Comments on: Previous Entries? Next Entries? I’m confused.

By: Dorne

Dorne — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:43:16 +0000

I have no problem with “a day earlier” and “a day later”, or “older entry” and “newer entry”. It’s just previous and next that bothers me… Some say next page even when it’s the latest page. This inconsistency.

Props for probably the only blog to talk about this (or I’m just a lazy googler).

By: Hillel

Hillel — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:33:05 +0000

Unless of course you read a blog from the beginning. (Though I imagine 99.99% of blog reading is done in reverse chronological order.)

By: Marcelo Calbucci

Marcelo Calbucci — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:41:40 +0000

I agree with Tom, terminology for me is a lesser problem than the position of next/prev. Somehow, I expect to go through the pages of a book by flipping the page on the right. Since blog is reverse chronology, “previous entries” or “a day earlier” or “older entries” should be on the right.

By: Tom Tokarski

Tom Tokarski — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:37:53 +0000

Addendum / clarification to my comment: in Flickr (when viewing picture thumbnails), newest pics are at top left, and as you move right / down, you get to progressively older pictures. Then in the photostream widget, newest is at far right, and older are to left. Seems inconsistent / contradictory.

Maybe I’m just over-analyzing….

By: Tom Tokarski

Tom Tokarski — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:05:11 +0000

Agree….and a similar concept that trips me up is the relative location of ‘old’ and ‘new’.

I’ve always thought of ‘old’ as being to the left (or up), and ‘new’ as being to the right (or down). This is also reinforced in a typical calendar…. tomorrow is to the right of today…. next month is to the right or below this month, etc…

But, in email clients, feed readers, etc…. new stuff is generally at the top and you go ‘down’ to get to progressively older stuff. Flickr also trips me up….. my newest pictures are at left, and then I move right to get to older pictures.