Time differences *suggestion*

[kostika]

So it's possible to move around within a state or region, and have the correct time in one blink of an eye, and be an hour off with the next blink?

Are we talking large areas here, or are we talking towns, cities etc.? Sorry this is a bit off-topic, but the PST->PDT issue has me chuckling a little And do the people who refuse to change have webbed feet and 15 cousins, or do they have a genuine reason for being different?

I know of at least one State in the US that doesn't do the time change. For the life of me I can't remember which one it is though. Truthfully I can't remember the reasons either or if its the whole state or not.

[oldmess]

So it's possible to move around within a state or region, and have the correct time in one blink of an eye, and be an hour off with the next blink?

Are we talking large areas here, or are we talking towns, cities etc.? Sorry this is a bit off-topic, but the PST->PDT issue has me chuckling a little And do the people who refuse to change have webbed feet and 15 cousins, or do they have a genuine reason for being different?

This link talks about which areas are exceptions but doesn't really get into "why?"

This one has a bit more of the "why" but I'm still not sure if it fully answers your question about webbed feet.

All I know is that it happens. Maybe none of the people in these regions should be allowed to play MMO's? I dunno.

The main thing that concerns me is the "right" answer and the "commonly used" answer aren't the same thing and it can lead to real confusion. In another thread, a player announced an 8pm GMT start when he meant 8pm UK time. 90% of the UK players probably knew what he meant. But I get confused easily, so when I see a time, I often jump to one of the many time zone web sites to convert it to my time. Based on that, I would have been off by an hour. That's why I keep advocating that we establish a standard.

I know we can't force someone to use it, but if someone does post in something else like EST, the community can immediately ask the question (did you mean EDT?) and fix the time so we get it standardized to whatever that standard is.

[dazman76]

This one has a bit more of the "why" but I'm still not sure if it fully answers your question about webbed feet.

All I know is that it happens. Maybe none of the people in these regions should be allowed to play MMO's? I dunno.

hehe Thanks for taking that in the light it was intended Maybe we should force them to use GMT, and see what they think to that - or wait, that would confuse everyone else as well... hmm...

This is an interesting problem, and one that we could probably use a custom solution to. Someone already suggested an addition to VBulletin (used for these forums) - I imagine VBulletin is similar to phpBB in structure.

With that in mind, we could create a simple 'page section template', which could be added to any page (or every page, or maybe every page under the events section...). This section would contain dropdown boxes and labels for:

(Dropdown) Your Default Timezone (possibly store this in the forum profile data - simple and small addition)
(Label) Current Time in your zone
(Dropdown) Event/Meeting Timezone
(Dropdown) Event/Meeting Date
(Dropdown) Event/Meeting Time
(Label) Event/Meeting Date/Time in your local Timezone

Would that do the trick do you think?

PS - Like the new Avatar Kostika

[kostika]

(Dropdown) Your Default Timezone (possibly store this in the forum profile data - simple and small addition)
(Label) Current Time in your zone
(Dropdown) Event/Meeting Timezone
(Dropdown) Event/Meeting Date
(Dropdown) Event/Meeting Time
(Label) Event/Meeting Date/Time in your local Timezone

Would that do the trick do you think?

PS - Like the new Avatar Kostika

That reminds me of something I've seen on other forums. At the bottom of the post is a section to book the calendar. You select the time, date, duration. I'm sure a dropdown for timezone could be added.

This then books the calendar, then under the thread listing it has the event info in small type.

I'm thinking something like that would be very useful. Sure would make it easier to tell what time an event is.

PS. Thanks Daz.

[calel]

Indeed, I' ve encountered such sort of drop down time settings too; seems like it would work really well here too.

And, your new avatar is really cool indeed.

[oldmess]

This is an interesting problem, and one that we could probably use a custom solution to.

I'm beginning to think this may be the ideal solution. Last night I reminded people of a guild event and referenced an EDT start time (we're all Windemeerians, so it's more useful standard). Some assume they are using EST all the time and had no idea what EDT was; I had to explain it. So, lots of people have mostly right, but slightly imprecise ideas of what the timezones mean.

Sorry if it seems like I'm nitpicking this thing. I'm a programmer and I deal in making sure the exceptions in the data (however rare) don't cause me grief. So, a solution that makes 90% happy is nice, but if it screws the 10% because it's imprecise, then I feel the urge to speak up.

The forum already knows your individual timezones and shows post times using that notation, so why not add a field to each post that allows the person entering it to state a date/time (or leave blank if not applicable) and it could then show the adjusted date/time to each person as GMT and their local timezone. I like that idea. Save the confusion and save everyone a trip to a timezone conversion site.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about this forum software, so I can't volunteer to make this kind of change.

[caitiff]

I'm beginning to think this may be the ideal solution. Last night I reminded people of a guild event and referenced an EDT start time (we're all Windemeerians, so it's more useful standard). Some assume they are using EST all the time and had no idea what EDT was; I had to explain it. So, lots of people have mostly right, but slightly imprecise ideas of what the timezones mean.

Sorry if it seems like I'm nitpicking this thing. I'm a programmer and I deal in making sure the exceptions in the data (however rare) don't cause me grief. So, a solution that makes 90% happy is nice, but if it screws the 10% because it's imprecise, then I feel the urge to speak up.

The forum already knows your individual timezones and shows post times using that notation, so why not add a field to each post that allows the person entering it to state a date/time (or leave blank if not applicable) and it could then show the adjusted date/time to each person as GMT and their local timezone. I like that idea. Save the confusion and save everyone a trip to a timezone conversion site.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about this forum software, so I can't volunteer to make this kind of change.

Yes, someone in agreement

The thing is, timezones are not that hard. But people still get them wrong easily enough. So why not add a fix that makes it easy for everyone when the coding for it is not that challenging? No external sites needed, no explaining it to people, just a simple convesion.