:When small cabals of people make decisions that affect everyone without consulting them first, why are you surprised at a backlash? And thanks for pointing out my spelling mistake in such a snarky manner - that is an excellent way to depersonalize a conversation in a less emotional way.  
 :Btw, I can think of several options that would be preferable to defacating date autoformatting, and I'd be happy to mention them if I thought it had a chance of reversing the current mess. And if they really don't want people to use autoformatting for all the litany of reasons you gave, wouldn't it be simpler to just turn it off completely? As long as it works, I'm going to keep using it,and keep formatting for it, as that's what I prefer. -