and volume of searches lead us to the feeling that this might now be significantly useful. So we switched to a much simpler page which send out only a tiny fraction of the traffic, but provided links to key points and searches to help people find what they're looking for.
That system works well (I think - I haven't added a survey or anything onto the page to ask how useful it is as a 404!) However, we can do more with the page, and we have now subscribed to
the Not found service.
An <iframe> within our page calls up a picture and text from the missing persons database, so 404 page visitors get not only the not found page, but a (re)minder of a person who's missing. "The page you requested was missing, and so is Jane Doe". All very kitch, I suppose, but wouldn't it be marvelous if it helped find just one missing person over coming years. I know the chances are low, but they increase with thousands and thousands of sites signed up - but the cost to those sites is virtually nothing, and the stakes are high.
If you run a web site, please find out more about this service. Please visit
http://notfound.org/index.php?locale=en_GB (If you're not from the UK, you'll be able to change your locale once you're there. Yes - this IS intended to look like like an advert!
There's nothing to stop me posting the code / iframe here too... this is the sort of message you'll see:
(written 2013-10-18, updated 2013-10-20)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Z700 - People [207] Canteen Dragon - (2005-02-09)
[388] BBQ Season - (2005-07-24)
[392] No Smoking - (2005-07-27)
[423] A Victorian Lady - (2005-08-23)
[530] Perl course during the week, getting married at the weekend - (2005-12-16)
[543] The world didn't stop for Christmas - (2005-12-26)
[584] Loosing breath with Gerald - (2006-01-31)
[601] A fond memory of Sir Freddie - (2006-02-11)
[611] Look out for the motor cyclist - (2006-02-17)
[650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)
[704] Erin Brent - rest in peace - (2006-04-29)
[763] Much more that the world cup - (2006-06-15)
[771] From cat breeder to Cobol to Perl - (2006-06-21)
[794] Perl delegate - much more than just a delegate - (2006-07-06)
[820] Robert and William Whitworth - (2006-08-01)
[1064] Light and shadows at Beach - (2007-02-04)
[1065] Graham Ellis - an Introduction - (2007-02-05)
[1107] Weekend Visitors - (2007-03-13)
[1119] The Last Word on the road - (2007-03-26)
[1151] Gordon Dodge, R.I.P. - (2007-04-16)
[1197] Back off home with our best wishes - (2007-05-21)
[1238] The kind spirit of Melksham - (2007-06-21)
[1279] The Gdansk fireball - (2007-07-27)
[1303] Heading Upstate New York - (2007-08-14)
[1385] Delegates of all shapes and sizes - (2007-10-09)
[1522] Paging Martin Noke, who petitions for more trains from Trowbridge to Swindon - (2008-01-28)
[1570] London Midland ... Merrymaker ... Percy Danks - (2008-03-10)
[1627] Amazing family members - (2008-05-02)
[1916] Why I remember East Grafton - (2008-12-02)
[1980] Michelle - (2009-01-06)
[1988] Melksham, Wiltshire. Town Crier Competition, 2009 - (2009-01-11)
[2078] A lot has changed - but the memory lingers on - (2009-03-12)
[2100] Visiting Family - (2009-03-23)
[2132] Learning about Lurchers - (2009-04-18)
[2503] Melksham manslaughter case concludes - sort of - (2009-11-14)
[2795] Simon says - (2010-06-05)
[2846] Catching up with an old friend - (2010-07-01)
[2886] Congratulations, Kimberly - (2010-07-25)
[3008] Dulwich College Preparatory, and Sevenoaks, Schools - (2010-10-21)
[3034] Birth Notice - Aeryn Cassandra Ellis - (2010-11-07)
[3055] Zyliana Kyrei Cox - (2010-11-16)
[3125] The family is defunct. Long live the family. - (2011-01-09)
[3184] Visiting relatives - (2011-02-26)
[3268] Baby Pictures - (2011-04-27)
[3297] A long day, a long journey, and families and similarities the world over - (2011-05-22)
[3298] Quiet Monday in - (2011-05-23)
[3355] Family Pictures - (2011-07-12)
[3466] Passing of Steve Jobs - R.I.P. - (2011-10-06)
[3512] A colleague and friend who changed my life - (2011-11-07)
[3775] Alan Turing - 1912 to 1954 - (2012-06-23)
[3905] How should we choose our Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner? - (2012-10-27)
[3981] Melksham - a town of some remarkable people - (2013-01-19)
[4349] When I am old, what will worry me? - (2014-12-11)
[4482] People in New York - (2015-05-02)
[4646] Sometimes you wonder about people. And perhaps you should not. - (2016-02-13)
[4728] Visiting Los Alamitos Bay Yacht Club - (2016-11-23)
[4736] Our changing world - (2017-04-17)
Some other Articles
Python and Tcl courses, November, UK (Melksham) ... just a few places leftOfficial - Trowbridge and Melksham to London train improvementsBooking for Santa, Melksham Railway Development Group, 8th December 2013TransWilts Link - meeting notes from 19th OctoberUsing our non-found page to help look for missing personsA positive progress behind the scenesGetting people to and from Melksham Station - not 20 but 700 times a dayA radical proposal - a cheap and effective way to provide home to city commuter transportWho are we - Lisa, Graham, Gypsy and BillyExtended Weekend - but not a quiet one!