The Hypertext Transfer Protocol Status Code 483 (I'm Not a Freezer)

[−]stop50 · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:38 UTC · link

Couldn't he submit it on april 1st?

[−]rbanffy · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:42 UTC · link

I tried at the time of the fridge hacks in Europe, but submission was closed.

They can still hold approval and publish it on April 1st.

But, then, there is no guarantee humanity will survive that long ;-)

[−]bricss · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:50 UTC · link

Only freezers 30 years old and older will survive, tho :D

[−]ForHackernews · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:51 UTC · link

Try writing your own jokes next time.

[−]throw-the-towel · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:46 UTC · link

This is an anti-pattern. A better, future-proof solution would be to extend HTTP 418 with a header stating just what the server is not:

    HTTP 418 I'm A Teapot
    I'm-Not-A: freezer;teapot;radio

[−]sgarland · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:51 UTC · link

Considering 418 is the positive assertion, suddenly reversing that would break backwards compatibility; additionally, it adds ambiguity by listing multiple entities it is not, leaving the receiver to potentially assume that it is, for example, a microwave.

EDIT: missed the positive part remaining, sorry. I maintain that the ambiguity issue stands.

[−]cyanydeez · 2026-11-15 Sun 14:51 UTC · link

needs more dry; just remove the second I'm and it's clearer.

[−]rzzzt · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:02 UTC · link

421 Misdirected Request works equally well.

[−]basilikum · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:14 UTC · link

This is a proposal to add a new HTTP status code. 418 is not a HTTP status code but a HTCPCP status code.

[−]k0morebi · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:19 UTC · link

Should be "I'm a little teapot" short and stout is implied

[−]ivanjermakov · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:51 UTC · link

Isn't consistent for "I'm not a teapot" though.

[−]pocksuppet · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:17 UTC · link

For compatibility with header splitting, the delimiter should be a comma, The following header:

    I'm-Not-A: freezer, teapot, radio

is equivalent to:

    I'm-Not-A: freezer
    I'm-Not-A: teapot
    I'm-Not-A: radio

even in cases where the client, server, or some intermediate proxy doesn't know the I'm-Not-A header.

[−]jagged-chisel · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:34 UTC · link

This is unwieldy. Now my server has to list everything is is not.

It's not a quasar, nor a toaster, nor a tree, a pipe, a microwave transmitter, a microwave oven, a plush spider, an actual arachnid, a whale, a motorscooter, a motorcycle, an automobile, an apricot, a grape, raw sugar ...

[−]quink · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:26 UTC · link

When the main compression algorithm the device supports is making the data have a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius.

[−]hjahre · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:26 UTC · link

It's the algorithm that runs the fridge or freezer compressor, right?

[−]theandrewbailey · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:37 UTC · link

Perhaps HTTP 416 Range Not Satisfiable could also be extended when a client requests a temperature that the server cannot produce.

[−]russfink · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:40 UTC · link

Might not be a freezer, but the Intro is AI, according to Pangram.

[−]TZubiri · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:47 UTC · link

Came here to post the same thing, not only is it derivative over HTTP 418 Teapot, but it's generated with AI.

I'm amazed how people think they are contributing anything by being a meat proxy. In the cases of serious proposals it's hard to disprove, but in the case of a joke, it's just ridiculous on its face.

I get that there was a fridge hack, but there's also no jokes regarding that, it's just a bland HTTP 418 like RFC but with teapots replaced with Fridges

[−]woadwarrior01 · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:50 UTC · link

Incidentally, isn't outsourcing one's judgement to Pangram, also a case of being a meat proxy? :D

[−]TZubiri · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:53 UTC · link

If you can't see what's different between spamming synthetic text as being one's own, and incorporating 2 bits of entropy from Pangram into my analysis, I don't know what to tell ya.

[−]acheron · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:04 UTC · link

Hn guidelines:

Please don't complain about tangential annoyances. They're too common to be interesting.

[−]tangotaylor · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:17 UTC · link

Also:

> Please don't put generated text in HN posts. Write your text yourself—HN is for sharing between humans. For the same reason, please don't automate posting.

This is definitely a gray area (AI in linked articles but not on HN itself) that HN will need to reckon with someday.

[−]wofo · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:56 UTC · link

I really wish the mods would automatically pangram-scan submissions that reach the frontpage and let users filter them if they want to...

In the meantime, I'm building a browser extension that adds a visible mark to HN links flagged by Pangram as AI-generated. That way I won't waste my time reading them, or if I do read them at least I'll know what I can expect. The idea is to have an open index of pangram results for HN articles, which the extension downloads, giving the user the option to mark (or even remove) articles that exceed a threshold of their choosing. Pangram credits are expensive, though.

[−]r4ndomname · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:09 UTC · link

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, particularly in the context of critical infrastructure providers such as hospitals. However, I always got stuck on the fact that anyone could return such a status code to deter attackers, which would ultimately render the indicator meaningless.

[−]JdeBP · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:11 UTC · link

M. Banffy, you are very naughty. (-:

That said, is this truly a 4xx error? It seems to be a server problem, not a client problem, that the server is not a freezer.

Will revision 01 put more detail into §11 and §12?

[−]rbanffy · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:37 UTC · link

I suppose we can iterate over the problems this would solve. It's not lost on me that we might want to reverse it into a positive assertion, as in code 418, but it might night to be split as in "I'm an air-conditioner", "I'm a heat pump", "I'm a refrigerator", "I'm a freezer", "I'm a cryogenic freezer", and further qualifications.

[−]pocksuppet · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:15 UTC · link

This is just HTTP 418 with s/teapot/freezer/ and a run through a slop machine. A good April Fool's joke is not just copying someone else's joke and switching a couple of words around.

[−]gliptic · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:24 UTC · link

This is nonsensical so I'm thinking LLM generated.

> A server MUST NOT return 483 merely because:

> * its operating temperature is below ambient temperature;

Why would it return `I'm Not a Freezer` because it's cold?

[−]tintor · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:29 UTC · link

Server operating in freezing temperature is not the same as server controlling a freezer.

[−]gliptic · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:34 UTC · link

Yes, but that would make sense if the header was "I _Am_ a Freezer", then it should NOT return "I Am a Freezer" just because the server is merely cold. Now it's admonishing against the opposite of what someone might think to do.

[−]mort96 · 2026-11-15 Sun 17:14 UTC · link

What's the point of this? Isn't this just a less funny, less well-written derivative of the HTCPCP joke?

Over on Reddit they call this phenomenon "your joke but worse": https://www.reddit.com/r/YourJokeButWorse/

[−]binaryturtle · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:16 UTC · link

The only HTTP status code that matters:

999 <Bleep> Off

:-)

[−]jagged-chisel · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:31 UTC · link

Right up there with the evil bit. Amusing, and useless.