date: 2019-02-05 06:38:17
slug: looking-for-a-better-time-slug-for-titleless-posts
status: published
display_format: entry
link: https://jj.isgeek.net/2019/02/looking-for-a-better-time-slug-for-titleless-posts/
syndication: https://twitter.com/jjdelc/status/1092673754860343298
title: Looking for a better time slug for titleless posts


I was never happy with the title less posts to have a redundant timestamp that looked like this:

 > https://jj.isgeek.net/2019/02/05-022232-am/

That last bit `05-022232-am` always got to my nerves, the "am" was redundant information and I'm sure I can do better.

Explored to do "day-seconds" with `seconds` being the seconds in the day, which max at 86460 which is 5 chars long. Only one byte better than stripping the "am" from the flat `hhmmss` timestamp which is way clearer. 

Tried to convert this integer to hex, (using the neat `{:x}.format`) but for the max 86460 it reduced it to `151bc` which is also 5 bytes. But I seem to have lots of hex space there to use in those 5 bytes, so decided to try not the seconds in the day but the seconds in the month multiplying by the day. Which maxes now at `2680260` seconds or `28e5c4` hex. So now I have 6 bytes.

Then I thought, why am I even trying to save bytes here. I can have **very** clear information for 8 bytes just by stripping that _am_ that bothered me since the beginning.

Ended up with

> `slugify(post_date.strftime('%d %H:%M:%S'))` 

And be done with it.