When http://gentoo.org/ is visited, it will redirect to http://www.gentoo.org/. "www" is a subdomain and thus, in theory, implies different content to http://gentoo.org/, which is the top level domain. In reality, many people seem to think that www. is a required part of a URI, but there is no reason that we cannot redirect http://www.gentoo.org/ to http://gentoo.org/ instead of the reverse. This can be implemented by using the following rules in the Document Root's .htaccess file: RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.gentoo.org$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://gentoo.org%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301] Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Visit http://gentoo.org/ 2. When the page had loaded, look in the address bar: it says http://www.gentoo.org/
This is how we want it setup.
(In reply to comment #1) > This is how we want it setup. Is there any reasoning behind this, and if so, could you possibly share it with me please?
Is there any reasoning why your suggestion is better? If not, this is the way we've chosen to do it.
I gave reasoning in my initial bug report. I'll also quote http://no-www.org/: ----------------- Why is .www deprecated? Aug 14, 2003 In order to answer this question, we must first recall the definition of WWW: World Wide Web: n. Abbr. WWW 1) The complete set of documents residing on all Internet servers that use the HTTP protocol, accessible to users via a simple point-and-click system. 2) n : a collection of internet sites that offer text and graphics and sound and animation resources through the hypertext transfer protocol. By default, all popular Web browsers assume the HTTP protocol. In doing so, the software prepends the 'http://' onto the requested URL and automatically connect to the HTTP server on port 80. Why then do many servers require their websites to communicate through the www subdomain? Mail servers do not require you to send emails to recipient@mail.domain.com. Likewise, web servers should allow access to their pages though the main domain unless a particular subdomain is required. Succinctly, use of the www subdomain is redundant and time consuming to communicate. The internet, media, and society are all better off without it. Using the links at the top of the page, you may view recently validated domains as well as submit domains for real-time validation. ----------------- Furthermore, adding the "www." makes people assume it is necessary, and just generally encourages unnecessary typing.
"Likewise, web servers should allow access to their pages though the main domain unless a particular subdomain is required." We do. Any user may access any page by typing either: "http://gentoo.org/$page" or "http://www.gentoo.org/$page" As for why we chose to redirect to www originally, it was to ensure that our ranking on google and other search engines was as high as possible. At the time, the www.g.o links where ranked higher than the g.o links. That's why the decision was made and we have no plans/desire to change it.
Ok. I was not questioning whether it was accessible without the www. -- otherwise this bug would be marked with greater severity. On the SEO argument, may I ask how you know this? (I'm not questioning the information here, just interested.)
