Skip to content

Cancelled events should not be the default redirect target for city.wordcamp.org #1600

Description

@ciudadanoB

Summary

This issue comes from a discussion in the #meta-wordcamp Slack channel (props to Ohia for raising it 🙌).

When a WordCamp event is cancelled, for any reason, visiting the main city URL currently redirects to the cancelled event's site. This doesn't provide a great experience for visitors, as they land on a page for an event that never took place.

Example: Visiting https://granada.wordcamp.org currently leads to a 2025 event that was cancelled, instead of redirecting to the last successfully held edition: https://granada.wordcamp.org/2024/

Expected behavior

  • The automatic redirect from city.wordcamp.org should skip cancelled events and point to the most recent completed (or upcoming active) edition instead.
  • The "See the next edition" messaging should also not link to a cancelled event.

Notes

  • This doesn't require deleting the cancelled event's site, it should still be accessible via its direct URL (e.g., granada.wordcamp.org/2025/). The change would only affect the default redirect logic and the "next edition" message link.
  • Grace period consideration: It might make sense to keep the cancelled event visible as the default redirect for a reasonable period of time after cancellation. People who knew an event was being planned might be confused if it just "disappears" without notice. A time-based grace period (e.g., 30 days? 90 days?) before the redirect switches back to the last completed event could be worth considering. Open to input on what makes sense here.
  • SEO note: Jono Alderson also suggested in the Slack thread that past/cancelled events should be set to noindex to avoid outdated content appearing in search results. This may warrant a separate issue or could be addressed together, thoughts welcome.

Activity

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

      Milestone

      No milestone

      Relationships

      None yet

      Development

      No branches or pull requests

      Issue actions