• Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    but I’ll die on the hill that MM-DD-YYYY is better than DD-MM-YYYY

    So you do include the year, but just confusingly in the end?

    • tomenzgg
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      As I’ve said multiple times, – in your day to day – you don’t care about the year; it’s usually going to be the same year you’re in. So put the elements is the date you care about first. At least it’s always in an easy to find location.

      I never care about the day of the month unless I’m caring about the month itself. There’s never a case where I don’t care about the month; in the day-to-day, it’s the most used data point so it goes before the day of the month.

      It’s not confusing, just better tailored to actual usage.

        • tomenzgg
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          It’s fascinating to me how you quote the portion that’s right before

          I never care about the day of the month unless I’m caring about the month itself. There’s never a case where I don’t care about the month; in the day-to-day, it’s the most used data point so it goes before the day of the month.

          Are you going to tell me that, when reading a date off a paper you’ve been handed, you want to know the day of the month before ever knowing what month we’re taking about?

          22nd – without any further context – is useful to you?

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            I thought you were talking about the order of importance. You’d of course put the day first, then the less important stuff, right?

            Are you going to tell me that, when reading a date off a paper you’ve been handed, you want to know the day of the month before ever knowing what month we’re taking about?

            22nd – without any further context – is useful to you?

            I’d assume it’s the current month or the next one if that day has been passed. Like you said about the year. I get your idea and it’s smart.

            • tomenzgg
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              It’s possible we just have different experiences; I find the month is just too short a period for me to assume we’re in the same month. I feel like, when working with dates, I’m rarely in a context where the date is prevalent to the current day (outside of the year); I’m often fielding things a few months old, etc. That’s part of why I tend to find MM-DD-YYYY exponentially more useful.

              But, if that’s not your experience, I can see why it’s otherwise. That’s (obviously) fair.

              • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 day ago

                I’m not sure what else I would expect if someone just mentioned the day. If it’s an upcoming event nobody would say just 25th if it’s not the next 25th. It’s the same as with saying Wednesday, you’d assume it’s the next one.

                If it’s files or folders, I’d just go with YYYY-MM-DD for the automatic ordering. There neither DD-MM-YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY is very useful since it’ll fuck up the ordering. You’d want some folders and at that point you’re doing additional ordering so it doesn’t really matter what system you use if you bother to set it up.

                • tomenzgg
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  Oh, for sure but I wasn’t really considering verbal exchanges as part of it (as very few people say the entire date in conversation. Like, in discussing getting coffee, neither person’s expecting “2024, November 3rd” or “3 November, 2024”).

                  Definitely; like, anything archival is just going to have ISO-8601 make the most sense which is why I’ll freely admit, if we’re choosing a single format for written date, I do think ISO-8601 easily wins out.

                  But, if I’m dealing with students’ paperwork for the year, I’m probably going to care about the month first. I’d it’s, say, a landlord’s check, day of the month could be used but so could the month, in terms of importance. Looking up an old text? Possibly I might care about the day first but, usually, I’m looking for something old since it’s not fresh in my memory so I’m probably going to care about the month of the text first and the day after. That was my reasoning.

                  But I still think ISO-8601 wins out – overall –, for sure. I should probably just try to incorporate it into my own life more, by now.