This blog is written in en-GB

Post by messe » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 3:31 PM UTC

pezezin wrote: post #190

prima-facie wrote: post #149

If you are from Europe, even if you're not living in the UK, the en-GB locale will feel a lot more familiar to you than the en-US one. It uses the dd-mm-yyyy date format like the rest of Europe, the start of the week is on Monday (vs Sunday in the US), the default paper size is A4 (vs US letter), measurement defaults are metric (indeed UK roads use imperial, but the default is otherwise metric), the time format uses…

I prefer en-IE, which is the same plus Euro as the default currency.

Post by mkopinsky » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

debesyla wrote: post #277

ben_w wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a moment of whimsy I briefly considered a date format where digits were sorted alphabetically. 2026-07-02-16-31-52 -> -----00011222235667 Hopefully it will remain a nonsense and never be seen in the wild, unlike the phone number field which I found on a real website which responded to scroll events to increase and decrease the value it contained.

Wait, can this format be transformed back to the "normal" format? If so, then it could be kinda viable for some operations... :thinking_emoji:

Post by kimos » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

chrismorgan wrote: post #315

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the fact that English basically everywhere else but the US is essentially en-GB with a few choice changes and anachronisms. Consider en-IN, en-IE, en-SG, en-MY, en-AU, en-NZ, etc.

I started writing something a while ago with preliminary title “Do en and en-US, not en and en-GB”. If you cluster English dialects by various characteristics, you’ll end up with en-US as a clear outlier. I believe that, if you’re going to divide English into two camps, the best is “English (International)” and “English (US)”. Canadian English is the one that’s closest to US English, but even it works at least as wel…

Post by SadErn » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC

dofm wrote: post #117

SadErn wrote: post #15

My first thought after reading is that I fear for the author's safety. From the outside, this does not appear to be a safe time to express nationalism or cultural pride in the UK. The Internet is not free in the UK and decreasingly so in the rest of the world.

You fear for his safety!? > From the outside You should try visiting the inside. More generally, we Brits draw a measure of distinction between cultural pride and nationalism: the former is good, and we have plenty of it; the latter is viewed with suspicion, for good reason. (Edited for clarity)

Post by HardlyCognizant » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 3:58 PM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #223

Vinnl wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, "couldn't care less" is British?

Many/most Americans say something like "I could care less about the World Cup". British people say "I couldn't care less about the World Cup". Both are saying they have no interest at all in the World Cup. I don't know why Americans phrase it that way. To give a documented example, the lyrics of Teenagers by My Chemical Romance: They said, "All teenagers scare the livin' shit out of me" They could care less as long a…