404 pages should use 404 code and not use a redirect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Try to get a 404 (e.g. http://quebec.emploisdulibre.net/sdfdsadf)
2. You get a "HTTP/1.x 302 Found" and "Location:
http://quebec.emploisdulibre.net/page-unavailable/"
3. Your browser then do a "GET /page-unavailable/ HTTP/1.1" and got a
"HTTP/1.x 200 OK"

Here is how it should work:

1. Try to get a 404 (e.g. http://quebec.emploisdulibre.net/sdfdsadf)
2. You get a "HTTP/1.x 404 Not Found".

That's it.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
1.6

Please provide any additional information below.
It's even possible do print a custom page (nice 404) with this procedure. 
You can try a Wordpress Web site to see it in action:
http://blog.newlimits.org/sadsd

Thanks!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by jean.luc...@gmail.com on 8 Jan 2009 at 8:51

[GoogleCodeExporter]

working ok in 1.9, probably even earlier.

Original comment by filip...@gmail.com on 18 Sep 2009 at 8:36

• Changed state: Verified

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I still see a 200 OK Header response. Using Live HTTP Extension in Firefox.

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2009 at 9:04

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Actually we redirect any error page via .htaccess to page-unavailable url, but 
set a
$flag=1 which indicates a success header. This is where the problem comes.

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2009 at 9:08

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 19 Sep 2009 at 9:12

• Added labels: Milestone-1.9

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Fixed in r360

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 6 Oct 2009 at 2:33

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi guys, I saw this and had to comment, 404 is correct for letting the search 
engines
know that a job has been deleted or expired. 

However for SEO reasons there is a better way to do this. By using a 404 you 
lose all
link juice that job may have picked up. If you are like me, your jobs are fed 
into
twitter, friendfeed, identi.ca, and such picking up back links immediately.

Instead of a 404, we should 301 permanent redirect to the job's category home 
page.
This will require a simple query to determine it's origin. This should be 
implemented
with a flag set to let the user know the job has expired when they surf in, a 
simple
if statement on the category landing page. 

This allows the category pages to accumulate link juice from expired jobs. 
instead of
just throwing them in the trash with a 302(current method) or 404 like is 
suggested

Original comment by snke...@gmail.com on 8 Oct 2009 at 2:57

• Added labels: Priority-High, Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium, Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

If you want you can edit error page template and add suggested links to browse 
the
site. Redirecting to category home without any message may confuse the visitor 
as he
may not even know that url is dead and he may form an opinion that job board is
acting weird.

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 8 Oct 2009 at 3:03

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I am opening this issue...want to hear other people opinion on this.

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 8 Oct 2009 at 3:54

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think what snkeatr is saying is an important feature that I would like to see 
in
jobberbase to make it more usable.  As an seo firm, we would like to utilize 
the job
board to help get links for our client as well as it's other uses.

Anthony
www.fullmedia.com

Original comment by adef...@gmail.com on 21 Oct 2009 at 6:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well the 404 page only sends correct header - its not that we are directing a 
user to
a dead link. So still he gets the link juice. If you customise the 404 page, 
you can
take the user to anywhere you want from that 404 page. Its just that user 
should know
that he landed up on a error page.

Original comment by navjotjs...@gmail.com on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:00

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for your response and discussion.  I think the better solution for SEO, 
which
is what snkeatr suggested, is to do a 301 redirect on jobs that no longer exist 
to
the category page and on the that page displaying a message that says "The job 
you
are trying to find no longer exists here are jobs that are similar" and then
displaying jobs in that category.

Anthony
www.fullmedia.com

Original comment by adef...@gmail.com on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

hello am having a similar problem here. www.theugandajobs.com when i tried to 
edit my theme files now i cannot access the files. please help. shows 404 on 
all jobs that were posted even in admin 

Original comment by tullapeo...@gmail.com on 7 Jun 2011 at 9:12

[GoogleCodeExporter]

[deleted comment]

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Here's a patch for the original issue:
https://github.com/rimas-kudelis/jobberbase/commit/1ffbe59979e85cb1591c69aaf4db0
2a18dd48aab

It tells Jobberbase to simply output the 404 template instead of redirecting to 
/page-unavailable/.

Original comment by rim...@gmail.com on 20 Sep 2013 at 7:57