How Fresh is Your Info?

You may have noticed a new dating system at the bottom of each post lately, and I wanted to explain what’s going on with that.

Most blog-style websites post articles, then move onto other articles, assuming readers will keep up with every article. Many websites even post new articles on the same topics as old ones, with updated and conflicting information between the two articles. If readers keep up with every article every day, that system works fine. And this is the system I’ve used in the past.

But that way of doing things hasn’t felt right to me in some time. The web isn’t like a newspaper – it’s more like a research library. Past articles aren’t lost – they still lurk in search engines, just waiting to be found and read and presumed helpful whether or not the information is up to date, or even still accurate. Oops.

A visitor from a search engine isn’t so likely to find my newer, more up-to-date articles on the same topic. Even if they do, why not give them all I have in one click instead of half a dozen? Who wants to have to click through several articles to make sure they’re getting all a site has to offer on a particular topic? Isn’t it better to have it all in one nicely arranged article?

I’m thrilled to be seeing many of Bohemian Revolution’s old and new posts at the top of the search engines lately. But I feel bad when the information in those posts isn’t all it could be, and lots of people are reading them. So I’ve decided to take a new approach.

Keeping the information fresh

Here at Bohemian Revolution, from now on, I will be continually going through old articles and updating them so that all the articles are of timeless value to you whenever you read them. Any article you find here will have been updated within the last two years, even if it was originally posted five years ago. But you won’t have to wonder which articles I’ve already updated and which are still waiting for attention:

• Each article will have both an “Updated” date and a “Copyright” date at the bottom. The Copyright date is simply to protect my work in case someone copies it and publishes it as their own. The Updated date lets you know when I last reviewed and revised (if necessary) that post so the information in it is as up to date as possible. (If you don’t see a copyright, that means it’s the same as the Updated date, and I haven’t gotten around to adding the copyright date to that particular post just yet.)
• Instead of writing new articles on topics I’ve already visited, I will add new information to old articles and republish them so they show up anew in your feedreader or email subscription. Don’t worry – you won’t see them often enough to remember them from before.
• I’m also going through old posts and merging some that are on the same topic and deleting others that are just not really of any value anymore.

My goal is to deliver the best information I can to you, and make it as easy and convenient as possible for you to get it. This system will ensure that every Bohemian Revolution article will be valuable at all times. And of course I’ll continue adding new articles on new topics all the time! If you have any questions, please ask them in comments or email me! Thanks!