Easter Egg with "when asked about the problem, our developers would..."

19 Nov 2025

Printouts of a web error page with "An error has occurred. When asked about the problem, our developers would probabl... image
I joined my first web startup, Trip.com, in 1998. Other than the CTO, the team hadn't even heard of testers or testing. Over time, they started writing their sly responses to any problems I showed them on a big whiteboard. Eventually, they created an easter egg in our web app that would randomly bring up one of the error messages in the app. The message alway started with, "An error has occurred. When asked about the problem, our developers would probably respond with..." and then one of their historical answers. I printed the all off - I don't know why I didn't get screenshots? Did we not have screenshots in 1998? Enjoy! My favorite is, "In order to fix the bug, you must become the bug". I wish I'd photographed the whiteboard too, but that was before phone cameras!

Update - I didn't know I can only attach one photo, here's the post with the rest of the easter eggs: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/memories/second-part-of-the-memory-i-just-posted
Lisa Crispin
Testing consultant
she/her

Lisa Crispin is a consultant, author and speaker based in Vermont, USA. She and Janet Gregory have co-authored four books, most recently _Holistic Testing: Weave Quality Into Your Product_.

Simon Tomes
This is amazing! 😍🤣

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