Relative dates (today, 4 hours ago) should go!

[ERD50]

This is a little more than a Pet Peeve, as it really does mess with trying to understand something.

So much of our electronic communication (posts, twiiter-like stuff, live TV news) uses relative dates/times (10 minutes ago, today, 4 hours ago, 2 weeks ago, 6 months ago, 1 year ago, etc). The big problem with that is, often, someone will post a screenshot of that information, and now we see the post was "4 hours ago". OK, that's when the screenshot was taken, how do I know when the post was made? That can be important, was it before/after some other event?

If it gives the actual date/time (25NOV2022 11:36AM CT), everyone knows, and it holds for all future times.

And news casts, and things like live events (speeches, important announcements, court TV, etc), should always have the real date/time displayed in a corner. When you go back to look (say they are posted to YouTube or similar), there is no easy was to reference a specific point in the video, or to know when the event occurred. Different posts may have clipped it at different times, so you can't just say "at the 16 minute mark" w/o also linking a specific video. If you said - the comment at 11:36AM, everyone would know what you mean.

With some recent court cases, I was watching a few hours after the live stream, and I was trying to follow some comments on another forum. But w/o real-time on the court TV screen, it's hard to match the near-real-time comments with the actual court time events.

This forum is a mix, it uses relative times for recent posts, then converts to date/time for things older than yesterday (I think?). I did bring this up, apparently no easy solution, and not such a big deal here. I just prefer the actual over relative times (or relative in addition to real time in some cases).

-ERD50

 

[CaptTom]

Yes! That irritates me too.

With me the worst is texts from my credit card companies. A few days later when I want to enter the purchase into my system, the first thing I need is the date of the transaction. It doesn't take "Monday." It wants a real date. Now I have to count back in my head, or pull up a calendar, to figure out what date Monday was.

Yes, it's a very minor annoyance. But it shows the real problem with software designers. Just because you can calculate the day of the week from the date, doesn't mean you should.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

Articles online with no date showing for when it was actually written drives me bonkers.
I always look for the date and if it isn’t there I don’t waste my time reading it.

 

[John Galt III]

Articles online with no date showing for when it was actually written drives me bonkers.
I always look for the date and if it isn’t there I don’t waste my time reading it.

Agree. And the corollary, which is an article that talks about something that happened in a certain city, but never mentions what state the **** city is in!! Like I'm supposed to know that Bluffberg is in Idaho.

 

[Letj]

My pet peeve too! “Researching” on the internet is the worst. Oftentimes you can’t tell when the article was posted or written.

 

[jazz4cash]

One of the all-time top irritants for me. It’s rampant. I see news shows with clips that say “Live”….on a reel repeating over and over. My Fidelity Account Summary page is a mish mosh of values as of right now, this morning yesterday’s close, etc. I’m starting to notice web postings with no date at all. EVERYTHING needs a timestamp!!!
3:40 pm EST. 11/25/2022

 

[CaptTom]

Articles online with no date showing for when it was actually written drives me bonkers.

Agree. And the corollary, which is an article that talks about something that happened in a certain city, but never mentions what state the **** city is in!!

Yes! Two more good ones!

Dates can also be fake. There are lots of "best Widget to buy in 2022" web sites which were written long ago, but the titles are changed every year, or even every month.

Sometimes they don't even give the city. They use region or city nicknames like "Lakes Region" or "Queen City" or whatever.

 

[W2R]

This forum is a mix, it uses relative times for recent posts, then converts to date/time for things older than yesterday (I think?).

But, but, but.... It's 3 PM here, and your post says it was posted today at 11:45 AM (our time). That's pretty specific, right? And later on it will specify November 25th. OK, I kind of "get it" but as long as I know the date and time it was posted (which I do), I can't figure out why I should be annoyed by it.

 

[ERD50]

But, but, but.... It's 3 PM here, and your post says it was posted today at 11:45 AM (our time). That's pretty specific, right? And later on it will specify November 25th. OK, I kind of "get it" but as long as I know the date and time it was posted (which I do), I can't figure out why I should be annoyed by it.

But, if you were to leave that page/tab open, and come back tomorrow, it will still say "today at 11:45 AM" (until you refresh it). I keep lots of tabs open, and when I scan through them, I may not recall if I refreshed it or not - so that "today" might be several days old.

Or of I take a screenshot to save or email someone, I don't have a date, I only have "today" - which won't mean anything in the future. That's the issue with so many screenshot 'tweets' I see posted in other places - the tweet just has the relative time, so I really have no idea when it was posted.

In fact, your attachment demonstrates the problem. Like "Groundhog Day", I'll be posting that everyday @ 11:45 AM from now to eternity! It's always "today"!

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

Lots of good examples, I won't quote them all, but this one...

One of the all-time top irritants for me. It’s rampant. I see news shows with clips that say “Live”….on a reel repeating over and over. ...

Yep. It says "Live" but it obviously is not! Put the time on it!

I'm not a sports fan, but I occasionally watch baseball, and if I'm multi-tasking and look up, sometimes they repeat a play, and I'm thinking this is the play right now - how hard would it be to label it "REPLAY"? I guess they do that sometimes, but I recall being confused, so I don't think it happens all the time.

-ERD50

 

[Koolau]

Completely agree about documenting date/time in posted articles and communications on the net.

Like my favorite late 60's cartoon poster: Charlie Brown is looking typically forlorn and states: "I'm learning to only dread one day at a time."

I looked on the net and found a few versions of the cartoon, but don't think any of them are the one I remember. Keep in mind, I was in University at the time, so it's been a while.

There are so many things in this world that are just "wrong" that I'm trying to prioritize them and not get irritated by things I have no control over. I don't always succeed as I'm sure most here have noticed. YMMV

 

[Chuckanut]

I had taken my car to fixed by a recommended mechanic located on Main Street.
The car repair shop had a sign on the front door that said:

Will Return in one hour.

I cannot recommend him if you traveling through Springfield and need your car fixed.

 

[MissMolly]

Completely agree about documenting date/time in posted articles and communications on the net.

Like my favorite late 60's cartoon poster: Charlie Brown is looking typically forlorn and states: "I'm learning to only dread one day at a time."

I looked on the net and found a few versions of the cartoon, but don't think any of them are the one I remember. Keep in mind, I was in University at the time, so it's been a while.

There are so many things in this world that are just "wrong" that I'm trying to prioritize them and not get irritated by things I have no control over. I don't always succeed as I'm sure most here have noticed. YMMV

Is this it?

 

[Koolau]

Is this it?

I remember it as "I'm learning to only dread one day at a time." But memory is fickle. The world and my experience has changed a lot of memories. I find this out when I watch old movies that I recall from as early as age 5 (70 years ago.) I will have a clear memory of a line or phrase from a movie and then find out I had mis-remembered it. Of course, sometimes I am spot on which is pretty amazing.

When I was age 5 my family went to St. Augustine FL and visited the old Spanish fort there. We then drove to the "oldest remaining house in the continental USA" less than a mile away from the fort. FF to age 65. DW and I stopped at St. Augustine and visited the fort. We wanted to go see the "oldest house..." and DW couldn't figure out the map to it. I said "Forget the map." I drove to it in one try. Returning you now...

 

[MissMolly]

Well, there's also this one

 

[ls99]

Meh, unless watching a live feed, performance etc., as it is happening, everything is history.

 

[yclipse]

It happens with tech support, too

If you need to find out how to handle a particular software issue, you will usually look it up online. The answer that you find, however, may have been posted two weeks ago or it may have been posted five years ago. Very often it will not tell you.

I constantly see references to menu choices and selections that worked with version 1.3 several years ago, but just don't appear anywhere with the current version 2.1.

 

[Koolau]

Well, there's also this one

That's IT! Thanks.

 

[isisdave]

Did someone already offer this? Yahoo posts links to articles that are behind paywalls. Especially Wall Street Journal. These sites should have some way of telling "oh, this is a link from Yahoo, let him read this article" or alternatively Yahoo should stop linking to them. Aargh.

MarketWatch is another. I've figured out how to tell Chrome to delete marketwatch.com cookies when I close the tab, so it always thinks I have a few articles left.

[Settings->Privacy and Security->Cookies and Other Site Data->Customized behaviors

Under that is Always clear cookies when windows are closed; fill in a site's URL here or a little farther down at Sites that can never use cookies. Bwaah-haah-haah-haah.....

 

[JoeWras]

This is a feature, not a bug.

It is all for click-throughs. People skip stale articles. Obscuring the date helps keep engagement.

As a matter of fact, even worse than obscuring the date, I've noticed a trend of some sort of robo-updater tweaking articles or web pages to give fresh times.

This is really getting out of control.