Github Status

What does your instant answer do?
Shows the current status of github.com and its related services in one of three states: good, minor, or major.

What problem does your instant answer solve (Why is it better than organic links)?
It can give developers who use GitHub a more immediate and concise answer to the status of github.com.

What is the data source for your instant answer? (Provide a link if possible)
The API can be found here: https://status.github.com/api/status.json (my implementation specifically uses the /api/status.json).

Why did you choose this data source?
It is the official GitHub API to display its status.

Are there any other alternative (better) data sources?
There does not appear to be other alternatives.

What are some example queries that trigger this instant answer?
github status

Which communities will this instant answer be especially useful for? (gamers, book lovers, etc)
This will be useful to developers who use GitHub in any capacity.

Is this instant answer connected to a DuckDuckHack instant answer idea?
Yes, a user by the name of ScreapDK suggested this instant answer idea, along with the corresponding API, here: https://duck.co/ideas/idea/2161/show-current-status-of-github-maybe-also-recent-2

Which existing instant answers will this one supersede/overlap with?
This instant answer does have similarities to the "Is it up?" instant answer, which determines whether a website is down or not.

Are you having any problems? Do you need our help with anything?
I'm not familiar with implementing or writing in CSS, although I'm not sure that this instant answer would need it. Other than that, it seems to be functioning properly in my tests on the Firefox browser in Ubuntu.
![screenshot from 2014-08-02 21 55 26](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/8077323/3789852/859f3ae4-1aca-11e4-9969-0333ce429119.png)

- I think we should check if `api_result` itself exists before accessing the `error` property. 
- I see above that you're already using the API (`api_result.created_on`)--it should've exited already before we even execute that or else it will error out. So this `if` statement should come before that.