Quick summary

The default behavior when publishing a draft blog post from the editor (Gutenberg or classic) is to use the post creation date or the date the draft is created. It is possible to change the publication date to "now" or the current date if you choose that option in the pre-pub checklist, but if you do nothing the default is the post creation date.

However, if you visit /posts/drafts and click the meatball menu (...) and publish from there, the post date defaults to "now" or the current date, and does not use the post creation date.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new blog post and backdate the draft (also you can choose an older unpublished draft if you have one)
2. Publish the post from the editor. If the pre-pub checklist appears accept the defaults and publish.
3. You will see the post date of the published post is the creation date, not the current date.
4. Set the post status back to draft (also you can choose an older unpublished draft if you have one)
5. Visit /posts/drafts, and click on the hamburger (...) menu and publish the post.
6. The post will default to the current date (today) instead of the date the post was created.

What you expected to happen

I expect a consistent behaviour between both publishing options. Either they default to the current date, or retain the post creation date, but they both should default to this behavior

What actually happened

Different post dates depend on which publication method you choose and is not consistent between these methods

Context

https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/re-publishing-a-published-post-switched-to-draft/

Platform (Simple, Atomic, or both?)

Simple

Theme-specific issue?

No response

Browser, operating system and other notes

N/A

Reproducibility

Consistent

Severity

Some (< 50%)

Available workarounds?

Yes, easy to implement

Workaround details

If the site owner publishes from the editor (every time) they can control the publication date directly in that view. Choosing the post creation date (default) or changing the publication date in the pre-pub checks before final publication.