Post date format

Site Feedback
#1

Could we change the date format on posts, please. It should show full day month and year. Preferably time, too.

Here’s an example of the problem. This recently resurrected thread Someone explain Kent Hovind originally from 2010. Early posts are dated as Jun '10. Recent posts are dated as Jun 9 and Jun 10. It’s confusing.

And let’s keep the month as a word, not a number. It avoids the usual ambiguity of day/month vs month/day.

#2

I, too, would like that.

#3

Good point, and I absolutely agree. Sometimes that’s useful data.

#4

Yes. I just opened a thread and all the posts until the end were just listed as “July 12.” No year given. Honestly with everything that’s been going on, I did think for a second “Wait…is it already July 12?”

Please can it be changed so that they year shows up for posts older than the current year?

#5

I believe you may have that backwards - those posts weren’t from July the 12th, but from July 2012. The forum software seems to assume that since it was so long ago, the day doesn’t matter any more. Not completely unreasonable, but there are cases where that would be annoying. I agree that complete dates would work better, also for new posts.

#6

Another vote for full date and time here.

#7

No, that IS the point of what he said.

#8

I beg to differ. He did say:

The year does show up. The day doesn’t.

#9

Here’s what happened.

  1. He saw a post dated Jul '12.
  2. he thought for a moment ‘Is it July 12th already?’
  3. he quickly realized his mistake: the post was from July 2012.
  4. he cited that as an example of why we should change the date format.
#10

I’m not sure how you can read it that way, given the last paragraph

But anyway, it’s also kinda pointless for us to argue what someone else was saying. Maybe @Eyebrows_0f_Doom can clear that up for us?

#11

The post was dated “July 12” meaning “July 12, 2019.”

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-ever-consider-living-with-someone-of-the-opposite-gender-as-roommates/836954

image|281x499

#12

Huh, what do you know, you’re absolutely right. IMHO, that’s a really stupid way to refer to a date, especially almost 12 months later. It seems to invite confusion - evidence: me.

#13

I just discovered something - it’s even worse! It seems to be both versions at the same time. Posts older than a year show „Dec ‘18“, meaning December 2018. All that’s different about the two is the little ‘. Now, sure, if you know it and are aware, you can tell it apart, but there’s really no need for that kind of ambiguity. Please, full dates for all!

#14

Hear, hear!