Cool URIs don't 404

In his famous essay, Tim Berners-Lee wrote that "cool URIs don't change". He makes some good points about the ethos of the web as a permanent reference to information. I respect that.

But I am also a web maintainer, and the burden this imposes is significant. Every URL that you have ever created should be maintained for-ever, or you're doing it wrong.

The reality is that websites grow and change over time. The hierarchy that made sense in the first year might not in year five or ten. This site is six years old, and in that time the shape and focus has shifted significantly. If I were beholden to that initial hierarchy, then it would either impede future development or increase the maintenance cost. Neither of those are things that I want to impose on other maintainers.

A better statement is that cool URIs don't 404. If the resource still exists, then the maintainer should support the previous URL by providing redirects. This ensures that old URLs continue to work while providing maintainers the freedom to reorganize their website as they see fit.