Time calculation since last post is not correct, possibly not using year in calculation

Product Support

AI-generated summary

EricGT reports that Discourse incorrectly calculates the time since the last post in a topic, showing ‘1 month later’ when the actual time difference is over three years, due to a calculation that ignores the year. RGJ clarifies that the date was not in October 2020 (which would be shown as 'Oct ‘20’), but rather October 20th, and notes that Discourse uses a simplified date format that can lead to confusion. EricGT acknowledges the clarification and confirms the issue is not a bug but a display limitation. The discussion includes references to past issues about date formatting and a suggested solution from the Discourse Meta.

1

Not a true bug in the sense of the category description because the site is working but a bug in that a calculation is incorrect.

On the OpenAI site a reply was added to a topic. The second to last post for the topic was in Oct 20, (MM/DD/YY 10/dd/2020) and the last post was today (11/27/2023).

Discourse is noting the reply is posted 1 month later which is incorrect. If only the months are used for the calculation it is correct, 11 - 10 = 1, but with the year it is 37 months or more easily stated as 3 years later.

image
image792×421 12.5 KB

Side note:

I did look for an existing topic by using the Discourse AI bot before posting. (ref)

Prompt

The second to last post of a topic was Oct 20, the last post was 11/27/2023. Discourse noted the last reply is one month later. The calculation is wrong as it does not include the year. It if it is only the month then it is correct, e.g. 11 - 10 is 1.

Has this been reported as a bug?

Completion

I did not find any topics explicitly reporting a bug related to the last reply calculation being incorrect on the Discourse Meta. It’s possible that the issue hasn’t been reported yet, or it may have been discussed in a context not captured by the search terms used. If you believe this to be a bug, you might consider reporting it on the Discourse Meta forum to bring it to the attention of the developers.

2

It was not in Oct 2020 - it was on the 20th of October.

If the post would have been made in Oct 2020 it would have shown as Oct '20 (note the apostrophe).

In case of doubt, hover your mouse over the date and it will show “normally”

Selection of previous complaints about this in the past 10 years

Primary takeaway

It’s okay because Discourse was built for the future. And in 20 years, no one will confuse the years with the days because it’ll be Jan '35.

If only we weren’t merely in the pesky two thousand teens right now.

But there is also a solution: Post date display - #2 by Don

3

Yes.

Thanks.

I like your suggestion but I am not an admin on the site so can not make the needed change.

Changed the category to support as it is clearly not a bug.

4

Here is an example of a reply more than a year after the last one.

image
image775×510 18.8 KB