Does cryptic string in URL affects SEO?
skwiddor: We always worked on the idea that parent directories carry more weight, it takes longer for the crawler to go down than across and the PR was always higher for those first level directories. (I'm talking in the past tense because I don't do SEO any more, though we used to get $1000 a month from AdWords).Seems like your reason for this is to allow the same slug for multiple entries in the category. I'd more more inclined to just add one of . _ - on the end in the event of an unlikely clash!