Put a date on your blog post (2014)

Not only do I put date on each of my blog post, in my technical blog posts I try to record the version of each software program I use while writing the post.

This practice comes from my concern that a future reader, perhaps even myself, might stumble upon the post, follow the outlined steps but encounter different results on their computer. Without clarity on the software versions, I worry that it may become difficult to tell whether the differing results are caused by human error or if they are due to difference in software versions.

That's why I make an effort to note down every software version I use while writing a post, starting from the operating system version all the way to the software application of interest in the blog post.

If I may, I'd like to share a recent example from my post to illustrate what I mean: https://susam.net/jenkins-quicksort.html#run-jenkins

The worst is when it's a technical blog. I can excuse a food blogger if they don't know how to configure wordpress, but a tech blogger should able to edit their jekyll files or whatever. I mean, how did you make the post to begin with?!

A tech article without a date is the equivalent of a sign on a door that says "back in 15 minutes".

Calling out danluu ;-)

evergreen content!