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Have empty pages return a 404 code or Meta tag NOINDEX

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Pichu0102 Since: Sep, 2009
#1: Oct 6th 2013 at 11:10:00 AM

Searching for tropes using the search box is a terrible experience, since you have to sift through a bunch of empty pages that have been moved elsewhere. Please either have them return a 404 code instead of 200, or add the NOINDEX meta tag to empty pages so they stop appearing in search results.

Stratadrake Dragon Writer Since: Oct, 2009
Dragon Writer
#2: Oct 6th 2013 at 8:34:20 PM

Yeah. It's amazing how many nonexistent pages actually turn up in the search engines (and in practically every namespace, too) because the wiki is not telling them the page DOESN'T EXIST.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.
KarjamP The imaginative Christian Asperger from South Africa Since: Apr, 2011 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
The imaginative Christian Asperger
#3: Oct 9th 2013 at 8:05:50 AM

Good idea.

You don't know how many false positives I've come across when I've either mistyped a trope or no trope exists under that name (as if Google thinks those pages exists, but when you click them, you realize they don't).

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#4: Oct 9th 2013 at 8:26:13 AM

Speaking personally, I've found only a few blank pages this way.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
henke37 Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
#5: Nov 8th 2014 at 5:52:07 AM

Definitely annoying, especially for a HTTP purist like me.

I'd also like to note the existence of the 410 status code, for removed pages.

MrL1193 Since: Apr, 2013
#6: Nov 8th 2014 at 1:29:06 PM

I've run into this problem many, many times. It would be nice if cut pages would stop showing up on the search results.

__Vano Since: Dec, 2014
#7: Aug 23rd 2015 at 9:38:45 AM

Count me in. Not particularly an experience breaker, but it does annoy noticeably.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#8: Aug 23rd 2015 at 9:51:31 AM

NOINDEX is fine for me. 404 is not appropriate for nonexistent wiki pages however (let alone when there previously was a wiki page or when the page is serving as an auto-disambiguation); it's strictly only for broken URLs.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
eroock Since: Sep, 2012
#9: Nov 25th 2015 at 3:39:56 AM

Here's another supporter of the NOINDEX action. Would this have to be done manually?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#10: Nov 25th 2015 at 4:36:28 AM

"Manually"?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
eroock Since: Sep, 2012
#11: Nov 25th 2015 at 7:01:48 AM

Ignore that one. Anything we can do to push this up the prio list?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#12: Nov 25th 2015 at 7:20:58 AM

You can request it to be filed on the DRAGON site, I think.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#13: Feb 11th 2016 at 2:47:33 AM

And this is now done, with a 404. Locking.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
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