[gnaritas]

Users don't care what the URL looks like, Amazon does quite a bit of business with its crappy URL's and closures allow linking to actions without having to have a resource for every action. This is extraordanaryily useful when building complex applications.

Look, I use both styles daily and I'm telling you it'll be over my dead body before I allow someone to take closure style ugly links away from me. You aren't going to convince me that manually routed URL are always preferrable.

[wvenable]

Users who bookmark and search engines care about non-random non-expiring urls. The urls on HN are wrong in every way a url can be wrong.

Closures create a resource for every closure instance which isn't very scalable or efficient -- it is in fact the problem with this very site. It might be useful for building complex applications but it's just a liability and a waste for something as simple and busy as HN.

I'm trying to convince you that manually routed URLs are always preferable but they should be for a site like this.