Complaint: Forum post dates/timestamps

[Watanabe_1994]

I just would like to say that I'm not a really a big fan of the whole new vague post dates for the forums, it gets really confusing on what post was made on what day.

Like here's an example, I was looking at this thread about old laptops (https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=5755.0) and post number #8 states that he can't find the cable to charge his Toshiba 4090XCDT. So I helped him find the parts numbers and a direction of were to go. The thing is I CANT TELL IF THE POST WAS MADE A DAY AGO OR A MONTH AGO! Its just "on a summer night" not made July 4 2026 or June 15 2025. I DONT KNOW IF HE CHUCKED THE DAMN THING IN THE E-WASTE BIN OR NOT!

Case in point, revert the time-scheme. Its not cute, its not cool. Its (pardon my language)

Spoiler

FUCKING STUPID

[close]

.

[Dan Q]

Just change it in your settings. Nobody's forcing you to use it that way! 

[Noah_S]

You can change it in profile, look and layout. Uncheck Dundee mode.

[rnottelovesowls]

what they said above, but also, is it really that big of a deal? it's an optional cosmetic feature that you can disable if you don't want. i don't think it's worth calling "f[REDACTED]ing stupid" or anything

[Melooon]

Why would an answer to one person yesterday, not still mean something to that person, or someone else, 100 years from now? Why do you assume your answer even has the effect you expect it to? There are lots of things to be angry about, but your own expectations are on you, that's nothing to do with the forum.

The time switch is not meant to be cute or cool, its meant make you question what time means, and its ok if that scares you, time scares most people 

[Dan Q]

The time switch is not meant to be cute or cool, its meant make you question what time means, and its ok if that scares you, time scares most people 

Well-put.

I like the feature. I like that it makes posts feel "timeless" and separate from the conventional super-accurate timelines what we normally see around... and instead more like the fuzzy moments like "I'll see you about an hour after the sun comes up".

Sometimes the date and time matters. I look at a historical post and it says that something just happened and I want to know when that was. But I can switch to get it! I'd prefer if it were easier to make that switch: but it's not hard by any stretch.

And it pays for itself in the meantime by reminding us that time is so much more complex than we think. Which also happens to be cute and cool... but that's not the point of it!

(Although IIRC it is a bit Northern-hemisphere-centric...)

[Noah_S]

I like it, but I have it turned off because it disorients me. I use the timestamps to tell me about new posts. I prefer timestamps over "X minutes ago" for the same reason. My brain can't retain much, and timestamps function as an accessibility aid for me.

But I grew up on the old internet, way before the social media cycle made it taboo to respond to anything older than 24 hours. Coming here and realizing that people don't get annoyed if I post a response to something from months ago was a relief.

[Melooon]

Although IIRC it is a bit Northern-hemisphere-centric...

I think that's important too though, the site is not a cloud that exists in a void, its a real place. It runs on a real server, with real hardware, and real people who go to work every day to keep it running. It's address is on this list (Prob Dublin or Carlow), so when you are visiting this site, you are traveling to Dublin or Carlow as pulses of electricity and light. When the date says "a Summer day" it really was a summer day outside that server!

[Dan Q]

when you are visiting this site, you are traveling to Dublin or Carlow as pulses of electricity and light

Huh. Hadn't thought about it that way. I wonder if it could/should go further and include a reference to, say, the weather at the location too?

Aaron Parecki does this thing where the background of his personal site is a map of his current location. Like him, I keep a tracker on me at virtually all times and could probably do the same; I've always found it an inspiring idea. Like: this site is the online representation of me, and my location on the Earth is one of the most-fundamental things about me, so why shouldn't that be part of the site!

But a service like this one is... more like a shared "third space", and so its location is a place one goes "to". And going there may be more or less convenient, depending on where you travel "from" (I'll bet ping times are worse from the antipodes). A site with a bajillion edge-CDN endpoints might exist "globally", but most websites exist in a "place", even if that place is abstracted away by being shared throughout a datacentre. If we met in a cafe or a pub or a makerspace or a beach... it'd be a place we "went"; why can't a website be that, too?

So yeah, I see what you're saying. A website can be "open" to the world, but it can still have a geographic presence. Like how Terence Eden's blog is proudly in the en-GB locale, because if you want to understand him then you might need to look up a Britishism once in a while, because it's his website. You're welcome to visit, but you're visiting him, and he has a geographic bias, and he's reminding you of that.

When you visit Melonland, you're (virtually) visiting (somewhere in) Ireland. Sláinte agus táinte!

[dotmidi]

Case in point, revert the time-scheme. Its not cute, its not cool. Its (pardon my language)

Spoiler

FUCKING STUPID

[close]

.

It's nothing to get so worked up about, trust! 

[Memory]

I really don't like that it's on by default. I didn't even know there was a setting to turn it off at all until someone told me it was an option. It's already hard for me to keep track of time with my AuDHD, and the vagueness did not help.

[fablefound]

i will say, i'm in two minds about the whole thing. as op said, it's helpful to have a knowledge of when certain things happened for convenience's sake...

and then i also totally understand the idea around it. the fact the internet CAN have a relationship with time as demonstrated in dundee mode is fascinating and worth exploration.

... buuuut i personally have it toggled off because i just like knowing how old posts are. probably a holdover from forums that were stricter about necro-ing, but i digress.

i dunno. nuance i guess! 

[Noah_S]

I like it, but I have it turned off because it disorients me. I use the timestamps to tell me about new posts. I prefer timestamps over "X minutes ago" for the same reason. My brain can't retain much, and timestamps function as an accessibility aid for me.

But I grew up on the old internet, way before the social media cycle made it taboo to respond to anything older than 24 hours. Coming here and realizing that people don't get annoyed if I post a response to something from months ago was a relief.

I see the need to write a public statement about this because of a blog entry yesterday. It's now been deleted, but I have no idea how many people saw it before it was deleted. It linked to this thread and said that one user had written that they use timestamps as accessibility because of their ADHD. I'm the only one in this thread who mentioned using timestamps for accessibility, so it would be easy for audience having come from that blog to assume that the writer knew from somewhere else that I have ADHD.

I do not have ADHD. I understand that that's the default assumption for many when someone uses timestamps for accessibility because ADHD is the one that's famous for resulting in people struggling with keeping track of time, but that's not the case for me. Please let this be a reminder to not make assumptions about people's health based on vague posts online. There are more things than the most famous thing that can result in using certain accessibility tools.

If you are the writer of that blog post, I don't hold this against you. But I still see the need to clarify because I don't want your audience making incorrect assumptions about me based on what you wrote. I have enough health issues as it is, there's no need for rumors about more.

[arcus]

I see the need to write a public statement about this because of a blog entry yesterday. It's now been deleted, but I have no idea how many people saw it before it was deleted. It linked to this thread and said that one user had written that they use timestamps as accessibility because of their ADHD. I'm the only one in this thread who mentioned using timestamps for accessibility, so it would be easy for audience having come from that blog to assume that the writer knew from somewhere else that I have ADHD.

The blog author is likely talking about this post, two posts above your post:

It's already hard for me to keep track of time with my AuDHD, and the vagueness did not help.

so when you are visiting this site, you are traveling to Dublin or Carlow as pulses of electricity and light. When the date says "a Summer day" it really was a summer day outside that server!

Set the date names to Gaeilge to improve the experience.

[Noah_S]

The blog author is likely talking about this post, two posts above your post:

It's possible.

But that one doesn't specifically mention using them for accessibility. And I don't want their audience making incorrect assumptions about me based on unclear phrasing.