Date name shuffle (promote sorting)

JessicAhh

manofcopper wrote: »

I don't agree that people will forget/be confused: people are pretty smart really and can figure out that 11/27 does not in fact mean the 11th of Octoember. .

Really? Do you see how many people new to the site post comps without the correct format as it is now? Trying to make them use the MM/DD format would cause more problems - I agree they will realise 11/27 is in MM/DD format, but probably not 01/02, for example.

I like that the board is instantly accessible to newcomers, without them needing to ask questions and figure out an American-style date format.

I think that this MM/DD sorting ability would make life easier only for those who comp by end date... And even then limited use. Have you tried using weeowens' link to sort the board by end date? That seems to work well enough.

JessicAhh

ellisplace wrote: »

And what happens when new people post the incorrect date, or don't post the date at all? Forum member request a correction, and it gets implemented immediately.

:eek: Some days I post a note on the forum for alteration and send a PM. Then the user makes a change to the title, but not the full change required. Another PM. Then the post gets moved to Game Over, and the OP changes the title while it's in Game Over. Another PM to get a BG to move it back to the main board.

Maybe you don't see all this happening (especially if you're an end date comper, who isn't working with newly posted comps), but as someone who is regularly helping people get their titles correct, I do, and - trust me - nothing happens immediately, or without significant effort from both other users and the BGs.

manofcopper

JessicAhh wrote: »

Really? Do you see how many people new to the site post comps without the correct format as it is now? Trying to make them use the MM/DD format would cause more problems - I agree they will realise 11/27 is in MM/DD format, but probably not 01/02, for example.

Yes people post incorrect titles now, presumably because they don't know the correct format or they forget. But the number of people who are *completely* new to the site (i.e. haven't entered comps already on the board and therefore wouldn't know that the date is mm/dd) that would post a comp not knowing the date format would be tiny so would make little overall difference.

With regards 01/02 not being recognised as 02 Jan, a page on the forum is going to show 20 comps standard. I highly doubt that even if you somehow forget that the dates are mm/dd when looking at a 01/02 comp, there won't be a 01/13 or above on the page as well to remind you. I just really don't think it is a difficult thing for people to remember once told.

Anyway, as I said, I think the benefit is very limited compared to the huge task of changing the format retrospectively.

JessicAhh

I'll agree to disagree, MoC

manofcopper

JessicAhh wrote: »

I'll agree to disagree, MoC

Nooooooo! We are exchanging views on an internet forum - we must argue until our last breath!

Zanzib

I hate mm/dd settings in competitions.

My brain goes on go slow as it tries to make sense of it.

_pale_

BlueBella

Zanzib wrote: »

I hate mm/dd settings in competitions.

My brain goes on go slow as it tries to make sense of it.

_pale_

Me too - American and other foreign sites use the date MM/DD but we are not foreign! :eek: AND it even confuses Roboform at times and he is a robot!!!!

brownhandbag

Please do not change the date format, we are a UK site not American.

ellisplace

I hear a classic case of "why change, its always been like that."

Case closed. I will not bug you any more.
;-)

Phantasma

If you were starting from scratch with this, YYYYMMDD format would allow posts to be completely sorted by date order, at the moment it only really sorts on day. If you do a sort on date, ends of different months appear together. But so long as you pay attention to what you're doing it doesn't really matter, and at worst you accidentally enter a competition earlier than you strictly needed to :-)

YYYYMMDD would be cleaner for sorts, but on balance .... *shrug* :-)