Displayed date ambiguity

[Kellock Bob]

As someone who expects dates to be displayed in the dd:mm:yyyy format I always find it confusing when they are in mm:dd:format especially when both dd & mm are <= 12.

Would it be possible to change the month element to the normal three letter abbreviation?

I appreciate that this may be hard coded by vBulletin but, perhaps if that is the case, they could be persuaded to make it optional.

Bob

[Laurent]

Hi Bob,

I searched my User CP (control panel) and found a setting for time zone, but nothing such as date format (mm.dd.yyyy / dd.mm.yyyy) or time format (0-12 AM-PM / 0-24). I always find the default formats disturbing. But that isn't the most important.

But maybe Steve might look if such options can be activated?

Laurent

[stefan]

Hi,

changed

Greetings,

steve

[Laurent]

Thank you Steve.
Laurent

[J.A.G.]

Yes, this looks much better, for most people outside the USA at least. For me, it would look completely perfect if today's and yesterday's date would replace the indications *Today* and *Yesterday*.

[stefan]

Yes, this looks much better, for most people outside the USA at least. For me, it would look completely perfect if today's and yesterday's date would replace the indications *Today* and *Yesterday*.

Hi,

updated

steve

[J.A.G.]

Thanks very much!

[cwb3106]

Did you implement Laurent's suggestion and add preferred date format to the CP? I've looked for it but only found a setting for time zone. If only a single format is possible, then I'd suggest dd-mmm-yyyy; e.g., 22-jun-2008.

[Laurent]

Hi cwb3106,

I don't see any settings for date format and time format. Maybe there is only one setting for the whole forum (dd.mm.yyyy and 0-12 AM/PM) and Steve only may modify it.

Laurent

[j7n]

then I'd suggest dd-mmm-yyyy; e.g., 22-jun-2008.

The ISO standard is 2008-06-22. Besides being unified for the whole world it also allows easy sorting by date in text format.

[cwb3106]

I'd be happy with that. I only suggested 03-aug-2008 because 03-08 can be read as March 8 or August 3 while 03-aug-2008 has no ambiguity. 2008-08-03 shouldn't be misread. I use that format all the time for exactly the reason j7n gives: sorting.

[apb]

I concur with the problem, but suggest a different solution. Date format should be user-selectable, either dd.mm.yyyy or mm.dd.yyyy. Or, for that matter, yyyy.mm.dd. This is a common feature of many forum programs. Many programs go even further, and use os defaults or region-based defaults.

[joefiesta]

This is really annoying. Everyone all over the world uses different date formats, but this forum seems to have only one. And that one is not very friendly if you don't know what it is.

As a programmer, I would prefer YYYYMMDD (the sort date format), but everyone is different. It's very annoying when its MM-DD-YYYY or DD-MM-YYYY. How can you tell which is being used if you can't set it?

Joe Petree

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

How can you tell which is being used if you can't set it?

Everyone knows that they are only 12 months in a year, and no fewer than 28 days in a month. Your post was on 31.12.2017, so that is obviously 31st December 2017. The thread was started on 26.01.2009, which was obviously 26th January 2009.

Since posts in a thread always follow one another, putting the date first before the month makes it easy to see the format used even when the date is 12 or less, e.g. 09.02.2018 follows 08.02.2008.

As noted in the OP, this is probably hard coded by VBulletin. If so, there's nothing that the site admin can do about it.

[Some-Assembler-Required]

As noted in the OP, this is probably hard coded by VBulletin. If so, there's nothing that the site admin can do about it.

It might have been hard coded in the past but it isn't any more. This link explains how to change the system-wide date format and includes examples.

Maybe this one would be acceptable:

Expanded European Format (e.g., 25th April 1998): jS F Y

Any PHP date format can be used.

Per user date formatting is a feature request for vBulletin you can vote on (you have to register at vBulletin first) by going to VBV-20921 - Provide ability to change Date Time Formats on a per user basis.