[tor-bugs] #19251 [Applications/Tor Browser]: TorBrowser might want to have an error page specific to when .onion links fail

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#19251: TorBrowser might want to have an error page specific to when .onion links
fail
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 Reporter:  cypherpunks                    |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  enhancement                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Low                            |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser       |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                         |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ux-team, TorBrowserTeam202001  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:  #30025                         |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                 |        Sponsor:
                                           |  Sponsor27-must
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Comment (by pili):

 Replying to [comment:8 asn]:
 > Replying to [comment:6 antonela]:
 > >
 > > What do you think? Is the graph accurate? Could it work for each
 scenario? Is it too complicated to have custom error pages for each
 scenario? I see it feasible with just CSS, but is it doable on the browser
 side?
 > >
 >
 > I think the concept is reasonable, but I don't have much insight on how
 good this will be for users VS other options that I can't imagine right
 now. e.g. I'm not sure if people will be helped by knowing that the
 problem is on the network or not.

 With "network-level" errors, I think if that we can at least rule out that
 the issue lies with the browser, then we can suggest a number of
 strategies to users e.g to try to reconnect to the service, in order to
 help them out

 > Leaving that aside, and assuming that the idea is the best one (which is
 fine by me), I need to say that sometimes it's not clear where the error
 is (e.g. in 'F2' and 'F3' where the intro/rend fails, it's not clear
 whether the problem is on the network or the service itself), so in those
 cases I'm not sure which button should light up. I think it would be a bad
 idea to tell users that the problem is on the service, when actually it's
 just a bad rendezvous point and it would be solved by reconnecting. And
 given that 'F2' and 'F3' are hard to classify, and 'F1' should never
 really appear, I'm not sure what would be the class of 'network-level
 errors'.

 In that case we should define what these graphics would look like for each
 of the error codes that we know tor will surface to the browser. I think
 it's fine to show some ambiguity in the graphics (e.g a question mark
 instead of a tick or a cross at the Tor Network and Host icons) as long as
 we suggest some next steps for the user, depending on the error code.

 I think a good next step would be to map all of these out together and see
 what comes out.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/19251#comment:13>
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