Blog posts' date position

Just now I was reading a blog to avoid emailing its author with questions they already blogged about. Like others with this purpose, I read it reverse-chronologically (i.e. from the top).

While reading a blog purposefully to learn the current status of a fast-changing software system it seems important to gather a quick sense of time context for each post.

Inevitably I observe myself sliding my browser window downward to the bottom of each post to get a sense of how long prior to the post above it each was released—just in case the time interval is much, much longer than those above.

Then I slide the window back, indeed with resulting uncertainty that I have recovered the proper beginning of the proper post.

Some blogs may never have a delay of more than two weeks between posts.

If I knew this were the case always I wouldn't even look. But since I am not sure, I find myself looking at the dates.

Viewing a blog's archive helps somewhat (and furthermore I can read a whole blog by clicking its posts in an archive list; but this seems less natural).

So the minor suggestion here, for blog formatters' consideration, comprises the usefulness of placing the date of each post immediately below its title.

Copyright (c) 2013 Mark D. Blackwell.