open https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262

A feature enhancement request.

Presently SBBS uses a global option to define the date format for all users of the BBS, which is either USA (MM/DD/YY) or European format (DD/MM/YY).

Now that BBS's have become globally accessible, i.e. A BBS in Australia could be easily accessed by a USA or European user, assigning date format per user would be a better experience.

Three formats seem to be globally accepted:

DD/MM/YY - European users
MM/DD/YY - USA users
YY/MM/DD - Asian users

Of course there are many other areas of the world, but generally all users would be comfortable selecting one of these three formats.

Suggestion:

1. Keep the option to have a global BBS default (maybe chose from one of the three formats).
2. Include a "Allow users to choose date format during registration, Y/N" for new users - selecting "No" would copy the global default - user can change later (see option 3).
3. Include an option to allow users to change their default date format within the [D] option from the main menu (or shell equivalent).
4. Use the chosen per user date format across BBS functions, such as reading emails, searching and displaying files and other appliciable places.

Thoughts / feedback welcome.

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1983

The full context of the request would be appreciated.

For example, when creating a new user account currently, the birthdate must be entered as either MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY format (depending on sysop/system preference). Your suggestion, I think, is that the before they enter their birthdate, a new user would be asked what their preferred date format is and require they enter their birthdate in that format. (?)

There aren't a whole lot of places in the BBS where dates are represented in numeric form, so more explicit examples of context would be appreciated.

You didn't mention time of day in the request, but as another example of context, when viewing messages, message date/times are displayed in either 12 or 24-hour format, depending on the sysop/system preference, e.g.
Date: Tue May 11 2021 07:55 pm
or
Date: Tue May 11 2021 19:55:20
Your suggestion, I think, is to ask the user whether the user would prefer to see times in 12 hour or 24 hour format in this case. (?)

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Re: Feature Request - Date format selectable on a per user basis
By: Keyop Troy to GitLab issue in main/sbbs on Tue May 11 2021 14:13:11

I would suggest that you make the change as follows:

1. Sysop sets a global option where he chooses the default Date format, both DD/MM/YY and time 24/12 hour.
This is copied to the user record where the user can make the change if they decide to.
My reasoning is that the assumption is still that people access boards "locally" but that people who have other requirements can still select a different option.
I don't think there is a reason to ask new users for yet another thing to set when they log in, but possibly in the "welcome message" explain that there are various peronalisation options which they can change to meet their preferences.
Just my 0.0002c

Boondock
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Hi,

I just would like to add the suggestion to add an option for the ISO date format, ie. YYYY-MM-DD (note the - instead of the / as separator).

(Also I would prefer DD.MM.YYYY, with . as separator, instead of DD/MM/YYYY; but that would make it even more complex)

Regards,
Anna

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Greetings;

acn wrote to Boondock <=-

I just would like to add the suggestion to add an option for the ISO
date format, ie. YYYY-MM-DD (note the - instead of the / as separator).

(Also I would prefer DD.MM.YYYY, with . as separator, instead of DD/MM/YYYY; but that would make it even more complex)

Perhaps this may be auto sensed by using some sort of a GEOIP?

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1984

Excellent questions. Here's my view:

1. Creating a new user account. So if there was an option to "Allow users to choose date format during registration, Y/N" = Yes, then there would be a question like this:

Please choose your preferred date format:

[1] MM/DD/YY
[2] DD/MM/YY
[3] YY/MM/DD

Select [default is {global default}] :

The above of course done in the same format you write other questions in - I can't recall if you use ['s for example at new user registration.

If the "Allow users to choose date format during registration, Y/N" = No, then at registration time the preferred date option wouldnt be asked for, and the default global would be copied to the user's date option - allowing the user to change their preference in [D]efault user config at a later time.

The above would need to be done before any date related questions such as birthdate. The birthdate question would use YYYY instead of just YY as per how it is now.

2. Anywhere where "DD/MM/YY" format is used would print in the format of the user's chosen date format, e.g. [I]nformation [Y]our stats. If all references to DD/MM/YY like format can be changed to "Day Mon DD YYYY" like format then there is no need for choosing a date preference or this feature request.

3. Time format - good question, the reason for asking for the date format is I always get confused when I see a date specified something like 03/02/21 - does that mean the 3rd of February or the 2nd of March - I'm less confused by 10:00pm or 22:00 - hope that makes sense. Happy to go with the flow on this one.

Thoughts?

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1985

My thoughts are: there aren't that many places in the BBS where dates are displayed strictly in numeric form. I was looking for more examples.

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1986

In which case, would a way forward to call out where there is the numberical format only, so that it can be converted to the more friendly format?

Could the source code be scanned for something like %02d/%02d/%02d ?

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1987

There's a few matches for %02d/%02d/%02d and also %02u/%02u/%02u ...

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1988

I'm not sure in those cases if you're space constrained to 8 chars.

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1989

I know how to search the source code.

The original feature request was with regards to "date format ... per user basis", which means dates as shown to a user. So I was asking you, the requester, where are you seeing dates in the BBS that you're getting confused about the meaning (e.g. MM/DD/YY vs DD/MM/YY)? If it's in the user editor for example, I would expect that to continue to display dates in the system's date format configuration, so would not be impacted by this feature request. The birthdate format is already made clear when prompted. But it's okay, you don't need to clarify or provide examples; I'll use my best judgment if/when this feature is implemented.

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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_1990

Yes - dates shown to a user, in areas like the stats pages and at the top of the menus within the classic SBBS shell (Last On, FirstOn).

Apologies if my answers aren't clear - keep asking and I'll try and clarify.

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On 05-12-21 15:35, acn wrote to Boondock <=-

Hi,

I just would like to add the suggestion to add an option for the ISO
date format, ie. YYYY-MM-DD (note the - instead of the / as separator).

That's always a good format to have available. I use it a lot for file storage, especially auto generated log files and backups.

(Also I would prefer DD.MM.YYYY, with . as separator, instead of DD/MM/YYYY; but that would make it even more complex)

Hmm, that one always looks a bit weird to me, but I have seen it used. :)


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Hi Tony,

[YYYY-MM-DD]

That's always a good format to have available. I use it a lot for file storage, especially auto generated log files and backups.

It's the most logical format for computers :)

[DD.MM.YYYY]

Hmm, that one always looks a bit weird to me, but I have seen it used. :)

:) It's the date standard in Germany at least.
And using . instead of / makes it clear that this date format can only mean this, because MM.DD.YYYY doesn't exist afaik.
So using:
YYYY-MM-DD
MM/DD/YYYY (why on earth anyone does want this, I don't know *scnr*)
DD.MM.YYYY
it would be clear by the separator symbol which one is used.

Just an idea :)

Anna

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On 05-16-21 19:07, acn wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

Hi Tony,

[YYYY-MM-DD]

That's always a good format to have available. I use it a lot for file storage, especially auto generated log files and backups.

It's the most logical format for computers :)

Yeah, works for me, and in Linux, it's so easy to generate any date format you want using format strings. Perfect for scripting. :)

[DD.MM.YYYY]

Hmm, that one always looks a bit weird to me, but I have seen it used. :)

:) It's the date standard in Germany at least.
And using . instead of / makes it clear that this date format can only mean this, because MM.DD.YYYY doesn't exist afaik.
So using:
YYYY-MM-DD
MM/DD/YYYY (why on earth anyone does want this, I don't know *scnr*) DD.MM.YYYY
it would be clear by the separator symbol which one is used.

Good point, except the . separator is not used here, even though that date order is. :)


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On 5/15/2021 8:52 PM, Tony Langdon wrote:

I just would like to add the suggestion to add an option for the ISO
date format, ie. YYYY-MM-DD (note the - instead of the / as separator).

That's always a good format to have available. I use it a lot for file storage, especially auto generated log files and backups.

Really partial to the ISO format as well.
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On 05-27-21 16:18, Tracker1 wrote to Tony Langdon <=-

That's always a good format to have available. I use it a lot for file storage, especially auto generated log files and backups.

Really partial to the ISO format as well.

Yep, very useful. :)


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https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/issues/262#note_5627

Examples of where dates are displayed and could benefit from user specified:

Date/first/last login {width=336 height=119}

Userlist {width=909 height=173}

Your Statistics {width=780 height=201}

Users with access to file directory {width=933 height=240}

Any number of user programs that generates dates...

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