I have a question in reference to an article linked HERE
The article clearly states that the question was asked by a Mr. David F back in 1988, yet your article references Google(which was not founded until 10 years later in 1998) as a source. I also see you referenced a book written by Teun Koetsier and Luc Bergmans in 2004, which I am also guessing(by the date) wasn’t around in 1988.
So question… is the date on the article incorrectly stated or do you normally wait for a minimum of 16 years to lapse before answering your readers’ questions? If the latter, I am looking forward to your response in 2029!
It looks like the column answer was updated later, or the date on the column is wrong. Usually, updates are clearly marked as such, but this one isn’t.
If this is in fact the case(that the article date is wrong) then who is to blame? According to what I read HERE, Cecil is never wrong. Are one of Cecil’s many peons to blame?
I don’t know about this particular article, but many others have been updated after publication (sometimes years later), while retaining the original date. It’s unfortunate that Ed (Zotti, Cecil’s “editor”) doesn’t note the update date when it’s done.
Columns are potentially updated at several points in time: if they are being printed in a book, for instance, they need to be thoroughly researched and updated. Sometimes, when they are being posted on the Message Boads, minor edits and updates are made (almost never a complete and thorough update.) I’m not sure what happened in this case, but one of those two scenarios is most likely.
If Cecil publishes an official addendum/errata in the papers, it gets its own section at the end. Not always dated (except in print), but at least it’s clear that this is written months or more later. Sometimes they make more minor changes, but don’t change the date. I wish they would, old columns get confusing sometimes.
Since the columns in the books aren’t dated, they basically didn’t track when which edits were made. (I assume it’s obvious why the columns in the book aren’t dated.)