Confusing date format used on localized web pages

[+LHCper]

I was checking for when I event would take place and found this:

As you maybe can see this is a localized page where my local language is used.

But the date shown is used USA style instead of localized. 

 

So I think you change this to use a better date format.

Either going for ISO standard (ie 2025/08/02).
Or making the dates localized as well.
(I believe DD/MM/YYYY is much more common globally.)

 

The same applies for example when searching for geocaches, and the list show last found and hidden dates. These are always a bit confusing for someone who are used to dd/mm(/yyyy).
To be clear we - and most of the world - do tend to write YYYY-MM-DD, as given by the ISO standard - to make things clear.
 

[+LHCper]

Here is how the list of geocaches looks like in the localized format.
So km is used instead of miles.
But for dates you need to look around to see that mm/dd/yyyy is used.

dd/mm/yyyy would be better, but yyyy-mm-dd best, according to me.

[+barefootjeff]

2 hours ago, LHCper said:

Or making the dates localized as well.
(I believe DD/MM/YYYY is much more common globally.)

 

The same applies for example when searching for geocaches, and the list show last found and hidden dates. These are always a bit confusing for someone who are used to dd/mm(/yyyy).

 

Have you set your preferred date format in your profile settings?

 

 

Mine is set to dd/mm/yyyy and cache page dates and search results all show the date in the correct format, for example this event tomorrow:

[+NLBokkie]

If only the months would be spelled out (even shortened), I think there can be no more confusion as to what date is meant. I'd like to see that as I too get confused regularly between places where the US- and other formats are used. AFAIK, the US is the only one using MM/DD/YYYY, but out of context it's pretty hard to find out if 1/2/2025 is the first day of February or the second day of January. If it shows "1 Feb 2025" or "Jan 2 2025" it's always clear which day is meant, even out of context and regardless of the date format setting chosen.

Edited September 23, 2024 by NLBokkie

[+thebruce0]

yyyy-mm-dd is universally the best choice, programmatically, intuitively, and as a compromise for all the localized formats. Honestly life would be better if everyone just used the same easy format

Yes, in some contexts (where day or month # is far more useful and valuable than the year # which may be irrelevant) it's extraneous. But in a context like this, where all 3 elements may have equal chance to be equally important, it's just simpler, imo.

[+sejtam]

THis is also an issue in the email notifications. I jut got one for an event in SIngapore that says

 

Date: 07/09/2025 10:00 - 10:30

 

and I can only *guess*. whether this is 7 September or 9 July (my guess is the latter, given the US centricism of Groundspeak) 

[+sejtam]

On 9/24/2024 at 12:08 AM, thebruce0 said:

yyyy-mm-dd is universally the best choice,

 

It's not only the best choice, but also an international standard:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

[+barefootjeff]

7 hours ago, sejtam said:

THis is also an issue in the email notifications. I jut got one for an event in SIngapore that says

 

Date: 07/09/2025 10:00 - 10:30

 

and I can only *guess*. whether this is 7 September or 9 July (my guess is the latter, given the US centricism of Groundspeak) 

 

Again the date format in email event notifications follows the preferred format set in your Profile settings. My date is set to dd/mm/yyyy and this is an event notification email I got yesterday:

 

 

Clearly it's on the first of July.

 

If you (or anyone else) prefers yyyy-mm-dd, that's an option available in the Profile settings, with four different varieties to pick from:

 

[+Goldenwattle]

11 hours ago, sejtam said:

THis is also an issue in the email notifications. I jut got one for an event in SIngapore that says

 

Date: 07/09/2025 10:00 - 10:30

 

and I can only *guess*. whether this is 7 September or 9 July (my guess is the latter, given the US centricism of Groundspeak) 

Singapore uses day, month, year. Like most of us around the world. I had no problem with getting to a meet and greet there from the date they published. 

[+The A-Team]

18 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Again the date format in email event notifications follows the preferred format set in your Profile settings. My date is set to dd/mm/yyyy and this is an event notification email I got yesterday:

 

 

Clearly it's on the first of July.

 

Interestingly, while I checked and confirmed that my cache notification emails do follow my preferences, the trackable emails don't. My preference is set to "dd/MMM/yyyy" (e.g. 15/Jun/2025), but trackable notification emails are using "mm/dd/yyyy". Looking back, it appears that the trackable emails have always ignored my preference through multiple iterations of the notification email style.

[+thebruce0]

d-m-y may be a linguistic preference, but logically y-m-d hits more targets. It sorts properly, and it's logically consistent, and it supports its own structure (you see year first, your mind immediate recognizes most-least significance, jumping to m-d as the next info) - as a general rule. Even if you're used to m-d-y, you see y-m-d and you should immediately understand the structure. It's self-supporting and self-explanatory. 

In some regions and for some people (like me) m/d/y is linguistically more sensible, but one region's preference won't always match another. y-m-d may not be a preference somewhere, but that's really its own downfall, balanced by its many other benefits.

 

IMO, your format date should start with your regional preference but the fallback should be y-m-d if there's any confusion.

 

Even better, just include a light caption with any date data that indicated the structure. Even if it's default or already chosen.

[+Goldenwattle]

57 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

d-m-y may be a linguistic preference, but logically y-m-d hits more targets.

Either would be okay for me. Just not the unique m-d-y, only used in one country.