[Ads-l] Reddit dates (was: Re: [ADS-L] "Tokenpocalypse")

[Jesse Sheidlower]

This is a bit tech-y, but you can retrieve the actual timestamp by viewing the source of the page.

In the example being discussed here, if you go to

https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/comments/1tq0otf/your_experience_with_tokenpocalypse_2026/

and then use the "View source" option in your browser (accessing this function depends on the browser and OS, but typically left-clicking will bring up a menu that allows you to select it), you can then search the resulting page for "11d ago", and you'll get to a chunk of HTML markup that will look something like this:

          <span id="time-ago-separator" class="flex items-center w-2xs text-neutral-content-weak font-normal text-12" aria-hidden="true">•</span>
    <time datetime="2026-05-28T11:22:59.624Z" title="Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 11:22:59 AM UTC" class="flex items-center whitespace-nowrap text-neutral-content-weak font-normal text-12">11d ago</time>

You can then cut the "title" attribute (or the "datetime" attribute, if you're using it for computational rather than display purposes), and paste it as necessary.

You need to be careful about this; on a page with many comments, the comments are typically loaded dynamically via Javascript, and you won't be able to search for "11d" (or whatever) in the page source, unless you open _that comment_ in a separate window and then search there. But the overall point is, you _can_ retrieve an absolute date for any Reddit post if you're willing to dig for it.

Jesse Sheidlower

On Mon, Jun 08, 2026 at 04:02:27PM -0400, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
> Interesting topic, Nancy.
> 
> Nancy Friedman wrote: I wish Reddit used actual dates
> 
> If you hover over the "relative date" on a reddit webpage then the
> absolute date and time are displayed. Of course, it would be helpful
> to be able to cut-and-paste this timestamp, but it does not seem to be
> possible. For the reddit post (mentioned by Nancy) which displays "11
> days ago" as the relative date,  the absolute timestamp is "Thursday,
> May 28, 2026 at 11:22:59 AM UTC"

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