[wp-hackers] is it a good idea to remove the category base?

[Otto]

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 5:27 PM, IC IC <icwordpress at gmail.com> wrote:
> The default values for these are category and tag. You can change
> them, but you can't remove them from the URLs altogether.
> </quote>
>
> But we all know that there are plugins that let you overcome this
> limitation allowing you to remove the category base, the question is
> SHOULD WE?

Generally, no. Fact is that the actual URLs just don't matter quite as
much as people think they do.

> For some reason, I sense that this kind of a modification would effect
> the performance and may cause odd behavior.
> Any comment-|insight appreciated ?

Removing a base will cause a tradeoff. The tradeoff may be as simple
as some other type of URLs becoming inaccessible, or it can be a
performance tradeoff.

What the tradeoff actually is depends on the method by which the base
removal is implemented. But there will always be a tradeoff of some
sort.

-Otto