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Comments on Closed question time looks like local time but is not

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Closed question time looks like local time but is not

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Below a question, the time posted is displayed, and hovering over it shows an exact timestamp:

The time posted below a question, showing as "36 minutes", with the full timestamp showing as hovertext "2024-07-07T20:47:13Z"

Notice that the timestamp is followed by a "Z" to indicate that this time is in the timezone UTC (which in the UK at this time of year differs from my local timezone due to daylight saving time). This makes immediately clear to me that this is not my local time.

However, when a question is closed, a time is displayed without any indication of its timezone, which might lead someone to assume it is local time:

Closed notice on a question, with the date and time showing without a timezone label, as "Jul 7, 2024 at 21:21"

Note that this time is also UTC, which is unexpected. I know because I saw this closed question shortly after it was closed, so local time would not be possible.

I would not expect exact timings of question closure to often be important, so I'm mostly raising this for completeness to be fixed at some future point. It might also be worth reviewing other places where times are displayed without a timezone indicator, in case there are others that could be misleading.

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1 comment thread

Seems like we should either fuzz the time (like the "36 minutes ago" elsewhere in your screenshot) or... (4 comments)
Seems like we should either fuzz the time (like the "36 minutes ago" elsewhere in your screenshot) or...
Monica Cellio‭ wrote 5 months ago

Seems like we should either fuzz the time (like the "36 minutes ago" elsewhere in your screenshot) or show exact time with timezone. Which would be better? (This is a question for everyone, not just the OP.)

trichoplax‭ wrote 5 months ago

My personal leaning would be towards consistency with times shown on other parts of the site ("36 minutes ago" with the exact time plus timezone on hover).

I know that means mobile users can't see the exact time, but I'm thinking in terms of consistency for now. I imagine the wider problem of revealing exact times to mobile users being dealt with as a future more global change.

Canina‭ wrote 5 months ago

Monica Cellio‭ I agree with trichoplax‭ that consistency is good. I have some gripes with fuzzed relative times but this is not the place for that.

That said, if implementing it that way is impractical in the short term, and the time zone for in this case the closure time is known to always be presented in UTC, a simple fix for now might be to just add a "UTC" specifier after the time. (So it would display as e.g. "Jul 7, 2024 at 21:21 UTC".)

Monica Cellio‭ wrote 5 months ago

I agree that consistency is important. Since the post/edit times that are nearby are fuzzed, I'm leaning toward fuzzing the close time too, but that's just one person's opinion.