History should be searchable by person and time
Aliases: history filtering · change provenance · author-time search
What it is
Faceted revision history lets collaborators locate changes by author and time instead of scanning a single chronological list. Person and time are common provenance entry points: answering who changed what after a meeting requires their combination and then navigation to the affected object and operation.
Why it happens
Version counts grow with editing frequency and participation, so chronological browsing externalizes an increasing search cost. Composable author, time-window, object, and operation indexes narrow candidates before inspection. Identity reconciliation, time-zone presentation, and change-set boundaries determine whether results remain trustworthy.
Studying it
Use provenance tasks with known authors, approximate times, or both to compare scrolling with faceted search on completion time, false selection, and evidential confidence. Corpora should include bots, shared accounts, offline synchronization, and time-zone differences. Locating a version and understanding the reason for it are separate outcomes.
Where it stops holding
Author and time provide source clues, not automatic explanations of intent or accountability. Shared identities and automated transformations distort authorship. Simple lists may suffice for small, low-activity artifacts. Sensitive environments need access and retention limits so history does not become personnel surveillance.
Applying it
- Offer combinable author, time-window, object, and operation filters with visible active criteria.
- Normalize displayed time zones while retaining source timestamps; distinguish human, automated, and imported changes.
- Link results directly to objects and diffs, with related comments or commit descriptions.
- Test real provenance questions for localization error, time, and permission leakage.