I originally posted this on the other site back when I took the picture, and it resulted in a lot of confused comments, especially from Americans, eventually getting removed by overzealous mods. Either way, I promise you that this date does not exist, and has never existed.
I’m so tired of this “proper order” date debate among regions. Can’t we just accept that there can be more than one correct way to do things?
We commonly write dates 02/29/23 because we speak or write “February 29th 2023” while in other languages, it’s customary to speak or write “29th of February 2023” leading them to the common format 29/02/23.
Edit: to curb the ISO standard comments, yes, that is the most efficient and organized way to write a date, but how many of you speak dates in ISO format? If you don’t commonly say “2023 February 29th” out loud, then you intrinsically understand that not all situations call for the ISO standard.
No, ISO 8601 is the proper order. YYYY-MM-DD.
Wait, so month comes before day? I’ve been doing it right all along?
Please stop. That is another correct way to do it, and I said there is more than one, not two.
The reason why it’s superior is (mostly) just because it removes that ambiguity of whether your region lists months or days first. By using a global standard you are still able to prefer whatever method of speaking it, but especially in situations around health and safety the less chance for confusion the better.
Like, the whole “flammable” vs “inflammable” label is another problem if someone incorrectly assumes inflammable is the equivalent of non-flammable.
I am familiar with the ISO format and use it every day. But let me ask you, do you speak dates in ISO format? If not, then you understand it isn’t always the best format for the situation.
Yes.
The ISO is an organization trying to get everyone on the same page, they are the accepted standard globally. If you see ISO and you go against it, you better have a damn good reason and you’ll be liable everytime.
When was the last time you spoke a date in ISO format? Do you say “2023 February 29th?” If not, you intrinsically know ISO is not always the best format for the situation.
Is this about spoken words or written words…?
Neither, it’s become about some guy who needs to be right. Even if clearly and objectively wrong.
It’s about the correct standard, which if exists, should be the same whether spoken or written. I’m saying that no such standard exists, and there are different correct ways depending on the situation/region.
Written has ambiguity, spoken doesn’t. One has to be standardized and the other doesn’t.
The topic is about written, not spoken since we all completely comprehend this.
I disagree with that assumption.
The comment I was originally replying to was talking about the two most debated formats while ignoring ISO for “non-technical” people. Those two formats are that way because of the way people most commonly speak it in the region where they originated. I agree that the best written format is ISO, but it’s not commonly used outside of technical circles because it requires that you say it in a different order than you read it, which proves difficult for a lot of people.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) be like:
This is my favorite comment thus far
The reason you keep hearing about it is because people won’t use the standard
you actually think you’ll be able to convince anyone even remotely stupid or stubborn to use this? you must have never tried anything like this before then…
Well yeah, I never expected it to work…
When was the last time you spoke dates to anyone in ISO? If you don’t ever say the year before the month and day, then you intrinsically know ISO is not always the best format for the situation.
Spoken and written don’t need to use the same format. Time also isn’t spoken using the written format hhmmss.
So then we agree there is more than one correct date format.
It happens a few times a month, when dealing with something important to make sure people understand, same reason as to why I sometimes say times in a 24h format.
Other languages including English, from England. We also say the 29th of February.
Real English is American you bloody redcoats are always appropriating our culture
I’m not implying you can’t say “of” in English, but it’s common (and shorter) to say “Feb 29th.” It is not however correct to say “Feb 29th” in many other languages, which is why Europe made day first dates the regional standard. And just like with the imperial vs metric systems, England has shifted to more often use Europe’s standard rather than the one they came up with themselves.
Are you trolling or just incapable of acknowledging that you can speak a date differently than its written representation? The entire reason for any standard is just to ensure you’re working within a known/consistent framework. You can measure in imperial or metric but you can’t label an imperial or metric unit as the opposite just because you prefer it that way.
If I hand you glass of milk with a skull and crossbones sticker on it why would you assume it’s harmful when in my region it’s used to signify its high calcium content? I can say “poison” or I can say “milk”, but a skull should never be interchangeably used.
In the same way, a date written in a global standard format should always be immediately recognized as signifying ONE particular date, and you’re then free to localize it however you please.
Not trolling. I just think all three formats are correct and I can’t understand why everyone must demand their way is the only correct way.
No, we say 29th Feb in English.
oh, yeah? Remind me of the date of “America’s birthday” again?
1776/07/04, which is commonly written July 4th 1776 as well as 4th of July 1776. All three ways are correct. What’s your point?
I am engaging in what is commonly known as a joke, jape, jackanapery, tomfoolery, silliness or knavery.
It’s usually easy to determine which order the person commenting observes too, just from context. I’ve never understood the confusion.
Yeah, especially with something like 03/04/07 12:47 AM
The likes of this date and time are just evil because not only you may mistake day for month or even year, but also 12 AM in some places precedes 1 AM while in other places it precedes 1 PM.
I’m almost convinced that an additional info with a UNIX timestamp must be always shown to be used as a ground truth wherever a date is presented
I agree it can be confusing if presented without context or explanation, but in most cases one can easily determine order (e.g., OP’s post)