[thelist] deleted file after redesign

[rudy]

> ... and it's very annoying.  A lot of articles they use to have
> on the site got canned and now I just get dumped at the main page.
>
> I don't know what the best way is to handle missing pages.
> But this isn't the way.

+1

whatis.com did something similar when they were acquired by techtarget.com,
they had nice urls like http://www.whatis.com/icejello.htm but these were
converted to a content management system and ended up looking like
http://whatis.techtarget.com/WhatIs_Definition_Page/0,4152,212307,00.html
(blechhh) and what's worse, old urls just dump you on their generic 404
page

but handling old urls gracefully and even using keyword url schemes *is*
possible, if somewhat challenging

just look at where these urls take you --

  http://evolt.org/frames/
  http://evolt.org/index.cfm?menu=8&cid=293
  http://evolt.org/article/view/22/293/index.html


<tip>
  for those not familiar with his work, jakob nielsen has a new book out
and chapter 4 (site design) is being published online in weekly segments at
http://wdvl.internet.com/Authoring/Design/Usability/index.html
  the most recent installment on navigation metaphors is quite interesting,
and includes a number of screen shots as examples
<rant>
  of course, it wouldn't be a genuine jakob effort without boners --
    "Here, we have the [snip].
     On the facing page, we have [snip]."
  the web is not print, jakob, the web is not print
</rant>
</tip>


http://rudy.ca/