[stephengillie]

How is the relative timestamp not machine-readable? Can the computer not be programmed to parse If (4_characters_after_timestamp == " ago") {$timeoftweet = $now+$timestamp} ?

[mgurlitz]

One of the author's points is that relative dates discard information. 10:37 and 10:36 are both encoded as "9 hours ago," and therefore you can't map back to absolute dates without potentially losing order.

[icebraining]

That's a matter of implementation, not a specific property of relative dates, though.

[bryne]

Sure, but that seems harder than attempting to shame developers into changing the way they display timestamps.

[kineticflow]

Not every website is in English.

[thinkingisfun]

Give it some time.

[Lozzer]

If you're parsing from a real time feed, then that's fair enough. But if not $now isn't appropriate.