X hours ago vs. today/yesterday

[+Sonya* 748]

Our users complain about relative dates again and again. The main issue they have: they do not want to calculate how many hours ago is yesterday. They would like to differ between posts made today and yesterday. So they need clean statement today, 11:23 or yesterday, 23:43. At the moment if they see something like 19 hours ago they must work out if today is already longer as 19 hours then the post is from today. Otherwise from yesterday. A lot of our users wish to see what content has been published "TODAY". 

Can you please consider to change the logic of f_hours and f_hours_short to figure out whether the post has been made today or yesterday and print out the words instead of X hours ago?

Edited November 9 by Sonya*

[Jim M 602]

Curious, why does it matter if it was today or yesterday? Typically within 24 hours, I would just see as recent postings. Whether it was made today or yesterday really is irrelevant.

They can also hover over the time string and get the actual date and time of the post. Not helpful on mobile but an option. 

[+Sonya* 748]

Just now, Jim M said:

Curious, why does it matter if it was today or yesterday?

I do not know. But we have these complaints since we moved to 4.X a year(!) ago. They ask for it again and again. And there is always the same: 19 hours ago? I do not like to calculate what time it was.  "Unfortunately" we have over 70% mobile users 

[+TDBF 266]

Just now, Jim M said:

Curious, why does it matter if it was today or yesterday? Typically within 24 hours, I would just see as recent postings. Whether it was made today or yesterday really is irrelevant.

They can also hover over the time string and get the actual date and time of the post. Not helpful on mobile but an option. 

I personally would like an option an option to show the actual date on an article as opposed to the 'today/yesterday' especially with CMS articles.

I would also like the DATETIME functions to be able to display dates before the year 1900 rather than having to use a Textbox for dates.

[+Sonya* 748]

12 minutes ago, Jim M said:

Whether it was made today or yesterday really is irrelevant.

I have asked and they say they want to see clear post time, e. g. 8:00 or 9:00 and they do not want to calculate what time was 7 hours ago.  They are all women, if it relevant

[Jim M 602]

1 minute ago, Sonya* said:

I have asked and they say they want to see clear post time, e. g. 8:00 or 9:00 and they do not want to calculate what time was 7 hours ago.  They are all women, if it relevant

Resists making a joke...

 

What is the use case for knowing the exact time? Guess that's a better way to phrase the question. 

[+opentype 4,905]

I would dig deeper and continue asking. Just saying they want a specific time doesn’t explain the reasons. The reason would matter though to decide if I would want to take actions. Maybe it’s just a matter of “that’s how we are used to it”, which wouldn’t mean much to me. Or they somehow don’t use the “read markers” properly and want to judge from the time whether they have read the post already yesterday or something like that. Could be anything. 
It’s easy to make the case for relative time, especially online where people could be scattered across the globe, even on non-English communities. So having that as a default makes perfect sense. They would need extremely good reasons to have their system be better and worth setting as a default. 

Edited November 9 by opentype

[+TDBF 266]

4 minutes ago, Jim M said:

Resists making a joke...

 

What is the use case for knowing the exact time? Guess that's a better way to phrase the question. 

Submitted: 11 hours ago (But I only have 10 fingers! and is that from UTC or GMT time?),

Submitted: Yesterday (When exactly yesterday? 9am, 9pm or 12:30 or 14:43 23:58? ),

Submitted: Today (When exactly today? See above!),

Submitted: 09 November 2019 at 3:45pm (No need to work the date and time because it is there for all to see).

For some people, Today and Yesterday have no meaning at all and they do not want to work it out out either. Having the date shown as the 4th option is straight forward and easy for our members to visualise when a post was submitted, without having to resort to mathematics.

[+Sonya* 748]

2 minutes ago, opentype said:

Maybe it’s just a matter of “that’s how we are used to it”

Sure. Also this. This was how 3.X had displayed the dates. I have ignored the complaints for one year. But now, we have moved a year ago, it is starting to get annoying to hear it again and again.

4 minutes ago, opentype said:

Or they somehow don’t use the “read markers” properly

Or, they do. Believe me. I have installed every plugin that restores the "unread" functionality from 3.X They need it really. It is a very busy community. They are creating content without pause. As already said, they are women and they like to talk. 

I guess the only reason is: we really want to see the time when it was posted. Whether at 8:00, 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock today. They want to see this time afternoon and not to calculate back what time was exactly as the post has been made. That's all. Just be able to see the time.

8 minutes ago, opentype said:

It’s easy to make the case for relative time

This is not about relative time in general. They are happy with X minutes ago (there is no so much to calculate). And they are happy with yesterday, 11:23. The whole complaints are only against X hours ago.

[+opentype 4,905]

5 minutes ago, TDBF said:

Submitted: 11 hours ago (But I only have 10 fingers! and is that from UTC or GMT time?),

As a joke, this is really funny. 

 

3 minutes ago, Sonya* said:

I guess the only reason is: we really want to see the time when it was posted. Whether at 8:00, 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock today. They want to see this time afternoon and not to calculate back what time was exactly as the post has been made. That's all. Just be able to see the time.

We are going in circles. Describing WHAT one wants is not a description of the WHY someone wants this. It keeps coming back to “having to figure out the specific time”. Fine! Now why do you need that information, user? 😉 There must be a reason. 

(Not that I have a horse in this race arguing for or against how IPS or your site should handle this. I’m just making a logical point. Not wanting to drag this out. Sorry.)

[+Sonya* 748]

27 minutes ago, opentype said:

WHY someone wants this

It is obvious for me. It is like my phone, when there is missed call I want to see when this call was. Exactly the time. I do not want to know if it was 3 or 5 hours ago. I cannot explain, why I would like to see the time there. Just because I am used to think "in time" and not in "hours ago". On this community it is sometimes important to see if the post has been made early in the morning or afternoon. Saying X hours ago forces me to calculate what the posting time exactly was.

It is easier for me to say what I have done at 3:00 PM as what i have done 9 hours ago. 

Edited November 9 by Sonya*

[+TheWorldNewsMedia.org 107]

@Sonya* I learned a long time ago to never argue against women. 

The Princess Bride movie taught us all to just say: "As you wish"

[Rhett 3,324]

Just in case you didn't notice, users can hover over the time to get the exact date and time to display if needed. 

[+Sonya* 748]

7 hours ago, Rhett said:

Just in case you didn't notice, users can hover over the time to get the exact date and time to display if needed. 

Not on mobile 😞

I've given up. I have told to them: look, this suite is developed by men for men, they cannot understand how difficult it is to calculate for us. Live with it.

Edited November 10 by Sonya*

[bfarber 11,633]

Facebook behaves the same - does this concern with your site carry over there, out of curiosity?

I, personally, don't have much preference. I suppose an option could be introduced to shut off relative dates/times if this is a "thing", but I can't recall this really coming up much in the past and the software has behaved this way for years.

[+Sonya* 748]

5 minutes ago, bfarber said:

Facebook behaves the same

I do not really use Facebook. I use communities 

6 minutes ago, bfarber said:

the software has behaved this way for years

In 3.X there was difference between today/yesterday. That's why they want it back. 

I will hook into html function of the Date to change it for my girls 

[+TDBF 266]

1 hour ago, bfarber said:

Facebook behaves the same - does this concern with your site carry over there, out of curiosity?

I, personally, don't have much preference. I suppose an option could be introduced to shut off relative dates/times if this is a "thing", but I can't recall this really coming up much in the past and the software has behaved this way for years.

I seriously do not see the objection or unwillingness to entertain this slight change?

Honestly, you would think we were asking you to re-invite the wheel using mathematics which hasn't been invented yet and colouring it a nice shade of pink in the process.

Edited November 11 by TDBF

[bfarber 11,633]

We don't implement every single suggestion ever submitted, particularly when only one client has ever requested it. It's not an objection or unwillingness, but rather an attempt to gauge the request and how relevant or important it is, in the context of everything else we have going on, and also to see if it's something widely needed or desired, or just something one person wants for their own reasons.

[+TDBF 266]

1 minute ago, bfarber said:

particularly when only one client has ever requested it.

But but...... there were two of us! 😭😝

I use Pages a lot on my site, and I have had to modify the date code to prevent today, yesterday and ** hours ago to display the actual Date and Time they were published. I have never used these formats for articles types and never will.

However, I have no issues for this use on the forums.