title: ASP.NET - Omitting the question mark character
body: <p>I was wondering if it is possible to omit the question mark in the URL after the aspx page and still be able to parse characters in the URL.  For example, let's say I have this URL: <a href="http://localhost/?specialparam,story:extra" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/?specialparam,story:extra</a>. When I navigate to the page it displays correctly and I'm able to parse my specialparam and story parameter. Now if I enter in the URL by omitting the '?' character as <a href="http://localhost/specialparam,story:extra" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/specialparam,story:extra</a> then I get the page not found error.</p>
  
  <p>A little backgound on why I am doing it this way.  I want to be able to shorten the URL sort of how they do it on bit.ly but be able to pass some special parameters that my .aspx page can parse.</p>
  
  <p>I understand that with the '?' character in the URL it will go to the default document specified in IIS. Can I get some suggetions on if this is even possible to remove the '?' character or if URL Rewriting will help.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you for your help.</p>