Dating in RSS feeds

Why oh why do people put incorrect dates on their posts? When I read posts in reverse-chronological order in NetNewsWire, I expect to see the most recent posts at the top. But unscrupulous bloggers post-date give their entries, to force them to the top of the list. This is very similar to the practice of certain print publications, who, in the case of a monthly, will put on sale in mid-April an issue labelled Jun.

So in NetNewsWire today, the top entries are:

Homeless man in court over CBD fire The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines 08 April 2009: this is a clear mis-keying of the date after one too many tubes of Toohey's, though I can see nine other examples of posts with 2009 dates from the same journal's feeds.

Thu August 14th '08 : FREQUENZY FESTIVAL, SALZBURG The Indelicates Live Feed 14 August 2008. This, and two other examples from the excellent Indelicates, whose first album, American Demo, is in the post to me at this very moment, is understandable, though not correct, for they have chose to use the gig date as the posting date.

The Rescue of John Steinbeck The New York Review of Books 17 April 2008. Here is a fine example of a print publishers' post-dating practice polluting their feed, though one would have hoped that the NYRB knew better. 17 April is the cover date; but it is not the date the item was posted.

Comments

[Karen Blakeman]

And why is the date for the entries in the RSS feeds from The Times permanently set at 30th October 2007?

[Tom Roper]

Thanks Karen, I'd missed that one. Mind you, I often find I delete many newspaper feed posts unread: lots of duplication.