Time and Date Display Options Poll

[HoHun]

Hi,

I suppose there's nothing to be done about these issues, but I thought I'd ask anyway:

- Is it possible to set the display of timestamps so that it always shows time and date instead of mixing in relative descriptions such as "54 minutes ago" and "yesterday"?
- Is it possible to switch to a (consistent) 24 hours display?
- Am I right that the forum time zone descriptions are correct for winter time only and the forum time switches to daylight saving time automatically, damn the labels, full speed ahead?

Many thanks,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Hi,

I suppose there's nothing to be done about these issues, but I thought I'd ask anyway:

- Is it possible to set the display of timestamps so that it always shows time and date instead of mixing in relative descriptions such as "54 minutes ago" and "yesterday"?

Can't see an option for this.

- Is it possible to switch to a (consistent) 24 hours display?

24h display is possible - I turned it on just now. What do people think? While I was there I changed date format from American (August 30 2023) to standard (30 August 2023). Forum members are mostly US-based so this might not be popular.

- Am I right that the forum time zone descriptions are correct for winter time only and the forum time switches to daylight saving time automatically, damn the labels, full speed ahead?

Don't think so, at least its always been fine for me. DST in NZ is this weekend so I guess I can check? So long as you timezone is set correctly it should display times correctly as they are stored in the database in UTC.

Have you set your local timezone correctly under preferences?

 

[HoHun]

Hi Paul,

24h display is possible - I turned it on just now. What do people think? While I was there I changed date format from American (August 30 2023) to standard (30 August 2023). Forum members are mostly US-based so this might not be popular.

Of course, I was hoping that it could be set as a personal setting so we don't need to agree on what's best

Don't think so, at least its always been fine for me. DST in NZ is this weekend so I guess I can check? So long as you timezone is set correctly it should display times correctly as they are stored in the database in UTC.

We had the switch last weekend, that's why I am confused now. It's not easy to check whether my setting is accurate as there's no clock on the forum, and the post timer says "1 minute ago" etc. until my post is pretty old, which gives me no information on what setting I am on.

The options in the menu don't seem to be suitable for setting an automatically-switching time zone as they're like "UTC + 1 (Berlin)". Berlin at the moment is at UTC + 2, so that option is self-contradictory.

My suspicion is that IT practice is to consider UTC is "whatever time London currently uses", otherwise users would be forced to fiddle with the time zone setting twice a year.

However, if New Zealand switches differently than London (assuming London and Berlin are in synch, which might be optimistic these days), even that assumption makes no sense, so I'm even more more thoroughly confused now.

If you ask me, daylight saving time was the worst idea the inhabitants of the 20th century ever came up with! :-(

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

My suspicion is that IT practice is to consider UTC is "whatever time London currently uses", otherwise users would be forced to fiddle with the time zone setting twice a year.

Nope, totally incorrect. UTC is UTC and doesn't change. Most IT systems (not all) record all dates internally in UTC and then use the timezone information to show the time in the correct format for your current timezone. The only times dates should be displayed incorrectly is when the timezone for the server or the user is incorrectly specified.

The options in the menu don't seem to be suitable for setting an automatically-switching time zone as they're like "UTC + 1 (Berlin)". Berlin at the moment is at UTC + 2, so that option is self-contradictory.

UTC +1 is correct for Berlin timezone. During daylight savings, it switches to +2. According to the developers of Xenforo, the DST offsets are applied automatically, your job is to select the standard timezone.

 

[TomS]

24h display is possible - I turned it on just now. What do people think? While I was there I changed date format from American (August 30 2023) to standard (30 August 2023). Forum members are mostly US-based so this might not be popular.

Spent enough time working for (US) military offices that this honestly looks more correct to me. My current client prefers Month Day Year and it's been hell retraining myself.

 

[HoHun]

Hi Paul,

UTC +1 is correct for Berlin timezone. During daylight savings, it switches to +2. According to the developers of Xenforo, the DST offsets are applied automatically, your job is to select the standard timezone.

Thanks a lot, that probably means I can relax now!

For the record, Berlin is already UTC + 2 right now, and the menu still says "Berlin (UTC + 1)". So I insist on being confused for very good reasons! ;-)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[Apophenia]

... I changed date format from American (August 30 2023) to standard (30 August 2023). Forum members are mostly US-based so this might not be popular.

Thanks. FWIW, I much prefer standard date displays.

 

[Hobbes]

I appreciate the 24 time display,

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

So, I changed things without consultation. What is your preference for date and time settings?

 

[dan_inbox]

Hi Paul,

Given the options you offer, I chose int'l 24h.
But if I may give an opinion, I would suggest to revert to the basics, the holy gospel of IT I learnt many many years ago: Whenever there is an ISO standard format, always use it!!

So I would vote for the ISO format YYYY-MM-DD for the day, and 24h for the time.
(NB: when used in filenames for documents, versions etc, it just works wonders automagically. Ha!)


/off the soap box.

 

[aim9xray]

Julian (Jdate) for those who had to roll their own conversion functions. (Bleh!)

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Hi Paul,

Given the options you offer, I chose int'l 24h.
But if I may give an opinion, I would suggest to revert to the basics, the holy gospel of IT I learnt many many years ago: Whenever there is an ISO standard format, always use it!!

So I would vote for the ISO format YYYY-MM-DD for the day, and 24h for the time.
(NB: when used in filenames for documents, versions etc, it just works wonders automagically. Ha!)


/off the soap box.

Sadly, that's not an option in Xenforo.