Q for the webserver admin folks out there. I have a few web pages which are dead (old, retired, moved, etc). As a courtesy to some folks who were still linking to them (some dynamically generated javascript) I just left the files in place, but made them into tiny text files, preventing 404s and hanging pages. The question: which is better for the server (cheaper, less intensive) in this case? Serve up a tiny (or blank) text file - or - just delete the files and return 404s to all requests? [more inside]
posted on Apr 27, 2005 - 6 answers