[wp-trac] Re: [WordPress Trac] #4790: Tracback should 301 redirect instead of 302

[WordPress Trac]

#4790: Tracback should 301 redirect instead of 302
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 Reporter:  joostdevalk  |        Owner:  anonymous 
     Type:  defect       |       Status:  reopened  
 Priority:  normal       |    Milestone:  2.4 (next)
Component:  XML-RPC      |      Version:  2.3       
 Severity:  minor        |   Resolution:            
 Keywords:  has-patch    |  
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Comment (by Otto42):

 After looking at it closer, I see that a successful trackback already
 sends back a 200 response (with some XML stuffs). The redirect response
 only occurs when you use a browser (or other user agent that is not
 actually doing a trackback).

 Given this, and the fact that the trackback specification makes no mention
 of what to do when trackbacks URIs are called without the corresponding
 trackback POST data, I would have to say that 301 is the correct response.
 Redirect the agent to the original post, and 301 will make search engines
 ignore those URLs in favor of the post URLs.

 A 303 will not solve the search engine problem, and is arguably the wrong
 thing to do when you're not redirecting from a script that accepted valid
 input. A 302/307 doesn't solve the search engine problem either. The 301
 solves the search engine problem, even if it does imply that the trackback
 URL is no longer valid. It won't affect actual trackback agents, since
 you're not sending them the 301 at all.

 +1 for 301.

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Ticket URL: <http://trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4790#comment:12>
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