Unfortunately the majority of internet users aren't trained in the art of reading HTTP status codes
I think the majority know what 404 is, and possibly 403, but I agree about the more obscure ones.
That said, I don't think it's a bad idea to rely on the "default exception handling behaviour" that the majority of users, even non-computer-literate ones, will have: they'll retry a few times, see that it doesn't work, and go elsewhere for a while.
If we keep dumbing down the world for everyone instead of teaching those who don't know we will destroy ourselves. People are not stupid and if we keep assuming it we are doing a disservice to all.
No more www, no more protocol in the address bar and apple is selling iMac colors in it's commercials...
Do you think we should use hex or binary instead of their ASCII or UTF-8 equivalents? After-all, ASCII must be dumbing down as it makes it easier for non specialists to read.
I am not saying that there shouldn't be some abstraction. However I think we are at a point where one additional customer at any cost results in products become so simplistic that they become useless for people who actually need them for work etc.
Not having people learning new things and learning to approach things with some logic results in them never having to do this in their lives. In the end you get a dumbed down public voting on their emotions and against their interests.
I spent a good 1 hour to explain the difference to a tech illiterate on why typing "mywebsite.com" was different from typing "mywebsite com" and picking the first result on Google.
I'm not sure he understood, but I really have to admit that this trend of dumbing down things is only make them worse, in a way.
They'll understand when they try and buy airline tickets that end up going through some third party with a 'service charge'.
One of my friends has recently learnt that lesson when she went to buy flights on Ryanair; just typing that into Google and clicking the first link. £30 service charge.
I don’t off the top of my head remember that 506 is, that’s what ddg is for.
When fastly was broken and telling me that london was broken (lon3356 or something), that told me I could Reroute via Cleveland and have a chance of it working. It also made me comfortable it was a CDN error rather than a site error.
That’s far better than “oops something went wrong, we’re trying to fix it”
I think the majority know what 404 is, and possibly 403, but I agree about the more obscure ones.
That said, I don't think it's a bad idea to rely on the "default exception handling behaviour" that the majority of users, even non-computer-literate ones, will have: they'll retry a few times, see that it doesn't work, and go elsewhere for a while.