Invalid profile URLs should return a 404

[jonoaldersonwp]

It appears that the current process of deleting (presumably spammy) profiles, such as ​https://profiles.wordpress.org/pornstarshop/ results in a 302 redirect to ​https://wordpress.org. This should be altered to use a 301 redirect for both future and existing redirects.

[Otto42]

User profiles are not deleted or removed. The example you give doesn't exist and never has, as far as I can tell.

A recent blocked account would be ​https://profiles.wordpress.org/admindevelopers/ for example. As you can see, no redirect or other indications that it is blocked.

[jonoaldersonwp]

Ah, looks like this happens on any invalid request. E.g.,
​https://profiles.wordpress.org/asdasdasdasdasdasddfghgreaergsgreagraregre.

Could we make these serve a clean 404 page, with a 404 HTTP status, and no redirect(s) please?

[dd32]

Replying to jonoaldersonwp:

Could we make these serve a clean 404 page, with a 404 HTTP status, and no redirect(s) please?

Due to the mess that is Profiles, that's not currently possible without opening a _very_ large can of worms (trust me on that).

[jonoaldersonwp]

Damn. I'm inclined to suggest that we still aim to resolve this; the current behaviour is pretty harmful.

[dd32]

Replying to jonoaldersonwp:

Damn. I'm inclined to suggest that we still aim to resolve this; the current behaviour is pretty harmful.

While I agree, I'm not re-architecting Profiles at this time.
It's a pretty blunt redirect at a very low level to prevent a lot of WordPress & BuddyPress functionality from operating - even replacing it with an equally blunt 404 didn't work out too well.

[dd32]

Found a bigger sledge hammer. Fixed in rr15407-dotorg.

A 404 template now exists, and the root-level page redirects to either your own profile or wordpress.org.

[jonoaldersonwp]

Wooo! Nice one :)