bug: if the account doesn't exist on the server, EOF error is shown

[germainelee]

This error comes up when I enter the following in the input field. I can rectify my error by typing a different fedi handle, but what does that error mean? Can it be written differently so that viewers who have low technical knowledge would understand?

Note: I am not ety

Originally posted by @germainelee in #4103

[mahmed2000]

Its a backend bug. The remoteFollow request triggers a webfinger request from the server. If the account doesn't exist on the server (realety@ instead of stream@ in this example), the typical response is an empty body with a 404. The backend doesn't check for this, and you get an End Of File from the json decoder trying to read empty data.

[gabek]

Is this specifically about the EOF error, or all errors being surfaced to users? I was under the impression the problem was we're surfacing errors to users and should instead should replace it with a generic message that is nicer looking.