Why use different date formats on an international forum?

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just giving a heads up that we will be removing PF Nexus as a skin option tonight. It hasn't been updated for nearly a year and many features are missing from it.

 

[mattmns]

WHAT?

Looks like I better get used to "prime"

edit... How do I collapse the forums on the main page that I do not wish to view?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

WHAT?

Looks like I better get used to "prime"

edit... How do I collapse the forums on the main page that I do not wish to view?

I'll look into adding that feature.

 

[robphy]

"skin deprecation" ...sounds like a medical condition.

Is it possible to get the on the homepage the times of latest posts (as seen in Nexus),
rather than merely "Today" or "Yesterday"?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

"skin deprecation" ...sounds like a medical condition.

Is it possible to get the on the homepage the times of latest posts (as seen in Nexus),
rather than merely "Today" or "Yesterday"?

The timestamps take up too much space I'm afraid

 

[robphy]

The timestamps take up too much space I'm afraid

How about... a time "hh:mm" if it is today [with no need to write to "Today"],
otherwise... "Yesterday" or a past date [with no need to write a time]?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

WHAT?

Looks like I better get used to "prime"

edit... How do I collapse the forums on the main page that I do not wish to view?

ok there is a little image to the left at each category header, you can collapse there

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

How about... a time "hh:mm" if it is today [with no need to write to "Today"],
otherwise... "Yesterday" or a past date [with no need to write a time]?

I'll look into it, but it's not high on my list to be honest :)

 

[mattmns]

Awesome, thanks Greg! I second robphy's suggestion of time stamp, if you can get around to it

 

[Kurdt]

Aww goodbye Nexus skin. I will always have fond memories *sniff*.

 

[out of whack]

I third robphy's suggestion of time stamp. Knowing the time of the last post saves from reloading pages uselessly. It's the main reason I was using Nexus, after esthetic preference.

 

[neutrino]

ok there is a little image to the left at each category header, you can collapse there

Yay! Thanks.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

"skin deprecation" ...sounds like a medical condition.

virtual exfoliation?

 

[Evo]

We've shedded our skin.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I third robphy's suggestion of time stamp. Knowing the time of the last post saves from reloading pages uselessly. It's the main reason I was using Nexus, after esthetic preference.

ok added time stamp, still tweaking to optimize

 

[Evo]

ok added time stamp, still tweaking to optimize

I just saw that!

Can we have the feature that shows when a new member is registering? That was in Nexus as a "welcome our newest member".

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Can we have the feature that shows when a new member is registering? That was in Nexus as a "welcome our newest member".

Just curious how useful that is when we have a member signing up every 6 minutes?

 

[Evo]

Just curious how useful that is when we have a member signing up every 6 minutes?

Very useful, for mentors.

 

[Kurdt]

Just curious how useful that is when we have a member signing up every 6 minutes?

I found you could easily spot those that would get banned immediately as they tend to chose names such as:

xxxvids

and

discountmobs

etc.

 

[out of whack]

ok added time stamp, still tweaking to optimize

Kudos! That was quick.

 

[Moonbear]

ok added time stamp, still tweaking to optimize

Yay! Thanks! That's the one feature from Nexus that I really liked, especially since something often goes haywire with forums already read...they seem to unmark themselves, posts too, even when there's nothing new in them (it's like an entire previous visit never happened). That time stamp helps me figure out which forums I've already read when they all get marked unread again.

 

[morphism]

Why did the timestamps change from "Yesterday" and "Today" to "Y" and "T"?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Why did the timestamps change from "Yesterday" and "Today" to "Y" and "T"?

Trying to save space. Yesterday and Today with the timestamps is too long and ends up bumping to another line.

 

[Moonbear]

Trying to save space. Yesterday and Today with the timestamps is too long and ends up bumping to another line.

I don't think having a time stamp for "yesterday" is necessary, so you could just have a time stamp for the current day's posts and dates for everything else (or yesterday if you wish). If you did that, then you could get rid of the "T" which is odd looking.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I don't think having a time stamp for "yesterday" is necessary, so you could just have a time stamp for the current day's posts and dates for everything else (or yesterday if you wish). If you did that, then you could get rid of the "T" which is odd looking.

That would require some code alteration.

 

[CompuChip]

I alsonoticed the "Y" and "T" just now, and I must admit I am not thrilled either. I like Moonbears suggestion, if it's not too complicated to implement.
But are the words "Today" and "Yesterday" really too long? I doubt even the word "Yesterday" spelled in full will be much longer than something like "12.13.07, 08:04" so it would probably only be like 4 or 5 characters wider; space which seems to be available.

 

[cristo]

I bet in a few days/weeks everyone will have stopped noticing the Ts and Ys and will just associate with with today and yesterday.

 

[robphy]

While the T and Y are not the most visually appealing,
the existence of timestamp is, by far, the best aspect and is most appreciated.

Some suggestions:
for today's posts: 12:34 (just the time... T is unncessary)
for yesterday's posts: Y 23:45 (the time is somewhat useful, especially when I'm on at 1am)
for earlier posts: 12.01.07 (just the date)

These are suggestions for the lists of latest posts in the forum...
not for the posts themselves when viewing the thread.
To keep them de-coupled, I suspect that this might require changes in the code at places different from where it has been recently changed.

...but I'm appreciative of the present layout. It works for me. Thanks.

 

[out of whack]

One more option: if (now - timestamp < 24 hours) then show the time, else show the date. A posted time that exceeds the current time is easily understood to be yesterday's. However I'm not sure if this would end up being clear or confusing. It may require posting the current time somewhere to prevent confusion due to different time zones. Maybe not, opinions welcomed.

But whatever format is used in the end, it should be consistent on all pages for the sake of clarity as well as ease of coding (single time formatting function).

Finally, for the sake of international clarity, dropping the US-specific date (dis)ordering should be considered. I think the yyyy-mm-dd format is universally understood.

 

[neutrino]

Finally, for the sake of international clarity, dropping the US-specific date (dis)ordering should be considered. I think the yyyy-mm-dd format is universally understood.

I was just about to request that. Either that, or an option to choose the format would be helpful.

 

[cristo]

One more option: if (now - timestamp < 24 hours) then show the time, else show the date. A posted time that exceeds the current time is easily understood to be yesterday's. However I'm not sure if this would end up being clear or confusing. It may require posting the current time somewhere to prevent confusion due to different time zones. Maybe not, opinions welcomed.

I think that would get extremely confusing!

But whatever format is used in the end, it should be consistent on all pages for the sake of clarity as well as ease of coding (single time formatting function).

Finally, for the sake of international clarity, dropping the US-specific date (dis)ordering should be considered. I think the yyyy-mm-dd format is universally understood.

I don't think that's necessary either. I wasn't familiar with the US date conventions when I first joined, but it takes (like the Y and T) a few days to get used to.

 

[out of whack]

I think that would get extremely confusing!

Yeah, on further consideration its not the brightest idea...

I wasn't familiar with the US date conventions when I first joined, but it takes (like the Y and T) a few days to get used to.

Speaking of confusing... Yes, I've seen the US date format all my life, but also other date formats. When I come across 03.04.05 I have to check the source to know if it means 2003-APRIL-05, 2005-APRIL-03 or 2005-MARCH-04. It's not hard to lose track when you go from one document to the other and I got it wrong a few times. But then, everyone seems to agree on what 2005-04-03 means. What reason can there be to use anything else on an international forum?

 

[Kurdt]

Well considering the majority of the world uses dd/mm/yyyy it should be that.

The T and the Y I've already gotten used to and if its needed to keep the overall aesthetics of the site in check I don't mind. The time stamps were something I always loved from the Nexus skin. They are much more useful.

 

[out of whack]

I support http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html" .

 

[robphy]

Yeah, on further consideration its not the brightest idea...
Speaking of confusing... Yes, I've seen the US date format all my life, but also other date formats. When I come across 03.04.05 I have to check the source to know if it means 2003-APRIL-05, 2005-APRIL-03 or 2005-MARCH-04. It's not hard to lose track when you go from one document to the other and I got it wrong a few times. But then, everyone seems to agree on what 2005-04-03 means. What reason can there be to use anything else on an international forum?

While I personally use yyyy-mm-dd to label versions of files and while it is more logical,
I find it visually more appealing to read (especially when scanning quickly) dd-mm-yyyy or the more familiar but less-logical mm-dd-yyyy... since most of the years will be the same.

For me, the goal of the timestamps in the list of recent posts
is to identify the most-recent and most-active discussions.
(Since I'm daydreaming... let me go on to say that it would be
cool to have some color coding to indicate the level of recent activity ("hot topic") based on the rate of recent-postings rather than the number of posts. [I haven't decoded the envelope-symbols on the left column.] It would also be nice to see some kind of "quality of discussion" rating as seen in http://www.fatwallet.com/c/18/ ..maybe one-vote per user, like the Photo Contests... maybe more weight to votes by Mentors etc...)