Can we re-phrase "A non-recoverable error has occured." to reduce enduser panic?

[CiviTeacher.com]

Has the phrase

! Sorry. A non-recoverable error has occurred.

reached the end of its usefulness?  Has it become so overused as to be invisible to devs and terrifyingly inappropriate to non-techies?   This is not a technical discussion.  I know the fatal.tpl exists for a reason ... because fatal errors occur.

But can't we be a bit nicer about it?

Non-techie stream of consciousness: Non-recoverable?  Error?  Do I have a virus?  Is Civic-R-M broken?  Did my developer screw me over?  What's WROOOOOOOONG?

The message is followed by a more detailed error description such as:

The page you requested is currently unavailable.

Oh, that's all?   As devs we understand the contribution page has been disabled, that's it.  No big deal.  The end-user probably did this themselves, and unwittingly gave themselves a panic attack.

This is a branding and UI issue.  Can we improve?  What else can we say?  What's an appropriate, panic-reducing, kinder way to put this?

Suggestions welcome.

VOTE ABOVE

POST BELOW

[petednz]

Sorry but we are not able to provide this this link or perform this function at the moment, please let your site administrator know

??

[CiviTeacher.com]

I like the approach, Pete.  More words, softer style.

Maybe just "provide this" (without mention of links or functions) as a more all-encompassing term.

The 'please let your site administrator know' might not be appropriate for some circumstances, for instance, when a contribution or event page has been deliberately disabled by staff, say, because the event or fund-raiser is now over.  Can we think of other reasons when it's NOT appropriate to notify someone of a fatal error?

More thoughts?

[Hershel]

Sorry but we are not able to provide this this link or perform this function at the moment, please let your site administrator know

Very nice (except for "this this"). But "your site administrator" doesn't make sense if I am donating to a third party site that I have no connection to. Thus perhaps:

Sorry, but we are not able to provide this page or perform this function at the moment, please let our site administrators know so that we can correct this.

[jakecivi]

Another vote for leaving out the site administrator part.  It unnecessarily reassigns blame in a lot of cases.

[CiviTeacher.com]

Thanks for voting.

This will be the new error text in fatal.tpl as of 4.2.  patch submitted and accepted

Sorry but we are not able to provide this at the moment.

[jakecivi]

There needs to be a comma after "Sorry."