I need someone to explain this to me, preferably in words of two syllables. Recently I've been reading a series of blog articles on never-mind-what subject.* I don't know what CMS or blogging platform the author used, because this isn't something I know anything about, but it obviously isn't hand-rolled. Meaning that this is not a unique head-scratcher.

At first I spent a lot of time going around in circles, because I mistakenly assumed that
"next post"
= post written on some later date, bearing a higher number, dealing with some topic arising later than the post we're currently on
and
"previous post"
= post written on some earlier date, bearing a lower number, dealing with et cetera.

Nope. Turns out that, to get from post 1 to post 2, that's "prev post", while to get from post 2 back to post 1 is "next post". I tried to make sense of this by thinking that "next" = further down the page if you are reading from top to bottom on a page that puts the newest content at the top. And then "previous" would = closer to the top of the page. Except that, well, each article is on a page of its own-- and if they were on the same page, there would be no need for a link.

I need a mnemonic. Otherwise I will always click on the wrong thing and find myself on articles I have already read. Or should I just turn the computer upside-down?


* By weird coincidence, the last time I stumbled across blogs on the same subject, the navigation was also ### up. Only that time the problem was more straightforward: there simply wasn't any. Use browser's back-arrow or History menu to find the entry page, and start afresh.