Are 404s normal after Sitemap installed?

This may seem like a simple question but Google Webmaster tools is finally set up correctly for Harry Potter Chat. There were 1203 errors, each stating 404.

Is this normal? Should a change be made?

Hello,

this report is a separate function in webmaster account and is not related to Google sitemap. You should check what are the entries reported in broken links list to correct them.

These appear to be from the old IPB version of the site. Any suggestions?

Maybe a better question, when the google bot tries to go to one of these pages, should there be a 301 redirect (maybe that is not correct)?

Maybe this discussion needs to be moved somewhere else - because I am seeing something strange.

I can go to a non-existent page and receive "page not found" rather than redirected to the forum index.

Any suggestions?

Oh Duh: There is a setting in the vbseo control panel that changes this ... "File Not Found" requests handling?

Since your old pages return 404 error now, they should disappear from the list after some time.