# Time but not date? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 28, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412 "2001-09-28T23:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![snopester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@snopester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snopester)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/1 "2001-09-28T23:56:11Z")
How come the software allows me, in my profile, to correct the times I see so that I see them as BST (or as GMT when the clocks go back in October) — but I still have to endure that [[Austrian town]](http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/fracture/austria.htm) mm/dd/yy format?!?! We use dd/mm/yy over here, damnit!  In fact, I suspect that dd/mm/yy is more widely used than both the other two formats combined… The time-zone correction is a good touch, but it’s a pity that it’s only half the job… ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/2 "2001-09-29T00:02:06Z")
Talk to the folks at [vbulletin.com](http://vbulletin.com); they wrote the software. They’re British, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![annalamerino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/3 "2001-09-29T00:58:52Z")
Is that one of the things you can set in your browser? I know there are different country options, but I’ve never tried them. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/4 "2001-09-29T22:23:46Z")
Worldwide, other formats are more common, but not in America. Perhaps they just considered the US to be their primary market? I would rather doubt that this is a browser-dependent thing: The browser has no way of knowing that a particular segment of text is a date, much less what format it’s supposed to be in. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2001, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/5 "2001-09-30T05:00:40Z")
It’s the default format per vB, our techs could probably change it but they said what the heck and went with the default, one less thing to think about. And no, you can’t change it yourself, you can only adjust the time you see to suit your own time zone; Straight Dope Message Board time is Central Standard/Central Daylight Time. your humble TubaDiva Administrator Not affiliated with that Eastern time zone cabal. ---
**Author:** ![snopester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@snopester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snopester)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/6 "2001-10-01T13:40:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **The browser has no way of knowing that a particular segment of text is a date** But the board software ought to… And why don’t special characters (such as ® for registered trademark) work? Give me UBB any day… ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-but-not-date/84412/7 "2001-10-01T16:14:42Z")
Okay. Bye. We had UBB. It choked on the sheer size of our database. Every. god. damned. day. At least once. Trust me, vB is far better.