Ask HN: Should I display the current time and date on my website?

1 pointibdf2 comments

I still see sites displaying the current time and date on the header, footer or as ticker. What's the purpose? Is the current time not ready available for anyone browsing the internet?

I think this is something inherited from 90's sites that used to have java applets and other gimmicky animations to make your website look cool.

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I display time on my dashboards because it gives me an idea how long ago they were refreshed. It may make sense on a page that changes with a time, for instance I could use a timestamp here on HN, both in comments and in article list. Note, however, that this is static text determined at page load time, not an ever-changing clock.

I agree. Doesn't make sense to have the current date or time displayed. (edit: I mean those where it gets updated by Javascript after initial pageload)

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