# It's hard to see the difference between "Oct 17" and "Oct '17" **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [October 20, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377 "2020-10-20T02:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/21 "2021-02-16T16:50:14Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It just seems odd to not just write “February 2015,” the standard way of writing that. Totally agree. There’s very little value saved in changing four characters to three, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/22 "2021-02-16T17:33:33Z")
First off, I want to be 100% clear that having a full date (and time) would be preferable. But if you’re on a desktop/laptop, hovering over the date will give you the exact time and date. Personally, for me, that’s useful when I want to know if two posts that both say “3h” were posted within seconds of each other or 45 minutes apart. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/23 "2021-02-17T18:01:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I definitely would prefer to see complete dates for all posts, new and old. Seems like a no-brainer to me. My views are unchanged. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/24 "2021-03-23T13:42:53Z")
Yeah, spell out the full date if possible. If not, at least give the FULL year for posts that are more than a year old, i.e. Mar 2020 rather than Mar '20. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/25 "2021-03-24T01:15:33Z")
Yes, this just tripped me up again on an older thread. Feb 20 or Feb '20? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/26 "2021-03-24T04:19:35Z")
Maybe you need another cup of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/27 "2021-03-24T05:03:04Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Maybe you need another cup of coffee Always! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/28 "2021-03-24T05:13:24Z")
I’m concerned that, since someone in this thread was rather rude to @codinghorror, he’d decided not to do anything about this. His cryptic comment suggests something like that–that the reason he isn’t responding is because of said comment. It genuinely is a UX problem, causing unnecessary confusion to users. It seems to have been copied over from StackExchange, but there they always include the date and year, so it isn’t confusing. I can’t think of anyone else who uses that for years past 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/29 "2021-03-25T18:17:59Z")
Come back, **codinghorror**! We’re sorry and we really, _really_ would like to see complete dates appear for all posts! ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/30 "2021-03-26T08:07:29Z")
See if you just used a sensible date order instead of your damn US system you wouldn’t have this problem. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/31 "2021-03-28T09:53:51Z")
I agree that day-month-year is better than month-day-year (and I am an American saying that) but that’s 100% irrelevant. You might as well blame the metric system or improper milk storage if you want to provide an unhelpful and snarky non sequitur. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/32 "2021-03-28T11:45:45Z")
I’ll be sure to use a smiley just for you next time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/33 "2021-03-28T12:22:46Z")
And while we’re at it, can we have actual timestamps? When I see a time of “14 hours ago”, or whatever, I need to stop and think “Let’s see, I went to bed at 10:30, and checked the board shortly before then. What time is it now? And the current time minus 14 hours is… OK, that would be after 10:30, so I wouldn’t have seen that yet”. Why not just give the information that I’d actually use, instead? ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/34 "2021-03-28T12:42:00Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > See if you just used a sensible date order instead of your damn US system you wouldn’t have this problem. That is what I came here to write, so I will. See below. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > But if you’re on a desktop/laptop, hovering over the date will give you the exact time and date. That is good to know. And if you used sensible (i.e.: Continental European, instead of [incontinental British](https://schumanchu.eu/html/l/l_00102incontinentia.html) or American even 😉) date formats the problem would not even arise: a number and a month, day and month. A month and a number, month and year. Then again, if you are patient enough in 11 years the problem is solved all on its own until the year 2100. Except for older posts, of course. And that is where the problem resides. Back to start. (/ducking to avoid the improperly stored metrical milk @Atamasama is throwing at me 😆) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/35 "2021-03-28T17:22:40Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And if you used sensible (i.e.: Continental European, instead of [incontinental British](https://schumanchu.eu/html/l/l_00102incontinentia.html) or American even 😉) date formats the problem would not even arise: a number and a month, day and month. A month and a number, month and year. But the date format used on this site isn’t common to the US (can’t speak to British). A date like “Feb ‘16” is not a standard. Just about any common standard date format from anywhere would work better; those standards are standards because they are functional. The format used here is trying to do something non-standard which confuses people because it is unnecessarily ambiguous. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/36 "2021-03-28T17:49:45Z")
It’s not even internally consistent, at least in Sam’s Simple theme. To the right, with the slide that lets you scroll through the entire thread, the date this thread was started is listed as “Oct 2020.” Which makes perfect sense. What’s strange is to write “Oct '17” on the post itself and “Oct 2017” on the scroll. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/37 "2021-03-30T00:40:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > someone in this thread was rather rude to @codinghorror, What? Again? ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/38 "2021-04-24T00:02:57Z")
Not that it’ll change things, but earlier this month was a thread about how the President was screwing things up. Turns out it was dated “Apr '20” and Trump, not “Apr 20” and Biden. Kinda close to the changeover, especially if one doesn’t know the date. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/39 "2021-07-16T23:18:31Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I agree that day-month-year is better than month-day-year (and I am an American saying that) but that’s 100% irrelevant When they fix this broken date system, they should fix it to use localized dates. It’s not impossible: a big part of the internet manages it, just using standard HTML. The reason it doesn’t work here is because discourse has implemented the broken date system people here are complaining about. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377/40 "2021-08-09T19:18:08Z")
It still sucks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-hard-to-see-the-difference-between-oct-17-and-oct-17/923377.md?page=3)