Asklemmy

48325 readers

404 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

Why do Americans want to know the month first and the day second? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by NONE_dc@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

100 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.

What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?

EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:

I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.

So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago (3 children)

That's not a good explanation for the question, because the convention was established before computers.

[–] Civil_Liberty@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I answered the one question he posed. What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?

[–] Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago

It sorts by what seems to me historically by relevance, i.e. which day is asked more often because it seems a more frequent timeframe for everyday use in a medieval society compared to the month (with the seasons as something in between those two).

And I agree that since the digital age yyyy-mm--dd has significant advantages!

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 days ago

My GP has cabinet with patient information.

The drawers are years, and then inside it narrows down to months. Probably the answer.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean it's easier to sort like that for humans too.

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't think that's true; before computers people would get used to one way or another and it would have 0 impact on their ability to compare.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

When you are searching for a file in a filing cabinet of a finance department, it'd be a nightmare if records were filed by month first and year after.

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 hours ago

It sure would, which is why nobody does that. Just because the month is written first doesn't mean you sort by month first.