Debate with myself: domain forwarding vs. just leaving the dead site up

I had an old GeoCities page from 2002 about my cat that somehow still loads, but the domain redirects to a broken 404 page now. My friend says I should have just left the original URL live for the nostalgia factor, but I figured forwarding to a new site would be cleaner. Now I'm wondering which is more cursed for the internet - a dead site that still exists or a link that promises nothing and delivers the same?

2 comments

2 Comments

karen2751d ago

A 404 page is definitely worse than a dead site that still loads. At least the old GeoCities page gives you something, even if its just a cat from 2002. A broken link is just frustrating because it feels like a dead end with no pay off. Keeping the old site up is like a time capsule, a little piece of internet history that still works. Forwarding it to a new page that's also broken is just adding extra steps to disappointment. Leave the dead site alone, its honest about what it is.

lucas1654d ago

Oh man, this is literally me. I had an old Angelfire page about my high school band that I kept up forever, and when I finally let the domain expire, I felt so weird about it. It's like you want to kill the old thing but you also want people to still be able to find it if they somehow remember the URL. I ended up just leaving the dead site up with a single line of text that says "this page is no longer here" and I kinda hate that even more than a broken link.

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