Why does Boards.ie have the wrong dates?

4fvw6lcprxeoyq · 23-09-2017 05:20PM #1

So I recently did a Google search and Boards.ie came up as the first result, and it contained a few links to threads underneath, but within, the result. The dates on these were like Sep 16, Aug 16 etc, but when I click on them the last post in the thread is from years ago. One was from 2013 and another was from 2004!

I mean I wouldn't have bothered clicking on them if I knew it was a post from 13 years ago..
What's the deal here? Do Boards.ie just "update" old threads with a fake date to get more hits? Is it the last date that a page was viewed or something? Or is it Google doing some voodoo with the dates, like the last time the page was update on the Google servers or something?

I mean, the date on a thread should be from when it was created or else when the last post was made, right? It's kind of annoying when you're reading through a thread and then a few pages later you realise it's ancient and irrelevant..

Army_of_One · 23-09-2017 05:31PM

Google just gives back hits for what you searched for...it doesn't care if the thread was from yesterday or 10 years ago.

It's your look out if you don't bother looking at the date of the posts....

Can I ask how long have you been using computers/web browsers?

23-09-2017 05:48PM

Ruben Tall Destroyer wrote: »

So I recently did a Google search and Boards.ie came up as the first result, and it contained a few links to threads underneath, but within, the result. The dates on these were like Sep 16, Aug 16 etc, but when I click on them the last post in the thread is from years ago. One was from 2013 and another was from 2004!

Any examples? Just did a couple of test queries, and all the dates Google show are the correct ones

Army_of_One wrote: »

Google just gives back hits for what you searched for...it doesn't care if the thread was from yesterday or 10 years ago.

Not true, the date of a page is also factored into its page ranking. Also the OP is referring to the dates that Google shows beside some results

4fvw6lcprxeoyq · 23-09-2017 06:05PM

Army_of_One wrote: »

Can I ask how long have you been using computers/web browsers?

Roughly 20 years. I've got plenty experience with hardware, software, programming (HTML, Java, C++, etc). And qualified in CompTIA A+ and Network+. I'm not a total idiot, but when I click on a like that's dated Sep 16 and then when I get to the page the last post was 2004 it's kind of weird.

28064212 wrote: »

Any examples? Just did a couple of test queries, and all the dates Google show are the correct ones

This is the one that caught my attention earlier today, the first two links in the Boards.ie result:
https://www.google.ie/search?num=40&source=hp&q=buy+tobacco+online+ireland&oq=&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.35i39k1l6.0.0.0.4062.2.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..1.0....0...1..64.psy-ab..1.1.110.6...111.V81e9b-Xb0I

23-09-2017 06:46PM

Ruben Tall Destroyer wrote: »

This is the one that caught my attention earlier today, the first two links in the Boards.ie result:
https://www.google.ie/search?num=40&source=hp&q=buy+tobacco+online+ireland&oq=&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.35i39k1l6.0.0.0.4062.2.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..1.0....0...1..64.psy-ab..1.1.110.6...111.V81e9b-Xb0I

Huh, interesting. Best guess: when the new boards.ie responsive site launched, Google indexed a bunch of stuff as new pages, instead of recognizing that they were new versions of old pages

4fvw6lcprxeoyq · 23-09-2017 07:10PM

Yea,that might make sense alright. It seems that other old threads also show dates of Aug & Sep 16. Like this:

https://www.google.ie/search?num=40&q=car+trouble++boards.ie&oq=car+trouble++boards.ie&gs_l=psy-ab.3...18390.20676.0.20757.12.12.0.0.0.0.95.998.12.12.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.5.415...0i7i30k1j0i8i7i30k1.0.ekjvxSNaBR8

Boards.ie: Mark · 26-09-2017 10:13AM

Not something that we have any input into. Our best guess is that Google records when Google Bot last visited the page.

4fvw6lcprxeoyq · 26-09-2017 03:46PM

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

Not something that we have any input into. Our best guess is that Google records when Google Bot last visited the page.

Never heard of Googlebot until now, but, yea, it's possible alright. Or maybe just it can't read the correct metadata, or dates, from older posts or something. Your "join date" is also Sep 16.. THAT'S real right?

:D

Boards.ie: Mark · 26-09-2017 03:55PM

Ruben Tall Destroyer wrote: »

Never heard of Googlebot until now, but, yea, it's possible alright. Or maybe just it can't read the correct metadata, or dates, from older posts or something. Your "join date" is also Sep 16.. THAT'S real right? :D

Or maybe I'M not real!!!

My join date is most certainly correct.

Google does some unusual things. I can understand why it would be frustrating for dates not to match up when you access Boards via Google. I've said it to the dev guys to get their input, but it doesn't look like there's anything we can do about it.

4fvw6lcprxeoyq · 26-09-2017 04:59PM

Boards.ie: Mark wrote: »

Or maybe I'M not real!!! My join date is most certainly correct.

Google does some unusual things. I can understand why it would be frustrating for dates not to match up when you access Boards via Google. I've said it to the dev guys to get their input, but it doesn't look like there's anything we can do about it.

Lol! I assumed so alright..

It is strange, there's plenty of older posts that show up with the correct date on Google, so it's not a site-wide error, but anything on Google with a date of Aug-Sep 16 is usually wrong (except actual posts from that period, I assume).

Weird..

Why does Boards.ie have the wrong dates?

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