I don't know exactly what you mean by "horrible error #69". If you define it, you may find that people agree entirely with you.
"Horrible error #69" -- something that isn't ever supposed to happen, but did. 69 is the operating system error number for the horrible error; the program doesn't know what OS error number 69 is so it outputs it as a number instead of interpreting it as text.
Not being able to fetch a message that was reported as existing is a "horrible error 69". It's a state that the server never should have entered.
-- Mark --
http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum.
