Change Date Format?

[SailRN]

Not that the hosts are in any way obligated, but I would like to know which format is most popular.


Is there a method for conducting a forum-wide poll?

[Janet H]

The current version of vB that we run has a global setting to configure the time display. If we make a change, it changes for everyone.

Until we change forum software (which we will at some point) this is what's available.

[Macrophylla]

You read posts like this and understand why there is so much head shaking by those that encounter America's self-centered approach to the universe. Thank goodness Galileo had his inspiration about the place of the earth within the solar system well before our country was founded or we'd have a noisy minority insisting that somewhere in corn country was actually the center of the universe.

It's swapping two sets of two digits in your head..You've got folks on this site adapting without complaint to posts using US units of measure, US English (and poor US grammar at that), but the date formatting.... which you've seen before if you've ever raised your head outside of the 'Merica bubble... is where you draw the line.

[SailRN]

Originally Posted by Janet H

The current version of vB that we run has a global setting to configure the time display. If we make a change, it changes for everyone.

Until we change forum software (which we will at some point) this is what's available.

Then please consider changing the global date time display setting to the international standard of the globe?



ISO-8601 (ISO is the International Standards Organization) is not country specific, though it is also the legal standard of the majority of countries.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Macrophylla

You read posts like this and understand why there is so much head shaking by those that encounter America's self-centered approach to the universe. Thank goodness Galileo had his inspiration about the place of the earth within the solar system well before our country was founded or we'd have a noisy minority insisting that somewhere in corn country was actually the center of the universe.

It's swapping two sets of two digits in your head...FFS if you can't handle that I'm not sure you should be allowed internet access. You've got folks on this site adapting without complaint to posts using US units of measure, US English (and poor US grammar at that), but the date formatting.... which you've seen before if you've ever raised your head outside of the 'Merica bubble... is where you draw the line.

I moved to Canada from the US in 2016.


My birthday is 12/9. Or was. Now it's 9/12, but I wasn't born in September!!! That's why when they ask, I say December 9th. Why? Because my doctor uses 9/12 but the marine store uses 12/9.


Not so bad if you're born after 11/11...



Thanks for a hefty and healthy dose of reality.


American Exceptionalism: If we didn't invent it, it didn't happen. Whatever problem we have, we're gonna solve it ourselves even if all the rest of the world already figured out the solution.

[SailRN]

Wow! Requests for use of the International Standards Organization 8601 standard has raised anti-American hate levels!

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Janet H

The current version of vB that we run has a global setting to configure the time display. If we make a change, it changes for everyone.

Until we change forum software (which we will at some point) this is what's available.

And setting it to "j M Y" would avoid any doubts about what is mean by 10/05/2021 for everyone.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

I moved to Canada from the US in 2016.


My birthday is 12/9. Or was. Now it's 9/12, but I wasn't born in September!!! That's why when they ask, I say December 9th. Why? Because my doctor uses 9/12 but the marine store uses 12/9.

Why not say 9th [of] December like most of the world do

[Mirage35]

I have another option to consider: Someone I worked with filed weekly meeting minutes with the date as filename and structured so that today would be filed as "May 12, 2021.docx"

Of course after a few years the files were all neatly sorted by the computer -
April meetings, followed by August meetings, you get the drift.

Never managed to convince her that there might be a better way.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by SailRN

Wow! Requests for use of the International Standards Organization 8601 standard has raised anti-American hate levels!

I think you just like typing ISO 8601.

[SailRN]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

I have another option to consider: Someone I worked with filed weekly meeting minutes with the date as filename and structured so that today would be filed as "May 12, 2021.docx"

Of course after a few years the files were all neatly sorted by the computer -
April meetings, followed by August meetings, you get the drift.

Never managed to convince her that there might be a better way.

Ha! I bet that was fun. But it is for the reason of easy sorting in chronological order that I started years before I learned of the ISO 8601 standard using that format of YYYY-MM-DD (2021-05-12). It's a logical sort order, which is why it was adopted internationally. I grew up using m/d/yy (5/12/21) and never liked it.



According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_86...onal_standards there are 40 independent countries and the European Union using the ISO standard as their legal standard.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by StuM

Why not say 9th [of] December like most of the world do

Hey, Stu, you gave me away! I do that every other time, just to confuse 'em!

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by SailRN

..........


According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_86...onal_standards there are 40 independent countries and the European Union using the ISO standard as their legal standard.

The wiki link is interesting and I note it lists Australia as having adopted this standard yet I haven't seen it in use here. Maybe it gets a guernsey in scientific circles but all the government, financial, medical etc type forms which asks for the date, they want it in dd/mm/yyyy format.

To me the dd/mm/yyyy format makes sense as mostly I am interested in that order in day to day life. I rarely wake up thinking what year is it, more likely I think, what day is it, perhaps on occasion, what month is it . I much more often would say "don't forget we are going to the pub on the third" rather than "don't forget we are going out to the pub in 2022".

However I can see many applications where yyyy/mm/dd would be useful but just not in my day to day existence.

Either way, I know I can convert to the other in a nanosecond.

FWIW, I have never understood the reason for month / day / year but I guess there is one.

[SailRN]

Originally Posted by Wotname

The wiki link is interesting and I note it lists Australia as having adopted this standard yet I haven't seen it use here. Maybe it gets a guernsey in scientific circles but all the government, financial, medical etc type forms which asks for the date, they want it in dd/mm/yyyy format.

Either way, I know I can convert to the other in a nanosecond.

FWIW, I have never understood the reason for month / day / year but I guess there is one.

It's the same here, common usage is m/d/yy, and probably similarly different from the official standard in many places. Also of note the legal standard here is the SI since the late 1800s, and the common usage of feet, pounds, miles, etc., are all defined in the official documents by the SI units. My fellow citizens seem to have a great difficulty in understanding the SI, but we're slowly coming around. I started using the SI as my primary system many years ago, but to talk to people around me I sometimes have to revert to the ancient units...


And a FYI, the international standard uses hyphens to help make it clear and distinctive that the format is the ISO standard, i.e., 2021-05-12.