Always use absolute date/time stamping for posts

mrjeeves

Yes, I made a script which tries its best to fix this: https://github.com/davwheat/giffgaff-flarum-better-post-dates

It only changes timestamps up to 2 days ago ~~but I can easily make a second version~~.

I've made a second version!

endorphin

UPDATE: Er, I installed tampermonkey but only your "original" script works, the "alternative" script doesn't appear to do anything?!

Perhaps I've done something wrong but it's odd that one script works but the other doesn't!?

mrjeeves

endorphin

I hadn't tested the alternative and just kind of hoped it worked... I'll look into it...

@endorphin Fixed it! I had removed the creation of a variable but forgot to remove where it was used.

Original

Alternative

endorphin

mrjeeves Fixed it

Great it works now. I've played around with the date/time format locally to get something to my liking:

$(el).html(`${d.toLocaleDateString([],{day:'numeric',month: 'short',year: '2-digit'})}, ${d.toLocaleTimeString([],{hour: '2-digit', minute:'2-digit'})}

I would prefer "23-Sep-19" to "23 Sep 19" but adding the hyphens looks like a bit more effort!

mrjeeves

endorphin You should be able to do that using a date format string like DD-MMM-YY, HH:MM.

There's a function for it somewhere.

endorphin

mrjeeves too much work just for a couple of hyphens! I prefer simple, short code. 🙂

guy_ow

endorphin Just a quick one (if you know already then no worries) - have you clicked on the time stamp itself? (should work from both mobile and desktop).

endorphin

guy_ow have you clicked on the time stamp itself?

Yes and it does show the full date and time and a link to the post which can be copied. However that's an extra unnecessary step, in my view, to determine when the post was made.

guy_ow

endorphin That's fair enough 🙂 just wanted to check you knew about that. I suppose what would help would be knowing what you yourself uses the time stamps for, as this will give some background as to why it could be good to change them.

endorphin

guy_ow I like to see how old certain posts are in the thread. But apart from that I find the current various methods of specifying the timestamp rather quaint, unintuitive and difficult to assimilate.

I haven't seen those methods of specifying timestamps used in other support sites, which makes giffgaff's site stand out, for better or worse!

mrjeeves

endorphin The 'human-readable' timestamps are quite common in modern forums.

I don't mind seeing it in normal text but 'one hour ago' is annoying compared to 'one hour and fifteen minutes ago', for example.

endorphin

mrjeeves the worst ones are those that say something like 13 hours ago and you're reading it at 0920. What time was that posted? Quickly now!

mrjeeves

endorphin

Erm! Well... Erm... Yesterday? 😂

extreme_one

endorphin mrjeeves the worst ones are those that say something like 13 hours ago and you're reading it at 0920. What time was that posted? Quickly now!

I do take your point but can't help finding it amusing to wonder why it matters exactly when a post was created. 🤣

13 hours ago is perfectly adequate for me, whether it was posted at precisely 20:20 or 21:20 or 22:44 isn't really going to give me much pause for thought.

Anyway, each to their own.

Keep up the good work. 😉

endorphin

extreme_one I...wonder why it matters exactly when a post was created

That's just the technician in me - I used to work in software where preciseness was key. Like spelling 'giffgaff' correctly all the time. 😉

mrjeeves

extreme_one Just preference, I guess!

suppers_ready

I'd prefer the exact date and time stamp as well. I'm compelled by years of programming to work out what date a month ago was, even though it's pointless to do so. (that's obsession with detail programming, not the computer variety).

figment_uk

@mrjeeves

Is it possible to modify your script so that posts from the last two days show “Today at 12:34”, “Yesterday at 16:54″ etc, while anything older shows the full date and time (“18 Jun 20 at 23:45″)?

Could it also be extended to include the dates shown under thread titles on the index pages?

mrjeeves

figment_uk

It’s definitely possible, yes.

I’ll need to look back over all the code but it shouldn’t be that difficult.

z201205

endorphin HH:MM DD-MMM-YY

My preference is using ISO date format: yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM. Perhaps it should be an option.

endorphin

z201205 Perhaps it should be an option.

Tampermonkey allows you to edit your own, local version of the script so you could rearrange the presentation of the date to your liking.

z201205

endorphin I’ve been told that doesn’t work on mobile