The time stamp shown on messages is not much use unless you know the
time zone that UT is running in which I always forget.

It would be far more intuitive just to say in Hours:Mins or Days just how old the message is for the date that is displayed.

Once the message is over a day old the day display switches to days instead.

eg

Mark Young 28/12/2001 1hr:40mins

Mark Young 26/12/2001 2 Days

I dont think many folks are intrested in the exact time of a message they just want more of a feel for how old the message is.