You're right that /dcurtis could have different information. But I am talking about webapps that would return a 404 for http://example.com/users http://example.

You're right that /dcurtis could have different information. But I am talking about webapps that would return a 404 for http://example.com/users http://example.com/users . The vast majority of major apps do not use urls the way you described. Unless you absolutely positively have to have another extra layer of url hierarchy, and you can justify it extremely well, please don't. It's just a burden on the user when they go to share/copy/read it.