On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 at 08:55, Constantine A. Murenin <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 at 08:26, Nick Holland <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> On 1/24/26 11:12, Constantine A. Murenin wrote: >> > > It's also horrible for usability. >> >> I wish I could argue with that, but I can't...other than to say, It >> beats being shut down. >> >> I HAVE changed the redirection to localhost. I am looking at ideas for >> a "better" solution, which I'm sure will be hated by many, because it >> isn't as straight forward as it was. I don't even know what the better >> solution is, I just know it won't be liked, and I won't like doing it. >> > > The redirects are what's harmful to the usability and the UX, and it's the > actual, real, OpenBSD users and developers, and not the machines, who are > inconvenienced greatly by these redirects, that obscure the resource > they're trying to obtain. > > The least you can do is simply give out a regular error, like HTTP 406 Not > Acceptable as someone else suggested. This way, the user will have the > file name, version, and action, in the address bar, and they can use an > alternative service. With a redirect to "localhost/", with the requested > path destroyed, they have nothing, and the BACK button doesn't work, since > pages with HTTP redirects, aren't added to the history. (If you have to do > a redirect somehow, at least include the full path.) > > Ideally, you can also provide a back link from a custom error page, > clicking on which, a bona fide user would be brought back to the correct > page. > Another good way to do this, is redirect back to the main page of the file, with the version as an anchor parameter: https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/multimedia/openwv/pkg/README?rev=1.1&ipk=K8Bn8w6mSMA6F3ekkYPcACkE0Nn4G729RUNolBYq_4M becomes a redirect to: https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/multimedia/openwv/pkg/README#rev1.1 P.S. BTW, it seems like the entire cvsweb.openbsd.org site is now on eero's blacklist as of today — they now redirect it to https://blocked.eero.com/?cat=advanced_security&reason=52&url=cvsweb.openbsd.org — likely because of these games with redirecting to "malware" sites already on the blacklist. C.
