Due to the fluid nature of the Web..

At Bob Cringely's "Links of the Week" page, I found this eyebrow raising warning:

Due to the fluid nature of the Web, we can't guarantee these links will work past the original posting date

Ahh, that scurrilous Web, always sneaking in and rearranging the furniture while we're sleeping. Bob (or whoever wrote this page) is much too kind. A more accurate warning would have read:

Due to the utter stupidity of many web sites, the pages we link to here may be moved or deleted at any time. Even if only moved, don't expect much help finding them again.

Yes, sometimes it's necessary to move things around. However, there are simple ways to still give access to the original page - assuming you really need to delete it at all. You can create a hard or soft file link, or you can use an htaccess redirect and not "lose" the old link.

If you create a web page, I would think that you have some interest in having people read that page. It's also expected that some other web sites will link to you, directing other readers to your wonderful page. Why on earth would you want to burn those bridges?

Don't move pages. If you absolutely have to move them, use a redirect to make it transparent. If you change your entire domain name, use a 301 redirect and keep the old domain up and running.

Amusingly, the link to Bob's page is now dead itself!

See Cool URIs don't change by Tim Berners-Lee. As he invented the Web, don't you think his thoughts on this are worth following?

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© 2015-03-27 Tony Lawrence

Fri Mar 27 20:10:06 2015: 12632 TonyLawrence

I'm unfortunately constantly reminded of this stupidity.

Wouldn't it be nice if every page got a unique serial number that could always be found until deleted?

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