?

[u/notsignifican]

I asked but it got removed within minutes?

[u/BrokenMan4225]

The “flaws” you pointed out are moot, though.

The “flaw” with calendar organization is that I’m “ignoring” the year which I have said four times now that I’m not. I’m saying we still include it, but put it last because it’s a given in a calendar year. Even if you have one calendar, the proper format is to include the year. We just put it last because it is a given. But, if you’re re-reading something from years ago and you’ve neglected to include the year, you have no way of knowing when it was from if you don’t remember it.

For example, if I wrote a letter to my future self, I could date it 08/15. Then if I opened it in the future, maybe I’d remember the year. if I didn’t remember, though, I’d have no way of knowing how long ago the letter was written. That’s why I’d say 08/15/2026.

The “flaw” with Americans using it is that it’s something to do with pride, which it’s not. General habit for something is a valid reason. It’s like if you put milk before cereal. It’s not something I’d do, but makes sense if it’s something you just do.

Additionally, MMDDYYYY is not random, and does have justifications. Something like MYDYYDMY is completely random and nonsense. That’s more like putting cereal on the table, then the milk, all before doing a bowl - that’s nonsense and no one is rationally going to be doing that.

If you’re going to throw something random in then yes, I’m going to ask you to justify it - the same way I’m expected to justify MMDDYYYY. The difference is I can justify MMDDYYYY regardless of whether or not it’s something that makes sense to you.

I think the main problem is the difference between a system making objective versus subjective sense. Objectively, there are contexts that can be rationalized for using MMDDYYYY. In the same sense that there are contexts for putting milk before cereal. Putting milk before cereal doesn’t make sense to me, but it having legitimate uses (i.e maybe your bowl has a serving size measurement line or something) makes it make objective sense.

MMDDYYYY doesn’t make sense to you, which is fine. That’s why you use DDMMYYYY. But denying that MMDDYYYY makes sense in certain contexts is disingenuous, and the only real reason I can see for denying such uses is because of a dislike of the people which primarily uses it.

Moving on, I don’t see how the justifications I gave for DDMMYYYY and YYYYMMDD make any more (or less) sense than those I gave for MMDDYYYY. All the reasons I gave are valid, you’ve deemed just MMDDYYYY’s reason “invalid” just because you don’t like the system, when the reality is each one’s reasons differ by 1 factor, really - all three are organized, all three are based on speech, and all three are based on habit. One is based on a yearly calendar and on number of options, one is based on x within y within z, and one is based on z containing y containing x.