You may be experiencing a content drought on your forum or blog, or perhaps you're simply familiar with the concept of hiding dates on content. Many older or less active sites have opted to completely hide the publishing date of their articles and content. There are many reasons to do this, such as not wanting new visitors to see how inactive the site is currently, but there are also some downsides to doing this. In this short article, you will learn about the positive and negative effects associated with hiding posting dates for content on your website.
When the average person visits a community, they are often met with a display of popular content. However, what should the administrator do when there is not much new content coming in? Everyone has seen a blog or a forum where there are categories with no new posts for weeks, or sometimes even months. This can be a huge turn off for new visitors because they do not want to invest their time and effort into a community that might not even appreciate their contributions. On the flip side, extremely popular communities have the opposite effect. It can be hard to get noticed when hundreds of members are sharing content on the site per minute/hour. Some people are frightened by the prospect of having nobody to interact with, and others do not like the idea of there being so much activity that they can't develop any actual relationships in the online community. So, what's the answer? There's a middle ground. That ideal spot for a site to be in is when there's enough content for the community to be active, but not enough where it becomes extremely difficult to become noticed. An example of this ideal scenario may be a medium sized Facebook hobbyist group where the same group of people are contributing each day. An example of a very active site would be a subreddit (category pretty much) on Reddit, where only the highest quality content gets noticed and everything else trickles off never to be seen again. It can be extremely frustrating to share good content on Reddit, just to receive no replies.
So, with all of that said, the argument could be made that hiding post dates is ideal because it eliminates a few problems (we'll think about the HUGE downside to this in the next paragraph). For one, an inactive community will instantly appear more active because newcomers will have no idea that certain discussions are weeks old, or that certain categories have received hardly any attention in months. Extremely active forums or blogs (sites receiving hundreds if not thousands or millions of submissions per day) will not feel much of a negative impact from hiding the date. This is because the content is being added to so frequently that even if you hide the publish dates, users become quickly aware that there is new content constantly showing up in the homepage, category listing, or "feed" of content.
However, there are massive downsides to doing this. Let's relate it to going on a vacation. If the brochure mentions nothing about how run down the tourist facilities are and that there are hardly any tourist related services in the area, how likely is it for a traveling honeymoon couple to stay at that destination? Well, if they have sunk a lot of money into that trip, they might stay out of necessity. Or perhaps they may opt to use their money to leave the area and spend it elsewhere. Now, if that location had properly advertised then the people who do come will know what it's going to be like and not expect much more. They know what they're getting in to. When I did charity work in Kenya and India, I knew I would not be spending much time in luxury or comfort. For that reason, I was not disappointed at all and I loved my time there. However, if the organization had hid the discomforts from me and pretended like the trip would be heavenly, I would have been seriously disappointed and perhaps even left the trip to stay in a nice hotel somewhere in another city. Your website is like a travel destination. If you hide the publishing dates of your content, you may be "lying" to possible new members - lying by omission. This is less true or extremely active communities, but definitely real for less active sites. When they arrive, it may be all dandy, but they will surely realize that there is a content drought and perhaps even look for a new website to spend their time on. I personally think it can be a great idea to hide posting dates, but only in specific scenarios.
While there are positive and negative effects that hiding your content's publishing dates can have on your website, there are some sites that can absolutely get away with it. Those sites are usually associated with something I like to call "timeless content", or SEO heaven, or better yet - a great way to make money. While I don't spend much time on YouTube anymore, I have recently reached the 5 MILLION views milestone with just 8,000-ish subscribers. This is because I spent a lot of time creating timeless content... Videos, articles or online content that doesn't become invalid or irrelevant after a long time. An example of time-relevant content is a news story about a local event, while an example of timeless content is '10 Craziest Storms in Human History'... It is content that can be interesting when you share it, or even 10 years later. Timeless content has a much larger chance to stay relevant and continue to be shared on social media, or ranked highly in the search engines. It is of my opinion that timeless content is one of the only types of media that should have dates removed, and here's why.
It does not matter when content is shared on your website if it's always going to be relevant. For that reason, hiding the date isn't as malicious. If you hide the date on an article called "Best Web Host", it's extremely misleading to readers if they're reading that article years later. If you hide the date on an article titled "My Experience as a Professional Trainer", it's less malicious because the content is entirely valid no matter what year it is. On forums, hiding the date on discussions for users seeking help or advice can be pretty silly because the people replying will most likely never actually help the original poster and you're actually encouraging them to waste their time. However, hiding the dates on a forum dedicated to sharing time-irrelevant content is less rude.
So, if you are experiencing some writer's block on your blog, or struggling to jump start your forum, then you may have considered hiding the dates to make your website appear more active. I encourage you to think about all of these points. Let's refresh - If you hide the dates on an inactive site, you will appear more active, but leave a bad taste in newcomer's mouths once they realize the site is not as active as they once thought... like a honeymoon couple being invited to a run down resort. If you hide the dates on time-relevant content, you are wasting people's time. However, if your content is always going to be relevant due to the unique topic of your website, you may be able to get away with hiding dates because it's always interesting content no matter what year it is. You have the benefit of "bumping up" old content to the top / front of your site because it's still relevant, and most people will treat it as new content. Think about all of these things before you go and remove the publishing dates... there's a high chance you will lose newcomers if they feel hoodwinked. If your site appears inactive and you still gain new visitors or contributors, there's a higher chance they will stay because they knew what they were joining!
Thank you for taking the time to read my long-winded article and thoughts on hiding the publishing or posting dates of discussions, articles and content on forums or blogs.
When the average person visits a community, they are often met with a display of popular content. However, what should the administrator do when there is not much new content coming in? Everyone has seen a blog or a forum where there are categories with no new posts for weeks, or sometimes even months. This can be a huge turn off for new visitors because they do not want to invest their time and effort into a community that might not even appreciate their contributions. On the flip side, extremely popular communities have the opposite effect. It can be hard to get noticed when hundreds of members are sharing content on the site per minute/hour. Some people are frightened by the prospect of having nobody to interact with, and others do not like the idea of there being so much activity that they can't develop any actual relationships in the online community. So, what's the answer? There's a middle ground. That ideal spot for a site to be in is when there's enough content for the community to be active, but not enough where it becomes extremely difficult to become noticed. An example of this ideal scenario may be a medium sized Facebook hobbyist group where the same group of people are contributing each day. An example of a very active site would be a subreddit (category pretty much) on Reddit, where only the highest quality content gets noticed and everything else trickles off never to be seen again. It can be extremely frustrating to share good content on Reddit, just to receive no replies.
So, with all of that said, the argument could be made that hiding post dates is ideal because it eliminates a few problems (we'll think about the HUGE downside to this in the next paragraph). For one, an inactive community will instantly appear more active because newcomers will have no idea that certain discussions are weeks old, or that certain categories have received hardly any attention in months. Extremely active forums or blogs (sites receiving hundreds if not thousands or millions of submissions per day) will not feel much of a negative impact from hiding the date. This is because the content is being added to so frequently that even if you hide the publish dates, users become quickly aware that there is new content constantly showing up in the homepage, category listing, or "feed" of content.
However, there are massive downsides to doing this. Let's relate it to going on a vacation. If the brochure mentions nothing about how run down the tourist facilities are and that there are hardly any tourist related services in the area, how likely is it for a traveling honeymoon couple to stay at that destination? Well, if they have sunk a lot of money into that trip, they might stay out of necessity. Or perhaps they may opt to use their money to leave the area and spend it elsewhere. Now, if that location had properly advertised then the people who do come will know what it's going to be like and not expect much more. They know what they're getting in to. When I did charity work in Kenya and India, I knew I would not be spending much time in luxury or comfort. For that reason, I was not disappointed at all and I loved my time there. However, if the organization had hid the discomforts from me and pretended like the trip would be heavenly, I would have been seriously disappointed and perhaps even left the trip to stay in a nice hotel somewhere in another city. Your website is like a travel destination. If you hide the publishing dates of your content, you may be "lying" to possible new members - lying by omission. This is less true or extremely active communities, but definitely real for less active sites. When they arrive, it may be all dandy, but they will surely realize that there is a content drought and perhaps even look for a new website to spend their time on. I personally think it can be a great idea to hide posting dates, but only in specific scenarios.
While there are positive and negative effects that hiding your content's publishing dates can have on your website, there are some sites that can absolutely get away with it. Those sites are usually associated with something I like to call "timeless content", or SEO heaven, or better yet - a great way to make money. While I don't spend much time on YouTube anymore, I have recently reached the 5 MILLION views milestone with just 8,000-ish subscribers. This is because I spent a lot of time creating timeless content... Videos, articles or online content that doesn't become invalid or irrelevant after a long time. An example of time-relevant content is a news story about a local event, while an example of timeless content is '10 Craziest Storms in Human History'... It is content that can be interesting when you share it, or even 10 years later. Timeless content has a much larger chance to stay relevant and continue to be shared on social media, or ranked highly in the search engines. It is of my opinion that timeless content is one of the only types of media that should have dates removed, and here's why.
It does not matter when content is shared on your website if it's always going to be relevant. For that reason, hiding the date isn't as malicious. If you hide the date on an article called "Best Web Host", it's extremely misleading to readers if they're reading that article years later. If you hide the date on an article titled "My Experience as a Professional Trainer", it's less malicious because the content is entirely valid no matter what year it is. On forums, hiding the date on discussions for users seeking help or advice can be pretty silly because the people replying will most likely never actually help the original poster and you're actually encouraging them to waste their time. However, hiding the dates on a forum dedicated to sharing time-irrelevant content is less rude.
So, if you are experiencing some writer's block on your blog, or struggling to jump start your forum, then you may have considered hiding the dates to make your website appear more active. I encourage you to think about all of these points. Let's refresh - If you hide the dates on an inactive site, you will appear more active, but leave a bad taste in newcomer's mouths once they realize the site is not as active as they once thought... like a honeymoon couple being invited to a run down resort. If you hide the dates on time-relevant content, you are wasting people's time. However, if your content is always going to be relevant due to the unique topic of your website, you may be able to get away with hiding dates because it's always interesting content no matter what year it is. You have the benefit of "bumping up" old content to the top / front of your site because it's still relevant, and most people will treat it as new content. Think about all of these things before you go and remove the publishing dates... there's a high chance you will lose newcomers if they feel hoodwinked. If your site appears inactive and you still gain new visitors or contributors, there's a higher chance they will stay because they knew what they were joining!
Thank you for taking the time to read my long-winded article and thoughts on hiding the publishing or posting dates of discussions, articles and content on forums or blogs.
