The timestamps are the date and time normally used in blogs. From Problogger.net, I hopped over to Rachel’s cre8d design blog and she brought up the discussion of; My blog timestamps theory: removing the clutter.
The discussion is still very minimal at this point of time but it could develop to be a very interesting one in the research of user behaviour towards the abscence of timestamps normally found on blogs.
Rachel has listed 3 theories she’s trying out at the moment.
- Individual entry archives should have a post date; they’ve been archived.
- The home page should have freshness information – show how long it’s been since you last posted. Keep it simple by only showing one lot of units (if it’s less than an hour, display the number of minutes ago, if it’s less than a day display the number of hours ago etc).
- Comments don’t each need timestamps on them. Optionally show the freshness of last comment – i.e. time since the last comment.
I, myself said in her comments whilst agreeing with Darren (from Problogger) that timestamps in comments are really not a necessity as long there’s another type of indication which is the newer post.
If you’ve visited a diverse number of blogs, there are bloggers who’re using comment numbers as well as timestamps. This actually creates more clutter around the comments because it’s providing more details than a commenter needs.
After we’ve read an entry and proceed on to leave a comment, what are the details you’re likely to want to know?
- Name
- Weblog (if they have)
- Age of Comment
What other things do you really need to know as a commenter? Browser? Operating System?
Come to think of it, we don’t need timestamps as well if we’re implementing a ‘Subscribe to Comment’ function on the blog. Reason being is that the notification would alert that the latest comment(s) has been posted so all you need to remember is a simple digit or search for your name as a commentor when you last posted.
So what do you think of removing timestamps in certain areas of your blog?
I am for one a very time sensitive when it comes to post on my blog, I often rather create a new post on the same issue with update rather than going back to the original post to do update, cause I fear forgeting when things happen or when updates were done….. so to your question, I never consider removing timestamp…
I personally like timestamps. Gives me a good indication of how old/new something is. Whether its for blogposts or comments, i think its some what necessary.
Numbering the comments might indicate which is newer, but you have little idea of how new that comment is. The latest comment may be a few days or weeks old you have no idea. There is also the issue of duration between comments.
I don’t see anything wrong with timestamps, as the old saying goes “If its not broken, don’t fix it”
shagalot:
I too think that timestamps for the entries shouldn’t be removed because that’s the starting point of a discussion. But what do you think of timestamps in the comments?
hawk:
I’m now trying to indicate anything here since everyone has a personal preference but the timestamps are there to merely indicate which comment is newer.
If you’ve the numbering as replacements, doesn’t that too help replace the functionality of duration between comments though it might not give out as much details?
Anyway, the removal of timestamps like Rachel discusses is to find out if it does help remove clutter in the comments.