Include local time for entries on reading page

[tree]

Title:
Include local time for entries on reading page

Area:
reading page

Summary:
Include the local time for an entry on a user's reading page as well as/instead of the poster's time.

Description:
At the moment, entries on the reading page are date stamped with the poster's time zone. I would find it really useful to have the option of seeing that date and time in my own time zone.

For example, the most recent entry on my reading page was posted at Nov. 27th, 2010 10:05 am. I know it's the most recent post in my circle, but I have no immediate point of reference for determining the corresponding time in my time zone. If I want to do that, I have to look at the poster's profile to determine hir time zone. And that only works if zie has entered the (correct) location.

We currently have the option for comments to be date stamped with the local time, so it might not be terribly difficult to implement. On the other hand, it might be, due to comments being static and the reading page being dynamic. The local date stamp would only appear as part of the aggregate page and not the original. That might make things explode.

I think it would be preferable to have both the poster's time and the local time displayed, but that may not be possible.

Drawbacks of implementation might be server load, although I can't imagine it would be a huge issue. If it were a feature you could choose to switch on, then anyone who didn't want it could simply leave it off.

Poll #5515 Include local time for entries on reading page

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 59

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
33 (55.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
12 (20.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.7%)

(I have no opinion)
12 (20.3%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.7%)

Comments

[matgb]

I think this is doable in S2, I'd certainly be happy to see it default as a tooltip mouseover in the same way it works for comments, but be available as options for people who want to hack their layers more.

Not sure I'd want the feature myself, but I can see uses for it.

[fyreharper]

This (wouldn't want it for myself, but I can see uses for it).

[ursamajor]

GMTA, I was about to suggest an "on-hover" thing, unless that would be less accessibility-friendly. If *that's* the case, then perhaps it's better implemented as a site option.

Though there's always the caveat with all timestamps that they're not 100% accurate; I'd bet on a bunch of people not using the "update time" function either out of lack of awareness or laziness or habit or "hey, I started writing my post at this time, and that's the time I want to use."

Related: perhaps having the ability to have the timezone included with the current timestamp system might work (for me, at least)?

[musyc]

"hey, I started writing my post at this time, and that's the time I want to use."

Guilty. I rarely update my post time unless it's been several hours since I started the post.

[denise]

I never update mine unless I'm writing, say, a news post that would look funny if I'd written it over several days and posted it with the old date/time. I like my posts to be dated when I started 'em, since I use relative time ("yesterday", "a couple of hours ago", yadda) a lot.

[musyc]

ROFL. My definitions of "in the past" are all yesterday, a couple of days ago, last week, or a long time ago. There is nothing more specific in my brain. Doesn't help that my 'yesterday' is "the awake time before my most recent sleep time", which could be anything from this morning to two days ago for most people. XD

[denise]

Oh, I have that problem too. I run on a fairly consistent 36 hour day! My doctor took one look at the chart that sarah made of my sleep schedule, frowned, and said, "That shouldn't happen. Unless you live in a cave."

[turlough]

Having it as a mouseover tooltip would be very neat.

[marahmarie]

This as well; contextual hover option sounds smart.

[susanreads]

Alternatively, I would like to see "how long ago was this", like the "x minutes/hours/days ago" on notifications in the inbox. If somebody's posting about an emergency, when that was by my clock could be relevant, but time-elapsed is more likely to be crucial.

[sorchasilver]

+1

[azurelunatic]

Ooo, I like this!

[erik]

I don't like this. At least, not as the only info presented. If someone's posting at 2am their time, it's often more useful to know that they're up late than that it was an hour ago.

"2011-01-04 11:25 am (11:35 hours ago)" would be nice, though.

[marahmarie]

I like this, too. Very good idea. :)

[faevii]

OMG I need this so badly, you have no idea how much time I regularly spend trying to puzzle out how long it's been since someone's post.

[marahmarie]

I gave up trying to figure that out a long time ago. You can do it (it would involve consulting time zone conversion charts, I suppose) but meh.

[ratcreature]

I would like to see what it is in my time, but I wouldn't want to give up seeing the poster's time.

[azurelunatic]

Yes.

[cesy]

I would love to be able to see both my time and their time when looking at someone's post.

[kerravonsen]

+1

[lethe1]

Thirded.

[marahmarie]

Fourthed!

[kyrielle]

+1. Or their time and "x:x ago".

[lanterne_rouee]

Yes, please! I want to see all timestamps in my time zone and only in my time zone - as the default, not a hover 'option'. Everything else is irrelevant and/or convertible.

(And I hate relative times, like two hours ago, a week ago, etc. Just the actual time and date is clear and simple.)

[msilverstar]

consistent time would be great, I'd even take UTC if it made things go in the right order!

[florentinescot]

I'd love to see this as an option!

[erik]

2011-01-04 5:25 pm (2011-01-04 11:25 am local) would be most informative; but it looks pretty ugly to me.

[cesy]

I would use that option, though I agree it's too ugly to be the default.

[thorfinn]

How about just giving the reader an option to specify a time format string? Would have to be a pick-list for simplicity plus "Other and text box" for advanced users. Not at all sure about what to do about "reader timezone" vs "writer timezone" time vs "specified timezone" vs "time ago"though. That could definitely get a bit complicated. Would have to do something customised in terms of time format strings, rather than using standard strftime, I expect.

[dchan]

Personally, I'd just prefer a timezone notation, e.g. Datestamp (UTC +/- X). In communities that get posters from a wide variety of time zones, trying to interpret the timestamps of posts can be pretty frustrating.

Conversion to local time would be fine as well, I guess, but I feel like that strips out potentially important information, since most of the time (for personal journals at least) it's more important to me to know when a post was posted relative to the poster's time. If I need to know when something was posted relative to my time, then I can do UTC time zone conversions in my head, provided I know what the UTC offset of the post in question is.