Hi David! I wanted to credit you for turning me in the 410 direction but couldn’t come up with your last name and at the time, no prior comments were available. Anyway, thank you.

An attorney named John Halstead was booted off in January of 2017, yet his blog still appears on Patheos. See: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/allergicpagan/ and he wrote about it here https://godsandradicals.org/2017/01/31/repost-read-this-before-patheos-deletes-it/

So while it’s not unheard of to be booted from Patheos, I can’t find any other instances of the 410 Gone extreme they deliberately coded for Dr. T. I read that as they wanted to get rid of his blog and deliberately damage him at the same time. I’m with you and I think there is more here than Patheos wants known.

Not just purge associations with Patheos, a 410 purges the material from indexes period. It must be coded on purpose, it is not a normal response code. I’ve been doing this kind of work for over 20 years, and I can’t remember ever using it. It was a punitive move. It says this blog is gone, it isn’t coming back, stop even trying to index it.

A 404 would have been harsh but not as bad, and would be a normal response code once the content was removed. If they had wanted to be reasonable and keep Warren’s interests intact, they could have asked him for the new blog location, and coded a 301 response with that location as the new destination.

This would have told Google to simply note that the site had moved and to continue indexing there. Links formerly going to Patheos.com/blog/warrenthrockmorton/… would have changed to reflect wthrockmorton.com/… At least that is how it should have been done if they didn’t want to cause him damage.

None of that addresses their apparent lack of cooperation in providing Warren with a way to move his Disqus comments since 2013+ over to his own account. There are a couple of ways this could be done but both require Patheos’ cooperation. Whatever the real reason for his blog being dumped, the method was one that causes maximum pain and loss to Warren.

Depending on how the agreement between Patheos and the bloggers is worded, I suspect – as a laymen – that there could be grounds for a civil action against Patheos. At the very least, those who currently blog under Patheos’ system should be leery of what may happen to their own blogs in the future.

Normally when you leave Patheos (willingly or not), they leave all your past content up there, so they can continue to generate ad revenue from it.

There will more blogs about Patheos, that is sure. Until I get some answers, I will post more. However, I will return to other topics in the mean time, probably tomorrow. Thanks for reading and commenting!

The difference between the familiar ‘404 Page Not Found’ and ‘410 Page Gone’ is telling. 410 Gone from Wiki:

Indicates that the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again. This should be used when a resource has been intentionally removed and the resource should be purged. Upon receiving a 410 status code, the client should not request the resource in the future. Clients such as search engines should remove the resource from their indices. Most use cases do not require clients and search engines to purge the resource, and a “404 Not Found” may be used instead. [emphasis mine]

Seems like overkill to have search engines purge any association between Dr T and Patheos. Especially when considered with Rose’s comment that Dr. T was a “special case”, but still not providing details and leaving room for speculation.

Keep digging. Like Mars Hill and Gospel for Asia, the truth is in there somewhere.

I’m hoping you’ll soon get back to what you do best. You’re one of those bloggers who makes me think even when I disagree with you. However, it seems to me that four posts on Patheos’ decision is enough. In the end it is they, not you, who will pay a price as they risk losing some good bloggers in the wake of their actions.

Most of us are familiar with the 404 “page not found” status code. The 410 is similar, but goes even further:

410 Gone
Indicates that the resource requested is no longer available and will not be available again. This should be used when a resource has been intentionally removed and the resource should be purged. Upon receiving a 410 status code, the client should not request the resource in the future. Clients such as search engines should remove the resource from their indices. Most use cases do not require clients and search engines to purge the resource, and a “404 Not Found” may be used instead. [Emphasis mine]

Has anyone ever seen a 410 used against any other author on Patheos prior to this?

I don’t have admin privileges to get my comments transferred. Patheos would have to cooperate to do that and they have not done so. Disqus has not responded to multiple requests.