diff --git a/man7/man-pages.7 b/man7/man-pages.7
index adbc23490..3d139dc0c 100644
--- a/man7/man-pages.7
+++ b/man7/man-pages.7
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 .\" 2007-05-30 created by mtk, using text from old man.7 plus
 .\" rewrites and additional text.
 .\"
-.TH MAN-PAGES 7 2007-12-29 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.TH MAN-PAGES 7 2008-06-12 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
 .SH NAME
 man-pages \- conventions for writing Linux man pages
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -320,6 +320,23 @@ as the base.
 A brief summary of the Linux kernel or glibc versions where a
 system call or library function appeared,
 or changed significantly in its operation.
+As a general rule, every new interface should
+include a VERSIONS section in its manual page.
+Unfortunately,
+many existing manual pages don't include this information
+(since there was no policy to do so when they were written).
+Patches to remedy this are welcome,
+but, from the perspective of programmers writing new code,
+this information probably only matters in the case of kernel
+interfaces that have been added in Linux 2.4 or later
+(i.e., changes since kernel 2.2),
+and library functions that have been added to glibc since version 2.1
+(i.e., changes since glibc 2.0).
+
+The
+.BR syscalls (2)
+manual page also provides information about which
+system calls were added to Linux from kernel 2.2 onwards.
 .TP
 .B CONFORMING TO
 describes any standards or conventions that relate to the function