[shrub]

I think there should be a distinction made in this discussion between the technical use of dates for the purpose of storage, and display of dates for the end user.

Why don't we display dates as seconds since epoch? Because people don't recognize that format.

For technical purposes, use a date format with technical advantages (YYYYMMDD). For displaying the date for the user, format it so people can understand it (ex. January 10th, 2013) - and localize it if you have that information, or allow customization, or it all else fails, provide and explanation.