EI-4.4 — URL & Redirect Governance

Status: COMPLETE
Date: 2026-08-08

Objective

Establish URL stability rules, preserve useful compatibility routes, remove obsolete Blog pagination behavior, and define how deleted/private historical URLs are handled.

Findings

• The canonical production origin is https://www.paco.org.
• The site-wide post default is /:title/; numerous retained posts also carry explicit permalinks that remain authoritative.
• /blog/ already redirects to /writing/ and remains a useful compatibility route.
• /categories/ remains valid but now represents the canonical Subjects model rather than arbitrary WordPress/Jekyll categories.
• /links/ was unpublished and therefore left a legacy public URL without a successor response even though Contact is now the clear semantic replacement.
• _config.yml still carried obsolete jekyll-paginate, paginate: 5, and /blog/page:num/ settings despite Blog no longer being an active editorial section.
• The existing 404 page gave users only a route back to Home and did not explain intentional curation/removal.

Changes

1. /links/ is now a compatibility redirect to /contact/.
2. Obsolete Blog pagination configuration and the jekyll-paginate plugin entry were removed.
3. The 404 page now routes readers toward Writing, PTIR, History, The Loudmouth, Archive, and Home.
4. The 404 copy explicitly respects privacy/DELETE exclusions rather than implying all missing material should be recoverable publicly.
5. docs/URL_GOVERNANCE.md establishes the permanent URL/redirect policy.

Decisions

• Preserve explicit post permalinks by default.
• Do not rename URLs merely to match filenames or current titles.
• Do not redirect unrelated deleted pages to Home.
• Do not create public placeholder URLs for metadata-only ARCHIVE records.
• Do not create redirects for privacy/DELETE material that would expose or imply its subject matter.
• Add specific legacy pagination redirects only when evidence shows they are needed; do not recreate the retired Blog pagination system.

Validation target

EI-4.5 should automate checks for:

• unauthorized changes to protected compatibility routes;
• malformed or duplicate explicit permalinks;
• reintroduction of Blog pagination;
• redirect targets that conflict with privacy exclusions.

Next sprint: EI-4.5 — Editorial Quality Gates.