View Full Version : Dates in the title
I've been looking at a bunch of threads in here, and I have a question.
Why are most of the dates written with numbers? That is, most Americans use MM/DD/YY, and it seems most Europeans use DD/MM/YY. So February 17th is either 17/02/06 or 02/17/06. In this specific case, it's pretty obvious either way. There is no month 17, so it must be Feb 17th.
How about 02/06/06? There's no way to tell without context if you mean February 6 or June 2nd. Oh noes, t3h horror! Whatever shall we do?
Use month abbreviations. Feb 6 06 or 6 Feb 06. Clear, simple to use. Doesn't take up much more space than just numbers.
Agree? Disagree? Think this is a pointless waste of a thread?
flexiboy
17-02-2006, 15:40
why is it in frog talk? Any way yea good idea not much more room taken should be easy to change.
I wouldn't go as far as saying "pointless waste" since I don't think it is, and you raise a valid point. But I'm more of the "eh, don't care. The nice timestamps tell me everything" frame of mind.
Though really I like the sound of 17 Feb 06. Or something like that :)
Here, have a cookie + a smoothie. *cookies and smoothies*
why is it in frog talk? Any way yea good idea not much more room taken should be easy to change.
nkuvu is referring to the date on the logs. For example, when Mal posts them, he'll use DD/MM/YY. But when aairry posts them, she'll use MM/DD/YY.
Which can get a bit confusing when we get to dates like the 6th of June. Oh the horror!
Aaiiry Astald
17-02-2006, 16:35
Due to that being my first log post and it was at about 3am for me. I went with ease. I can try to remember in the future to post them as month abeverations.That is if Mal isnt there to cap and I am.
Thank you, Kamara, for addressing that already, and you're entirely correct. But you knew that. ^_^
And Aaiiry, it's not just you. I looked through the Frog Talk forum and found a lot of threads with varying date styles.
(p.s. Oooh, clicky box is winning!)
I voted clicky box because it's really not that hard to tell what the dates are regaurdless of how they are placed. You have to remember that the person who actually posts the chat logs is the person who makes the title. So regaurdless of how my opinion sways the poster will still post how he/she is used to writting dates.
Besides when has there ever been a 17th month :wink:
Malhavoc Adhamar
17-02-2006, 18:52
Since I'm in the UK I use DD/MM/YYYY format. However if I create a log then I'll try and remember to date it DD/Month/YYYY.
Vallen Frostweaver
17-02-2006, 19:10
Which can get a bit confusing when we get to dates like the 6th of June. Oh the horror!You're right! OMG! 6/6/6 to Europe would be 6/6/6 to the US. The horror! Just kidding there (I'm with ya)... the whole triple 6 is the scary part. :devil:
You have to remember that the person who actually posts the chat logs is the person who makes the title.
Mods/admins could potentially correct the issue. If it was deemed as a huge deal, which I don't think it is.
Besides when has there ever been a 17th month :wink:
Addressed in the initial post. :P
Quick, what month am I referring to when I say 3/4? April 3rd? March 4th?
Ha ha, trick question, that's three quarters (0.75). ~__^ I amuse myself so much.
Seriously, though, I don't see this as a huge thing no matter what. The only reason a poll is up there at all is for the clicky box option. ^_^
TrippyIMP
17-02-2006, 23:27
Since I'm in the UK I use DD/MM/YYYY format. However if I create a log then I'll try and remember to date it DD/Month/YYYY.
go mal!! DD/MM/YYYY is much more logical then that weird american MM/DD/YYYY ...
None of the above. The best format is ISO 8601, which looks like this:
YYYY-MM-DD
It is logical and unambiguous.
This is better than DD/MM/YYYY because sorting YYYY-MM-DD alphanumerically is the same as sorting chronologically.
None of the above.
Then it's Clicky box for you. ^_^
It is logical and unambiguous.
This is better than DD/MM/YYYY because sorting YYYY-MM-DD alphanumerically is the same as sorting chronologically.
Well the threads aren't sorted alphanumerically, so that's a moot point. :P
And I still see the possibility of confusion with that date format. If someone does not know the ISO format, they can't tell what date 2006-04-03 is.
Since I'd bet that the majority of the forum browsers aren't up to date on their ISO standards, I still think DD Mon YYYY (or Mon DD YYYY) is clearer.
I've always written dates at YYYY-MM-DD per ISO standards. It's a really nice system.
Randomdark
18-02-2006, 09:47
abbreviated names Ftw
By far The easyest And Most Streight Forward Solution For all...
flexiboy
18-02-2006, 15:09
nkuvu is referring to the date on the logs. For example, when Mal posts them, he'll use DD/MM/YY. But when aairry posts them, she'll use MM/DD/YY.
Which can get a bit confusing when we get to dates like the 6th of June. Oh the horror!
ok i get it yea good idea :P
DD/MM/YY is the only way to go, IMO.
Bozos Of Bones
19-02-2006, 16:21
Day/Month/Year by order of magnitude :p
That, or the "On Monday, the Fifth day of the month of May, year of our Lord Two Thousand and Sixth, Gaile spoketh thusly..."
zweistein
19-02-2006, 19:08
It looks from poll that DD/MM/YYYY need more support. here it comes :)
Either that or ISO. (i would personally prefer ISO format, but it lacks a bit of readibility for lots of people.)
Honestly american way (mm/dd/yy, but ill flamingly extent it to usage of feets, miles, galong and pounds ...) is best only at creation of confusion, and abreviated months names just reduce readibility.
I'm a YYYY-MM-DD person as well. It's how all of my dated material gets notated. I find it the easiest to read, remember, and sort on. Yay ISO!
I prefer a DD/MMM/YYYY system myself, with the month in abbreviation to avoid confusion.
SilentMobius
20-02-2006, 11:10
Ascending or decending order of magnitude (International/ISO) either is good as long as a 4 digit year.
Well, anything other than the wacky American system.
Lady Rhonwyn
20-02-2006, 12:50
Day/Month/Year by order of magnitude :p
That, or the "On Monday, the Fifth day of the month of May, year of our Lord Two Thousand and Sixth, Gaile spoketh thusly..."
I agree. It gives an air of speciallity to the logs. And since Gaile spottings are important...
heavymetal rules
20-02-2006, 14:26
its a pointless waist of a thread, write your local goverment office instead of bringing something like that into a game, god knows we use that kind of day/month/yr function all the time in this game.
Aaiiry Astald
20-02-2006, 15:58
its a pointless waist of a thread, write your local goverment office instead of bringing something like that into a game, god knows we use that kind of day/month/yr function all the time in this game.
Did you even bother to check what exactly this is about? Its not about which is right. Its which to use in the Gaile log post titles for when the chat occured.
Before you flame a thread, check what you are flaming, less you make a fool of yourself.
theEnhance
21-02-2006, 02:13
Clicky Box!
hehe what's that?
anyway, I'd go with abbreviated names. it's only 1 character more.
ecpcorran
21-02-2006, 09:26
Quick, what month am I referring to when I say 3/4? April 3rd? March 4th?
If the current month is March and the first post is March according to the forum date and time of the post then I would assume March 4th. I can see though if I wanted to look at threads months old how it could be a problem. Don't know why people would want to look at the old stuff though as the whole point of the chats are to find out about new, upcomming things in the game.
Stardrake
21-02-2006, 13:37
It looks from poll that DD/MM/YYYY need more support. here it comes :)
Either that or ISO. (i would personally prefer ISO format, but it lacks a bit of readibility for lots of people.)
Honestly american way (mm/dd/yy, but ill flamingly extent it to usage of feets, miles, galong and pounds ...) is best only at creation of confusion, and abreviated months names just reduce readibility.
I may be wrong (I'm Australian, so I'm used to DD/MM/YYYY, although there was a period when I used MM/DD (no year) as a shortform. Just to be contrary) but the impression I've always had is that the MM/DD/YYYY comes from directly converting "Month DD, YYYY" into fully numerical format. It's not quite so illogical when you think of it that way...
Still, I prefer DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD. Makes more sense than starting with the middle-sized unit, going to the smallest unit and finishing with the largest. However, I'm going to vote for writing it out, as it does remove all ambiguity (even if we did reach consensus to use one system or the other by convention, a new reader may not know what that convention is.)
markaedw
21-02-2006, 17:17
to avoid confusion at work we use 21-FEB-2006, now it doesn't matter if you prefer FEB-21-2006, people will always see that it is the 21st day of the second month called Feburary, in the year of our Lord, aka Common Erea (CE) 2006.
Now can we talk about something really important? Like, why am I the only intellegent warrior in the game?:grin:
I vote for no dates to be used. :tongue: People should just guess when it was from context clues.
markaedw
21-02-2006, 23:58
I just realized we are all nuts! We have spent over 30 postings debating wether or not to spell out the month when we post dates!
I just realized we are all nuts! We have spent over 30 postings debating wether or not to spell out the month when we post dates!
Well, yes, but...
I'm amused. Isn't that the only thing that matters?
^_^
Post them as StarTrek Stardates.... like 7 digits for year, month, day, hour, minute! hehe
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