Take these 2 examples:

1: "liljim said 1 hour and 15 minutes ago: hello"

2: "liljim said at 2012/03/24 18:16: hello"

Now take these 2 questions:

A: how long ago did liljim say hello?

B: at what time did liljim say hello?

Now for each example I'll answer both questions with the steps taken:

Example #1 ("liljim said 1 hour and 15 minutes ago: hello") this is what is required to answer the 2 questions:

A: ("how long ago did liljim say hello?") No effort required, it's displayed already "1 hour and 15 minutes ago"

B: ("at what time did liljim say hello?") get the current local time, adjust for timezone difference between local and bbs time, then compare the 2 times.

Now for example #2 ("liljim said at 2012/03/24 18:16: hello") this is what is required to answer the 2 questions:

A: ("how long ago did liljim say hello?") get the current local time, adjust for timezone differences, compare the 2 times.

B: ("at what time did liljim say hello?")  adjust for timezone differences

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Example 1 only requires effort when you want to know the exact time the post was made, which is in most cases (in my bbs usage at least) is quite useless. If I need to know when a post was made it's normally so I can see how long ago it was made.

Example 2 requires effort both if you want to know how long ago the post was made or if you want to know when it was made, because even when the timestamp is listed as is I still have to adjust for timezone differences.

Personally I see the solutions in order of their usefulness as follows:

1. List the pretty date format ("x hours ago") with the timestamp included, with the timestamp being converted to my local time.

2. List the pretty date format ("x hours ago") with the timestamp included without being converted to my local time.

3. List the timestamp converted to my local time

4. List the timestamp without converting

Time is only valuable when it is relative to my own. 18:00 only has meaning if I can say "It's currently 19:00 therefore 18:00 was 1 hour ago". Yes the forum lists the timezone used but it still means EVERY time based display requires me to read it say "It is currently 19:00 therefore 12:00 was 12:00 + 5 hours, 17:00, 2 hours ago!".

that's extra effort every time a time is displayed...