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418 is actually unassigned. https://www.iana.org/assignments/http-status-codes/http-status-codes.xhtml https://www.iana.org/assignments/http-status-codes/http-

418 is actually unassigned. https://www.iana.org/assignments/http-status-codes/http-status-codes.xhtml https://www.iana.org/assignments/http-status-codes/http-stat... This code has never been officially registered, especially not by that April Fools’ RFC. A number of HTTP implementations added it to their lists of codes anyway; there was a concern that it might create a conflict with if an actual meaning is assigned by the HTTP specification. One of the authors of the specification went around asking libraries to remove the code for this reason. Web developers, like the mature people they are, bullied him into abandoning it. By the way, if one actually wanted to control coffee pots over HTTP, 400 Bad Request would have been entirely sufficient for this situation. This code has been superfluous from the start. Ironically, it became the very thing it was meant to satirise.

chrismorgan 6y ago
> 400 Bad Request would have been entirely sufficient for this situation. The whole idea of status codes is that if you encounter one you don’t know about, you can treat it as a member of that family, so any unknown 4xx will be treated the same as a 400. Most of the 400 series is about clarifying what was wrong with the request. 400 just says something’s wrong about the request, but not what. 405 says it’s the method. 406 says it can’t satisfy the provided Accept header. 411 says it wants a Content-Length header. 418 says it’s that you tried to brew coffee in a teapot.
- Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
  > 418 says it’s that you tried to brew coffee in a teapot. That you tried to do something so absurdly inappropriate that there isn't even a proper technical way to explain why it was wrong and why it could not work? Like, the server could not even begin to understand what you tried to accomplish with that request.
  - msla 6y ago
    > That you tried to do something so absurdly inappropriate that there isn't even a proper technical way to explain why it was wrong and why it could not work? Like, the server could not even begin to understand what you tried to accomplish with that request. The "Blank Stare" response code. Or maybe the "Stunned Stare And Slowly Backing Away" response code. Something at the other end: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes > 420 Enhance Your Calm (Twitter) >> Returned by version 1 of the Twitter Search and Trends API when the client is being rate limited; versions 1.1 and later use the 429 Too Many Requests response code instead.[74] The phrase "Enhance your calm" comes from the 1993 movie Demolition Man, and its association with this number is likely a reference to cannabis. Visually: https://http.cat/420 https://http.cat/420
    - a1369209993 6y ago
      Arguably that should be a 5xx response though; there's nothing wrong with the requests, the server just doesn't want to (doesn't have enough resources to) handle them as quickly as they're being issued.
      - another-dave 6y ago
        I guess breaking the rate limit is a user error — e.g. sometimes if you continue with could get your access revoked. I read 50x as "something not your fault" went wrong.
        masklinn 6y ago
        Yup. 500 errors are "the server is broken" (aka the server fails to fulfil the request), 400 errors are "the client did something it should not", including every case of "the client did something the server took issue with for whatever reason". In fact RFC 6585 added "429 Too Many Requests" specifically for rate-limiting scenarios. 413 (payload too large), 414 (URI too long) or 431 (header fields too large) are likewise things which may technically be valid according to the HTTP spec in general, but which the server rejects.
Igelau 6y ago
> there was a concern that it might create a conflict with if an actual meaning is assigned by the HTTP specification Wow, guess they better not do that then. In the meantime, it sounds like their spec is wrong.
rs23296008n1 6y ago
Well we have multiple IP coffee/tea/choc machines and they definitely return 418 codes. Sounds like IANA need to sort out their backwardness and fix things by grandfathering it in for clarity.
josefx 6y ago
> Web developers, like the mature people they are, bullied him into abandoning it. So there is a status code everyone knows is used. The people running the official list know it is used. Now you have a guy running around telling people that they should stop using it because why exactly? Are the people running the list suddenly going to forget that it is in use? Are they going to ignore the issues caused by introducing a status code where the value is already widely misused by existing systems? Are they that intentionally malicious to cause a problem out of spite? > Web developers, like the mature people they are, bullied him into abandoning it. As opposed to the guy on a power trip trying to stomp on everyones fun? Grownup people are allowed to have fun, aren't they?

chrismorgan 6y ago

> 400 Bad Request would have been entirely sufficient for this situation. The whole idea of status codes is that if you encounter one you don’t know about, you can treat it as a member of that family, so any unknown 4xx will be treated the same as a 400. Most of the 400 series is about clarifying what was wrong with the request. 400 just says something’s wrong about the request, but not what. 405 says it’s the method. 406 says it can’t satisfy the provided Accept header. 411 says it wants a Content-Length header. 418 says it’s that you tried to brew coffee in a teapot.

Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
> 418 says it’s that you tried to brew coffee in a teapot. That you tried to do something so absurdly inappropriate that there isn't even a proper technical way to explain why it was wrong and why it could not work? Like, the server could not even begin to understand what you tried to accomplish with that request.
- msla 6y ago
  > That you tried to do something so absurdly inappropriate that there isn't even a proper technical way to explain why it was wrong and why it could not work? Like, the server could not even begin to understand what you tried to accomplish with that request. The "Blank Stare" response code. Or maybe the "Stunned Stare And Slowly Backing Away" response code. Something at the other end: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes > 420 Enhance Your Calm (Twitter) >> Returned by version 1 of the Twitter Search and Trends API when the client is being rate limited; versions 1.1 and later use the 429 Too Many Requests response code instead.[74] The phrase "Enhance your calm" comes from the 1993 movie Demolition Man, and its association with this number is likely a reference to cannabis. Visually: https://http.cat/420 https://http.cat/420
  - a1369209993 6y ago
    Arguably that should be a 5xx response though; there's nothing wrong with the requests, the server just doesn't want to (doesn't have enough resources to) handle them as quickly as they're being issued.
    - another-dave 6y ago
      I guess breaking the rate limit is a user error — e.g. sometimes if you continue with could get your access revoked. I read 50x as "something not your fault" went wrong.
      - masklinn 6y ago
        Yup. 500 errors are "the server is broken" (aka the server fails to fulfil the request), 400 errors are "the client did something it should not", including every case of "the client did something the server took issue with for whatever reason". In fact RFC 6585 added "429 Too Many Requests" specifically for rate-limiting scenarios. 413 (payload too large), 414 (URI too long) or 431 (header fields too large) are likewise things which may technically be valid according to the HTTP spec in general, but which the server rejects.

Igelau 6y ago

> there was a concern that it might create a conflict with if an actual meaning is assigned by the HTTP specification Wow, guess they better not do that then. In the meantime, it sounds like their spec is wrong.

rs23296008n1 6y ago

Well we have multiple IP coffee/tea/choc machines and they definitely return 418 codes. Sounds like IANA need to sort out their backwardness and fix things by grandfathering it in for clarity.

josefx 6y ago

> Web developers, like the mature people they are, bullied him into abandoning it. So there is a status code everyone knows is used. The people running the official list know it is used. Now you have a guy running around telling people that they should stop using it because why exactly? Are the people running the list suddenly going to forget that it is in use? Are they going to ignore the issues caused by introducing a status code where the value is already widely misused by existing systems? Are they that intentionally malicious to cause a problem out of spite? > Web developers, like the mature people they are, bullied him into abandoning it. As opposed to the guy on a power trip trying to stomp on everyones fun? Grownup people are allowed to have fun, aren't they?