Keep pubdate and add moddate

Back in November I wrote a bit about defending the pubdate attribute in HTML5’s <time> element which is currently under proposal to be removed from the HTML5 specification.

Well I finally found the time to write a change proposal requesting that the pubdate attribute remain, and for a moddate attribute to be added. The pubdate attribute is already in widespread use, since many WordPress themes already use it. Since that fact alone greatly helped the <time> element to be reinstated in the HTML5 specification, surely it should carry some weight here too.

We’ll see.

Update

Marat Tanalin also recommends keeping the pubdate attribute and also recommends a moddate type attribute (update or pubupdate). I had somehow missed his recommendations.