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rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
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rchandra to justin

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to justin

Re:  

Invariance. I'd rather see an absolute time all the time, instead of "6 minutes ago" (from what time? When was the page last fetched/displayed? 10 minutes ago, or 10 seconds ago, or 10 hours ago?) or "yesterday 10:17" or whatever. If I really wanted to know the relative time, I can at least come close enough for gummint work in my head if I really wanna. This is also an annoyance with Goggle+, although if one hovers their pointer over such a time, the tooltip/title/whatever displays the absolute date/time. Of course this is assuming one has a pointer to hover (not true on an Android tablet for example).

justin
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justin

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said by rchandra:

(from what time? When was the page last fetched/displayed? 10 minutes ago, or 10 seconds ago, or 10 hours ago?) or "yesterday 10:17" or whatever.

From your local time, if you have it set, or from EDT, if you don't. And obviously when the page was loaded which is in 99% of the cases at that moment.

Note that for years the forum topic list has shown the same relative times for time of last post, or topic creation.

I think it makes it more human, less mechanical.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

1 recommendation

OZO to rchandra

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to rchandra
I share similar filling with regards to this new Google-style time stamps (Today, Yesterday, X min ago, etc mixed with ISO-style time stamps) Why not to keep uniformity in date / time stamps all the time?

If there are those who don't know what day and time is right now and can't see that post was sent 10 min ago without someone's help, offer "time stamps for dummies" configuration option in profile settings... Don't parrot Microsoft's approach in recent desktop development and dumb down the interface. Believe me,there're still people, who know how to handle standard time stamps

justin
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justin

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Where are the ISO timestamps that they are mixed with?

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
Premium Member
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105
ARRIS ONT1000GJ4
EnGenius EAP1250

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rchandra to justin

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to justin
I understand the TZ setting and having a default TZ, but "99% of the time?" I guess you have a less interrupted life (or maybe simply more discipline) than I do. An email pops in which I've been waiting for, the timer starts beeping saying my pasta is done boiling, the phone rings, all kinds of distractions which could make the times near each post less than useful. Unless you want to run a whole lot of page updating code (which is arguably worse), a relative displayed time is inaccurate at best.

Also, sorry to say, I know I don't read as fast as most folks so seeing "30 minutes ago" (or whatever) could be close to the stated 30 minutes ago, 35 minutes ago, or who knows, depending on how much there is to read on that page. Some posts can be a single line, some can be 10 or 15 paragraphs, it just all depends.

Even if we assume no external distractions, there are also several other variation factors. I don't know how many quick replies I might pause to type...I could zip through a page in two minutes (just reading), or I could spend a half hour (or more!), especially if there are links in the posts which I would open in a new browser tab or window, then return to the thread to continue reading.

I just don't think it's a particularly useful idea. Others may not concur, I realize. And it might be a chore to make it yet one more profile item to configure how one wants to see their post times.
OZO
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OZO to justin

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to justin
In posts older then Yesterday.

justin
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join:1999-05-28
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justin

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Yes, but if it is older than yesterday or today there is no better way to say it and a timestamp is fine.

I like the relative times when it is today or yesterday, as it indicates much more clearly that the post is very current - not something dredged up from 2011.

edit: to rchandra
I'd still like understand why, outside comfortable familiarity, it is vital to know the exact time something was posted when it was posted in the last hour. (of course if it was older than an hour, the time is clear). Perhaps an illustrated example would be helpful, even including coming back to a topic that was loaded 30 minutes ago. If I am convinced, I can throw the server time stamp and local timestamp into the stuff that appears when you click "actions". But I'm doubtful outside of a few hypothetical cases that showing an age (only for posts made in the last hour) can cause issues.

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
Premium Member
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105
ARRIS ONT1000GJ4
EnGenius EAP1250

1 recommendation

rchandra to OZO

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to OZO
So what's meant is we see a mixture of "Today 20 minutes ago," "Today at 12:32," "Yesterday at 2:40," and "2013-Jul-11 3:40 pm," when really it's just simplest to keep that at the last form.

That's another matter too...24hr time vs. AM and PM. I would prefer the former, but that's just a minor cosmetic thing.

justin
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join:1999-05-28
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Billion BiPAC 7800N
Apple AirPort Extreme (2011)

justin

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And what is wrong with that mixture?

Because the posts ARE fundamentally different. Today is different than yesterday (the majority of users on the site work on a day/night cycle as the majority are in the US zones), the last hour is different than today. And prior to yesterday we've little to no interest in relative time.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

OZO to rchandra

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to rchandra
said by rchandra:

That's another matter too...24hr time vs. AM and PM. I would prefer the former, but that's just a minor cosmetic thing.

Concur. Could you please offer us an option to use 24hr time stamps here?

justin
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join:1999-05-28
2031

justin

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I'm not doing any additional personalisation options until most layout changes are finished otherwise it complicates things too much.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

OZO

Premium Member

Understandable. But if you make layout changes, expect that there will always be those, who want to keep what they've used to for many years.

I'm indirectly implying that the best way to do it is - configuration options offered at the same time and, as a result, all will be happy

justin
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join:1999-05-28
2031

justin

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after 13 years of this I'm more than used to the understandable revulsion when something familiar changes. I have nothing against personalisation options as well but they are fragile if the layout is a moving target.

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
Premium Member
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105
ARRIS ONT1000GJ4
EnGenius EAP1250

rchandra to justin

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to justin
Ummm...accuracy? No, I see your point, it's not what I would necessarily term "vital." But I think you came up with an illustrative example on your own; page load time does not necessarily have anything to do with present time.

Server local time is probably not relevant to most, unless they also live in the same TZ (in which case it's fairly irrelevant anyway); local time would be plenty fine.

Hey, if you're looking for an indication of currency, you could use color, just like you do with topic listings background...you know, light red for hot, yellowish for not so recent, normal for older than a couple of days. I'm not sure what colors would work best though.

I just don't agree though (speaking about another post) that a post is somehow fundamentally different whether it is within the hour, or a couple days old. It's still information, most times valuable information.

Hey, like you hint at, I may be the oddball here, only visiting a couple of days a week intead of once or several times a day. So weight the importance accordingly.
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

OZO to justin

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to justin
BTW, while I was reading your post, I've got notification below that there is 29 more replies. After refreshing this thread I see only 1 new reply. I guess the functionality is somehow broken now. Those 29 replies reported are may be all replies sent to all threads during time I spent to read the post and notification surely is not related to that particular thread... Could you please check it?