Real Dates Please

It truly amazes me, even after Y2K, how hard it is for internet people to use real dates.

I am not so concerned about the format, as long as it isn't ambiguous. But dates like "May05" really irritate me.

Is this May 05, 2006, or May 2005, or what? I am used to going to old news articles on CNN, etc, and finding no year on the article (or sometimes even a date, for that matter), and therefore having to make some effort from the context of the article to determine how recent it is (and sometimes, how relevant). Furthermore, I might want to include a date for a search, and stuff like May05 sure doesn't help that either.

Is this completely unreasonable, or does everyone have a love affair with using two digits to represent the year?

It's completely unreasonable, of course :) Seriously, I think it's easy enough to tell from context, normally. It's very rare for the exact date to matter on this Wiki, and where it does it will normally have the day of the month *and* the year. So a month and two digits is pretty much always going to be a year.

We should all use only ISO format, religiously. Posted on 20060306T164434 GMT. Ish

Think how much we save on memory by only using two characters for the year! No, I am fine with providing only the month and a year, if that is as specific as the date reference is, I just don't understand why people still shorten the year to the last two digits. Is it really that hard to write "May2005"?

Plus, is it that hard to use spaces? What advantage does "May2005" have over "May 2005"? None, as far as I can see. And when it comes to date formats, yyyy-mm-dd is unambiguous enough to work. -- not the previous italicized person

It makes the search not have to include a space, which in some cases is really useful. -- Someone completely different

I normally use a format, omitting the spaces of yyyymmdd for a day, hhmmss for a time, yyyymmddhhmmss for a date-time. I also use tue, Tuesday, and T for Tuesday, depending on where or when it is used and what it is the weekday is to present in the way of information. As far as spaces go, the title of this page is displayed "RealDatesPlease" on the edit page while it is "Real Dates Please" on the page displayed on the initial browser page. ItDepends applies here. It is a "convention" you are having a problem with, particularly: the conventions that another has used. Unless you are in a position of forcing a convention on the other, by way of power, or specification (as in a program), or if you are unable to express that irritation to it's use to the one who uses it, it should be considered trivial, and a matter of individual expression. It is good however that you have expressed your irritation for your own health's sake. -- drn

Your page titles argument is a StrawMan, so I'll ignore it. Please hold back on the self-righteousness; what "ItDepends" on is whether you value your individual expression over the comfort of other WikiReaders. I'll bet you a pint that more people dislike "Mar05" than like it. -- the same

Let me concentrate only on:

 I am not so concerned about the format, as long as it isn't ambiguous. But dates like "May05" really irritate me.

All that have similar irritation: Disregard all that I have said by way of opinion up to the last sentence. To those irritated with any part of my opinion: Let it survive for at least a day, then delete it, I will not preserve it by restoring it here. -- DonaldNoyes

WantedPage: TheDangersOfOmittingInformation?

MarchZeroSix (pun intended)

OnlySayThingsThatCanBeHeard

Does that mean you don't get the pun? Otherwise, I don't follow.

No, sorry, explanation:

 It is a page reference and applies as: a commentary on communication as a two way street, 
 having both speakers and listeners, and the needs of each.

Every time I show someone new this RealDate?: 20070809, they sort of get it within a few seconds. That's a date. Or at least the beginning on one. For Noon: 20070809.12 is unambiguous except for time zones. -- ChrisGarrod

CategoryTime