On 3/28/07, Tom Molesworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'd vote for 403 Forbidden. The 300 series is to indicate a change although the content is valid. 400-series errors generally indicate that the returned content is not what you were after in the first place. Most proxy servers will return 403 if the user is not authenticated. This is essentially the case here since permissions have been suspended. The 403 error is often taken by clients to say that there is a real problem that should be reported, rather than 302 etc. which would mean that the service itself has changed but probably still valid.
I agree. From a search engine optimization standpoint, if you feed the search engine a 302, it will start indexing the suspended page, replacing the original content (causing you to lose your rankings). Whereas if you send it a 4xx error, it will keep the last found page in it's cache, and check back periodically to see if normal has been restored yet. Granted SEO might not be your intention, however the SEO standards side of it does further support Tom's vote. Good luck! -- -Harry Maugans http://www.harrymaugans.com
