[WEB4LIB] Re: HTTP 301 Redirect Question

[K.G. Schneider]

> So in terms of tying up loose ends and getting the dead pages out of the
> search engines, should I be doing a 301 or a 404?  I would like to
> handle this neatly while not frustrating my visitors.
> 
> Thanks for the suggestions; I will pass them on to my ISP.

Putting on my LII hat, the answer is easy: use a 301 to an explanation.
Thank you, also, for knowing to use *301.* Geeze, we could vent about
misapplied HTTP error codes all night and all day. But I digress. It really
helps people using information to find a page that definitively tells them
that the resource they are looking for no longer exists. That gives us
concrete information. Otherwise we are going to waste time running around
trying to find it, emailing webmasters, putting items on hold lists, etc.
Give us a definitive status. Please!

Karen G. Schneider
Director, Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org kgs at lii.org
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