As a mod on webmasters, maybe I can shed some light. `.htaccess` and `mod_rewrite` rules are a real grey area, even on the webmasters site. Our definition of a webmaster is someone who takes care of the day to day running of a website, which does NOT include: - Server configuration - Apache/IIS installation - Apache/IIS configuration As these are generally taken care of by a sysadmin. Basically, if it's something your hosting provider takes care of for you, then it's not a webmaster problem. But you raise an interesting point. I will [start a meta discussion over there][1] and try and bring it up again. Feel free to throw in your $0.02 on the webmasters meta. [1]: http://meta.webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/365/a-new-proposal-for-the-definition-of-webmaster-question