Website Down & Maintenance Message Generator
Write an outage or maintenance notice in a minute and copy it
Enter the service name to generate a notice.
/ 280 characters
— Longer than 280 characters: shorten it before posting.
How to write a good outage notice
A good notice tells people what is broken, what they can do and when they will hear from you next. Speed matters more than polish.
- Post early. Publish the first notice within minutes, even if all you can say is that you are investigating. Silence makes customers assume the worst and fills your support inbox.
- Say what is affected. Name the service and, if you can, the part that is broken: logins, payments, the API. Readers want to know whether the problem is the one they are seeing.
- Do not guess the cause. While you are still investigating, say so. Name a cause only once you have confirmed it, and do not blame a supplier in public.
- Give a workaround. If there is another way to get the job done, such as a mobile app, a phone line or an older endpoint, put it near the top.
- Promise the next update, not the fix. A time for the next update is a promise you can keep. A time for the fix often is not. If you give an estimate, call it an estimate.
- Close the loop. When it is over, say so plainly, give the times and tell people where to go if something still looks wrong. Apologise once, without excuses.
- Use one place as the source. Keep the full timeline on your status page and link to it from emails and social posts, so every update lands in one place.
Publish incidents on an AlertSleep status page — included in every plan
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is what I type sent anywhere?
No. The notice is built in your browser from the fields you fill in; nothing you type is sent to us.
Which stage should I choose?
For an outage, start with Investigating, switch to Cause identified once you have confirmed the cause, then Fix applied once the change is live and you are watching, and Resolved when everything is back to normal. For maintenance use Announcement before the work, In progress during it and Completed afterwards.
Can I change the text before I post it?
Yes. Copy the notice and adjust it. Add what only you know, such as a confirmed cause, and check the times and the time zone before it goes out.
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