determining doomed and deleted discussion dates

March 31, 2012 8:05 AM

My temporal ocd wonders why deleted posts show up as being from the previous day, significantly confusing my time/date continuum meter. Examples: this and this
posted by HuronBob to Bugs at 8:05 AM (28 comments total)

What's your time zone setting on your profile page? Those show up as posted at 5:08 AM and 4:51 AM respectively, March 31. Is it the actual time listed at the head of the page that's weird on your end or something else?
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:11 AM on March 31, 2012

Accch... I wasn't clear about that. When I am on the front page, using the deleted thread script, those threads show up as having been posted on March 30th (cut and paste below):

March 30
Deleted thread: 114404

Deleted thread: 114403

Not a big deal, and since it's an aftermarket script, probably nothing you guys can do anyways...

carry on....
posted by HuronBob at 8:16 AM on March 31, 2012

Leap day messing with the deleted threads script?
posted by deezil at 8:20 AM on March 31, 2012

i don't know what time zone you're in, but the last non-deleted post (114401) before the 3 deleted in a row posts shows up as March 30. So my vague guess is that the script doesn't bother to actually check what day they were posted it and instead uses the first non-deleted post before them to sort them into days.
posted by skynxnex at 8:29 AM on March 31, 2012

Yeah, I have no idea how the deleted threads scripts deal with date issues; I'd guess they don't really try to do so at all, but the authors or someone will to go parsing through the script code could say for sure. Not a Mefi-side thing, in any case.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:34 AM on March 31, 2012

The deletion script sends a process back in time to terminate remove the post before it actually happens.
posted by ceribus peribus at 8:37 AM on March 31, 2012 [3 favorites]

The deletion script sends a process back in time to terminate remove the post before it actually happens.

Don't mess with the Mod named Arnold.
posted by HuronBob at 8:43 AM on March 31, 2012

Presumably this is hard coded into the script in some weird way. I see them both as happening on the 31st in real life, three hours off from when cortex sees them.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:49 AM on March 31, 2012

The Dylan one shows up as March 31, 2012 16:08 for me. Which seems like that's real time.
posted by bardophile at 8:53 AM on March 31, 2012

Oh, and they show up under March 31 on the front page, too.
posted by bardophile at 8:55 AM on March 31, 2012

The real answer is that we are all living in the future, so what looks like yesterday is actually today.

Blows your mind a little bit, doesn't it?
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:04 AM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

strange... changing my timezone preferences in the profile didn't make any difference one way or the other.

I'll be back in a while, I need to pull the DeLorean out of the garage and top off the flux capacitor.
posted by HuronBob at 9:05 AM on March 31, 2012

Now today is tomorrow
And tomorrow today
And yesterday is weaving in and out
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:07 AM on March 31, 2012

aaaand, just so y'all don't think I'm crazy...

screen shot
posted by HuronBob at 9:12 AM on March 31, 2012

Technically, I think we all live about 80ms in the past.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:43 AM on March 31, 2012

Each today is yesterday's tomorrow which is now
posted by moonmilk at 10:09 AM on March 31, 2012

Hm, it's an interesting edge case. The problem here is that the script knows absolutely nothing about the dates. It looks at the post IDs and then plops the deleted ones in the gap between the preceding and following not-deleted posts. They just happen to get placed under the date header.

Not a huge deal, since they're in the right order. But I'll add it to my todo list.
posted by Plutor at 10:25 AM on March 31, 2012

Its Sunday, the 1st of April over here. And since I keep Metafilter's time setting to the original one from my joining date, this comment will go live yesterday afternoon.
posted by infini at 2:52 PM on March 31, 2012

April 1st y'say?

*props deleted comment on top of the door and waits*
posted by arcticseal at 4:53 PM on March 31, 2012

Its Sunday, the 1st of April over here. And since I keep Metafilter's time setting to the original one from my joining date, this comment will go live yesterday afternoon.
posted by infini (winner) at 2:52 PM on March 31 [+] [!]

And for that, you are a/the winner.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:04 PM on March 31, 2012

Or, you were. Now you're stiff, and i'm stuff, just like arcticseal.

Oh, April 1st, you came early!

[event] coming [at some time] makes me think of Dr. Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough, which makes me cry a bit. Seriously, those are the last lines of the movie? That line is in the movie?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 PM on March 31, 2012

Ooh, ooh, I'm the winner now! I'll cherish this moment forever! But this will change when I post this comment. Damn you, fickle fate!

But I am also "stifler"! Bless you, fickle fate!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:09 PM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just wanted to...
posted by crossoverman at 9:12 PM on March 31, 2012

Now I'm step, this is confusing and no-one has walked in the door yet.
posted by arcticseal at 10:48 PM on March 31, 2012

*ouch*

@#$%%^ who left that *&&^ comment there?

What the?
posted by infini at 11:40 PM on March 31, 2012

I want to be stavros!
posted by zompist at 12:28 AM on April 1, 2012

*stares at ceiling, whistles*
posted by arcticseal at 1:13 AM on April 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

*stares at ceiling, whistles*
posted by arcticseal (nobody understands him but his woman )

*snicker*
posted by infini at 3:23 AM on April 1, 2012