No, I’m all for time stamps and I like them large. I don’t have a bias against something written two years ago . . . if it’s timeless. A list of famous quotes or some basic writing rules don’t update every year. BUT it’s not nice to get to a site where you want to know whether what you’re reading is the latest version . . . and you can’t tell because there’s no time stamp.

If you remove the time stamp, I think you’re obligated to write ONLY timeless content.

In my lowly opinion, dates aren’t required in post URLs or post titles, but need to be included with each post. The actual time of each post isn’t necessary.

Dates exist for a reason and it’s not to determine whether a post is timeless or not. It’s to determine age. If you want a post to appear to be newer then update it, republish it and redirect the old one to the new one.

The only time dates really come into play is when you’re writing about current events topics.

I hope Darren is not running out of ideas, Ronald. As Liz says, the “date” doesn’t matter if the content is “timeless.” And you are right: the reader decides what timeless is.

Texts from 2000 years ago are still actual, aren’t they? Legends that were never printed kept their freshness and reached to us… We have them printed now, yes, but when they first came to light no one even wondered about dates and time. We print things to remember, we give dates to keep track of time…

Removing dates from blog posts to “make the content appear timeless” to the reader is deceiving…

I’ll agree with Liz that if you give the ‘appearance’ of timeless content, that’s the only type of content you should provide.

Now you could provide timeless content in the same site in my opinion. Just keep the blog section of the site with dated posts (since web-log is technically a record of your daily, weekly thoughts and opinions), but include another section where ALL articles and posts are ageless and timeless.

What an excellent discussion! I agree with you guys: posts need dates. That’s one thing I can’t stand about static websites; you have no idea when the information was published or updated, unless there is a “last updated” date somewhere. Blogs allow readers to quickly filter out old content and find exactly what they need. Keep the date stamp!

Thanks a lot for the comments all. Looks like it’s pretty unanimous here that dates should be included. Although not all agree how they should be implemented, it’s still an insightful discussion.

I have to agree with you Ronald, time stamps are a must on blog posts for me. Typically when I am searching for information I want the most relevant and current content I can find. Without a time stamp on a blog post I immediately move on to the next search result in my quest for the latest.

Always let the reader decide if they care about a time stamp!

Glad to see I’m not the only one. When I orgininally read the post at Problogger, that is exactly what I thought. The visitors should be given some credit in determining if the post is a classic or not. And there is hardly a blog that does not have time sensitive posts — it just wastes a person’s time to not have a date on those. So as far as I am concerned, dates all the way…

Btw love your blog design. The strawberry at the bottom is good enough to eat. I’ve been eyeing it for a while lol.

I personally think it all depends on what you are going for. Some people use free blog platforms because they are free and because they are the most basic and simple to setup. These same people are often trying to create more of an informational website than a blog. I guess these people would be better served in switching over to some type of mini-site that they have out their linke blinkweb or weebly or even hubpages or squiddo. I’m not sure. I will have to ponder this for awhile to come to an opinion.

Well putting the dates is a two pronged fork; one side would say dates are essential, which they are especially in regards to topics that change often, where the information changes on a steady basis.

On the other hand some posts such as How to’s FAQ’s and other such which are unlikely to change and ’stand the test of time’ have no need for a date.

irregardless though a timeline helps show growth in an authors work; may it be on the web or in print. Where would Shakespeare be with out his different writing eras :p

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Sorry

Timeless content is what matters. Whether you put the date or not, it is the content that matters. Readers will be the one to judge.

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I say that if it’s a blog post timestamps should be there, no matter how “timeless” the content might be. The very nature of the blog is time-related, so even though time might not make sense for the content, it is always good to know WHEN the author thought of writing that content. You never know what you might need the date for, maybe for example that “timeless” list of quotes about something were related to a particular event in the world that happened around that time. It could be interesting to relate it in that sense.

Seems to me like the best solution is obfuscation.

I agree that timestamps should always be available to a viewer, because if they’re specifically looking for it for whatever reason you are going to piss them off if they can’t find it. Ideally they should be able to view the page’s properties and view the modification date, but of course the dynamic web has more or less ended the usefulness of that particular feature.

But then, we cannot deny that seeing an old timestamp could potentially be off-putting to someone stumbling by and discourage them from reading further. I’m sure we’ve all seen a post, found the headline quite interesting, but noticed the timestamp and allowed ourselves to believe that the post probably isn’t worth reading as it may refer to outdated principles, obsolete technology, etc.

So, yes, perhaps obfuscation is the answer. Make it require a little effort to view the timestamp, for example by requiring that the user click a little ‘i’ information icon. This could then make the date and perhaps some other little details appear in a bubble, apparently nothing more than a cute UI space-saving feature but also serving the ulterior motive of hiding the timestamp.

Of course the default WordPress theme does this to an extent, tucking the timestamp at the bottom of the post rather than at the top. Chances are, people won’t scroll down specifically to check it out.

It’s a good question, and one I thought a lot about when I started blogging. Giving a dimension of time to posts can provide a context that might increase the post’s relevance in the reader’s mind, as well as being simply helpful. But there are plenty of thoughts that one has for which a timestamp is irrelevant, imo. Saying that posts deriving from those thoughts must be ‘timeless’ to be ‘worthy’ of no timestamp confuses things needlessly, imo. A time stamp for ‘My Ode to a Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich’ seems irrelevant, to me, as I presumably would have been driven to ecstasy by my sandwich in 2002 just as much as 2006 or 2008. It’s not timeless in the sense of degree of excellence, just in that I like ‘em all the time!
In this case, a lack of timestamp wouldn’t imply—anything necessarily. As active bloggers, no timestamp on any posts might scream to us “He never updates his blog and doesn’t want the world to know it!” but I think a lot of casual readers wouldn’t even notice.
Are we just hyper-aware of having to constantly update ourselves, and so too of timestamps that prove how often we do so? The idea that a blog/site full of undated posts is somehow less worthy, necessarily… I don’t know.
(Blogging has few hard and fast rules yet, and I say we revel in that while we still can btw.)
Great question— I’ll be back.

I like to see the date when a post was published. The lack of dating doesn’t make an article timeless. The content is important. I liked your analogy with the drama teacher.

What an accomplished discussion! I accede with you guys: posts charge dates. That’s one affair I can’t angle about changeless websites; you accept no abstraction if the advice was appear or updated, unless there is a “last updated” date somewhere. Blogs acquiesce readers to bound clarify out old agreeable and acquisition absolutely what they need. Keep the date stamp!

I think a blog should definitely have dates on it’s posts. A blog that hasn’t got dates feels pretty cold and deserted. You don’t really know if the author has posted recently or 5 years ago. I think dates are a way of keeping readers, because when they see that you post regularly, they will come back often. If they don’t see any dates, the chances of them coming back decline.

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What an excellent discussion! I agree with you guys: posts need dates. That’s one thing I can’t stand about static websites; you have no idea when the information was published or updated, unless there is a “last updated” date somewhere. Blogs allow readers to quickly filter out old content and find exactly what they need. Keep the date stamp!

Without dates, websites would be like reading eBooks….and that too with contents, which might not be good to a larger extent….

If you want your timeless posts to be immortalized, while still preserving a timeline (which I think should be done) you can take the “sticky approach” that some blogs and forums do.

That is, you put those timeless posts at the top of the blog, in the “sticky” section (”sticky” because it sticks there) and then have the newest post below them.

It could be confusing if the layout doesn’t support it, obviously. But if done right, it can keep a good balance between keeping the timeline and preserving the best threads.

Well, blog should always have date for posts, because blog is kind of diary, and every diary has dates. But if some post is timeless written, then i think it would be much better to remove date just from that post, because it really can be misleading for new readers.

I think it’s best to have dates. It’s annoying to start reading a post only to realize by the content that it was probably written a few years ago. I think that most content ages and should be dated as such.

The problem with dates is that google has started putting them in search results - do a search in google for ‘removing dates from posts for timeless’ and you are first - with July 21 2008 before it.

People will naturally shy away from older search engine results thinking the information may be out of date. So leaving dates off timeless posts would avoid this.

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That’s a little misleading, Malcolm. The reason Google shows the date in those results is because it’s worked out that the post is about dates, and thus determined it’d be useful to include the actual date in there — a bit of semantic intelligence on Google’s part. It’s not like every result now includes a date if it’s found on the page. It also has no bearing on the order of search results, because clearly a similar post with a more recent date is appearing in position two.

Another thing I’ll add is that people often include a date in their search term to ensure they get relatively recent results. I do this, and my statistics show that my visitors do this too. So if someone types ‘design gallery 2008′ and your page doesn’t have a 2008 date on it somewhere, you ain’t getting that visitor.

If someone is explicitly searching for something from 2008 or whatever, Google is going to do everything it can to ensure they get just that. If you start hiding dates and whatever, you’re only going to hurt yourself. If you did somehow get me onto your page after I’d typed ‘design gallery 2008′ and it was a 2005 gallery or something, I’d feel downright deceived and leave immediately. Respect your visitors.

As I said above, at the very most just make it a bit harder to see the date — hide it behind a clock icon that must be clicked or something. Don’t start hiding or not hiding dates with the intention of effectively deceiving people. If someone is genuinely really put off by a post being outdated (people aren’t stupid, contrary to common beleif), they’ll soon work it out once they start reading and you’re talking about PHP 3.0. Then they’ll be even more pissed off because they couldn’t check the date beforehand.

Hi Ryan. We’re probably violently agreeing really. I agree for nearly all posts it’s good to have the date.

But on the 2008 point, google’s not that good at it.

I often put 2008 in and get old results. Here’s one I did today to find household recycling levels in the UK in 2008: http://www.google.com/search?q=household%20recycling%20levels%20uk%202008 The 4th result has 2005 at the front of it. Which is just so clearly not what I want. It’s picking up the 2008 from the latest news box at the bottom of that page.

Also, here’s one i just thought up which I think shows it’s not putting the date there because it’s relevant (ie it’s not because of semantic cleverness). I searched for wordpress captcha: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wordpress+captcha. The second result has May 2006 at the front and the third Sep 2007. They may be the most definitive comments on the subject. But I probably won’t click on them as I imagine wordpress has been updated and they may still not apply.

I did a search the other day (sorry, different computer and can’t remember exact terms) to find some evidence to persuade someone not use a dropdown menu but to use plain html links for SEO reasons. The first result was from 2004. I’m sure it was a great post, but I didn’t even bother looking at it …

Google only includes a date (I think) if there’s one on the page. Often this is good - it helps in my examples above. But if a post is genuinely timeless, I wouldn’t put a date on it as after a couple of years, poeple will ignore it.

Malcolm

Does the timestamp affect googles results in any way? I do print out some really good blogs to read offline (the Kindle isn’t available in my country…) and is it possible to strip out all the unnecessary things like comments and timestamps?

I’m considering that as well… but I think news should be timestamped - everything else - perhaps not

Just a test

Dates exist for a reason and it’s not to determine whether a post is timeless or not. It’s to determine age. If you want a post to appear to be newer then update it, republish it and redirect the old one to the new one.

this is exactly what I do with my blogs because I am not a consistent blogger so I have no choice but to leave no trace behind.

Btw I love your strawberry footer. It makes me want to com back.

I’ve been seeing a lot of sites lately that have been dropping the dates from their post. If your post is on a timeless topic, let’s say a poem about the rain, then you could probably drop the date and I’d be okay with that.

However, I find that I tend to read blogs for opinions on current events and sometimes want to refer to the date a post was written to see if the author’s comment takes into account all relevant information that was available on a given date.

To make it short, I guess it depends on the type of post you are writing and depending on that, you can make a decision as to if you can or cannot drop the date.

I don’t see what the point in dropping the date on a post would be unless you are trying to dupe the reader in some way. I have actually seen some blogs that have some sort of way of backdating their posts, probably some sort of mysql dump hack or something that ends up having blog posts date back to 1976. I don’t recall any blogs being online at that point, perhaps a BBS or two. I think that removing the date on a post would raise suspicion from most readers and I would never do it on my blogs that is for sure.

I think it’s best to have dates. Because timeless blogs doesnt show current event.
And thanks for this awesome post

I agree, posts need to be dated. However, as Ryan suggested above, to make it necessary to click on an ‘i’ to see the actual timestamp still makes the date available yet eliminates the possibility of a ‘timeless’ piece being prematurely discounted. I know most of us are guilty of searching for something, following a link and fleeing the scene when we see ‘2006′.

like to see the date when a post was published. The lack of dating doesn’t make an article timeless

I don`t think it would be a good idea to remove them.

It really does depend on the content. Tech news for example would be pointless without a date, general observations for example probably don’t require it. I think dated content can put people off reading or comenting when they see it’s older content.

I’m considering that as well… but I think news should be timestamped - everything else - perhaps not

One of those posts that is truly timeless! hehe Seriously what an awesome idea. Some posts are truly timeless but like you said some things are more relevant today than technology of yesterday. Extremely interesting.

I like your website template design.. kudos to the designer.

Hi,
Superb Article. Just keep the blog section of the site with dated posts (since web-log is technically a record of your daily. I think dated content can put people off reading or commenting when they see it’s older content.
Thanks!

Without dates, websites would be like reading eBooks….and that too with contents, which might not be good to a larger extent….

I think blogs should definitely have the date stamps. As you said, it’s necessary for context and relevance. Some things you write about are only relevant for a certain time period, like if you write about an election or an approaching event. But if you want to preserve the timeless ones, have an option for readers to rate your posts and have a section that contains the top rated ones. That way, the best posts, even if they’re old, will always be preserved and will continue to be read.

thanks..

I’m one with a blog without timestamps. Though, I admit, your post is making my rethink that a little. A little.

Absolutely some blogs should have timestamps. Perhaps most blogs should have timestamps.

In my case, I have a blog about “cool” things like architecture, websites and travel destinations. It is true, by removing the timestamp I’m deciding for my readers that the content on my site it is relevant (not necessarily that it will be timelessly relevant, but relevant while it is still online). There are all sorts of editorial judgments I (and every blogger) makes on behalf of readers. So I guess I’m OK with that.

My main reason for excluding a timestamp is that I want to make it clear that my blog is not a chronological work but a conpendium of ideas and knowledge. If you look at Wikipedia, or the trip planning ideas of the Nile Guide, or the buying primers of Amazon they don’t have timestamps either.

Still, I do see your point. Thanks for giving me something to think about.

I don’t like removing dates from posts because it destroys the appeal of blog. It will look just like a web page

I think the need for time stamping depends on the content. If it’s an expose on spirituality you don’t need one and chances are the reader doesn’t look for one. But if it’s about the latest gadget or an actual diary entry then of course placing a date is an absolute must. One problem I see though is with the comments. Often people don’t bother to add to the comments anymore when they see the last one was posted about a year ago. For some reason it feels discouraging. But who says you can’t refresh a discussion years later? With rapid developments all around us new perspectives on topics are guaranteed. That’s why I like some forums where all of a sudden an old thread shows up because a new members had something to say about it.

I’ve changed my mind. Dates in big letters. This post is from July 21st, 2008. Enough already!