Lars Aronsson wrote:
I think Jimmy promised me a year ago that the old URLs would be permanently valid. Is this something that can be voted on? Would http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/William_Shakespeare still be a valid URL to the article in English on William Shakespeare?
I stand by that promise. Nothing will _ever_ break those URLs if I can help it. To break URLs for any reason at all is unacceptable.
Wikipedia should have a written policy for URLs, just like the GFDL license. Why should I want to contribute to a project where all URLs can be changed by a vote the next month?
Don't worry about that. However we resolve the question of political sensitivity surrounding 'www' being 'English', we will not ever break the old URLs, even if this means that there is some lingering small disparity of treatment between the wikis.
I'm not even in favor of "redirecting" versus just "aliasing", just because it makes the browser do an extra step for no particular reason. I'm not adamant about this point, though. I would just say that it's best not to redirect.
--Jimbo
p.s. Here's what redirection means...
User: "Hi wikipedia, may I see the article about Thomas Jefferson"
Server: "I know which article you mean, but I won't give it to you until you ask me properly, like this: <new url>"
User: "Sigh, O.k., may I please see <new url>"
Server: "O.k., here you go."
Versus aliasing:
User: "Hi wikipedia, may I see the article about Thomas Jefferson"
Server: "O.k., here you go."
--Jimbo