Automatically updated Page revision date

[Matterplay1]

At the editing end we can see when it was last changed, and we can even see which editor it was who did it. It says 'last modified'. So the data exist. How useful they are is another matter. Each and every one of the pages has been edited multiple times since its creation. Spelling and grammar, typography, dates changed for consistency with other articles, small changes in choice of words, adding more links, and so on all change the 'last modified' date. For instance, a couple of years ago I went through the entire site and corrected all the article creation dates themselves, since in the transfer they'd all defaulted to the transfer date of 2007. Also for instance Steve has made a long term project of making the whole project more image-rich, and each time he's added a picture that has changed the 'last modified' date too. Out of curiosity I just did a random walk through articles as seen at the editing end. Most had been touched some time in the last 2 years, and none was 'older' than 2010. I imagine that it would be just a matter of asking our webmaster Trond to put a 'last edited' item in the material at the end of the article if that's what we want. Do we think this information would be useful to the general reader though?

General editorial policy has been that when actual changes to content occur, then for minor changes it's in the 'additional material by' line, or if it's a more wholesale revision we document it as a collaboration. In the last few years we've flagged major article revisions with the date of revision as well. 

For what it's worth I'm neutral on whether we want to display the 'last modified' data. I do think our current practice captures things pretty well, myself, but will defer to Steve Bowers in particular and to the rest of the Board in general. Steve, what do you think?