Why are American companies so determined to confuse the rest of the world with their illogical way of writing dates?
Yesterday I got an email from register.com reminding me that one of my domains needed to be renewed. They said that the current registration expired on “12/07/2005”. “Bloody hell,” I thought, “that’s over a month ago.” Except I was wrong. It’s over three months in the future. It’s just a confusing American date. Checking with “whois” confirmed that the expiry date is “07-Dec-2005” (which is far less confusing).
For some reason I thought it was worthwhile dropping them an email explaining the problem. I pointed out that as their reminders went to an international audience then it would be a good deal less confusing if they either used ISO standard dates (2005-12-07) or showed the name of the month.
This morning I got a reply. It included this:
We implement this type of format since we provide services to various type of customers that comes to us worldwide
Even ignoring the appalling English (if you can), it still makes no sense. It boils down to me saying “your date format is confusing to an international audience” and them replying “we use that format because we have an international audience.”
But I’ve got my determined head on. I’m going to make them understand this.
For presentation purposes, I like dates formatted like so: 07 Dec 2005. Impossible to misinterpret.
Personally, I prefer the “Dec 07, 2005” style – if the day were in front, it would have to include a “st/rd/th/nd” suffix to avoid offending my sensibilities. But that’s a matter of taste, any choice with a written month name is equally unambiguous.
Who needs the extra comma? I like 07 Dec 2005 the best.