That would seem to have benefits relative to no further information (except the author’s name), but would the benefits be greater than those afforded by the current convention of citing the relevant work? Or maybe you think people don’t follow that convention enough and they would be more likely to cite something if the thing they had to cite was just a date?
Citing the original work would be the best I suppose. But in relatively informal contexts, like internet forums, it is probably easier for the reader to quickly have a sense of when the given quote was said if the year is attached.
That would seem to have benefits relative to no further information (except the author’s name), but would the benefits be greater than those afforded by the current convention of citing the relevant work? Or maybe you think people don’t follow that convention enough and they would be more likely to cite something if the thing they had to cite was just a date?
Citing the original work would be the best I suppose. But in relatively informal contexts, like internet forums, it is probably easier for the reader to quickly have a sense of when the given quote was said if the year is attached.