And .. come on :) Please, show me the system using *exclusively* the DELETE method for removing the content. I bet 99% of existing web applications doesn’t do it (may be it’s just my ignorance but I never saw/heard of anyone actually doing it – really, I would be glad to see some examples). Of course, it doesn’t say nobody gets the difference between GET and DELETE it just says that almost nobody ever uses it for what it was invented. In my world all delete operations and those having other side-effects are implemented with GET/POST requests plus confirmation screens. I mean, I totally agree with what you say about GET/DELETE – it just that nobody uses it except couple of extraordinary folks here and there.

P.S
I remember some of the links on your site weren’t working in IE (couple of years ago, yes, I’m a long-time follower of your work and books, in fact) because their extension was “.xhtml”. Back then you seemed to prefer the perfect solution to the *working* solution. Isn’t situation the same with DELETE methods ?
I consider myself to be a perfectionist as well but I feel like sometimes you’re going too far to the level of becoming non-pragmatic.

It has nothing to do with cookies. It has nothing to do with passwords. It has nothing to do with JavaScript. It has nothing to do with copy and paste. It has nothing to do with failure to authenticate. These are all red herrings, though they made mistakes in all of these too. However if they had fixed every one of those mistakes they still would have been sitting on a time bomb waiting to go off and delete their site.

The fundamental problem was responding to a GET request by deleting a page. GET requests must be idempotent and side-effect free. They designed a system where this wasn’t true. Everything else is secondary to this major mistake.

If I understand you correctly – you was referencing to the HTTP methods, so aren’t you missing the point ?

P.S.
Also, aren’t you trying too hard to advertise yourself ? I guess it’s the second time I see the shameless plug in your entries. Really, a separate page dedicated to this matter with however detailed description to what you have absolutely no patience would do the job, wouldn’t it ? Kind of “Hire Me!” link.

;-)