Moved the Entry

It’s time to log in to the website to do the thing. Maybe you do what you always do when you need to log into a website: use your bookmark. Maybe you’re following a runbook that includes a link to the login form because it’s otherwise hard to find (perhaps due to Choose Our Client, perhaps due to Choose Your SubSite, perhaps due to Choose Your Login Provider). Maybe you’re using your password manager’s “open and fill” functionality.

Whatever the case, the link now results in a “not found” page. Frustrated, you now have to both find the new location, and then update the place where the link was stored.

Whatever the excuse, Cool URIs don’t change. Seriously, how hard is it to put your login form at /login and keep it there? If you must move your login form for some reason, at least have the decency to put a 301 Moved Permanently redirect at the old location.

Just because you don’t use bookmarks or runbooks or “open and fill” doesn’t mean other people don’t. I’ve used runbooks to help less technically-literate friends & family navigate complex tasks, and personally store in my notes links to websites with complex navigation that I need to use periodically — everything from government systems to musician artist profile pages.

Maybe you’re assuming your navigation will make up for this interruption (it won’t); maybe you don’t care how much work you’ve created for people who’ve built systems like runbooks on top of your system.

Please don’t move the entrance, but if you absolutely must, at least help people find the new one.