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View Full Version : Perplexing time stamps on forum


Catrin
03-29-2010, 02:21 AM
Since I joined this forum last year, I've been a little perplexed at the time stamps on posts. For example, my own posts at first have the "right" time stamp (Eastern) and a few hours later it changes. That actually isn't a surprise - I would expect it to "update" to Pacific time zone - but the change is generally far more than 3 hours.

Just curious as to what might be going on - has anyone else paid attention to this? Sometimes a forum such as this has account time zone settings but if our accounts here has that available then I've been unable to find it.
7rider
03-29-2010, 02:51 AM
I find the difference is when I am signed in vs. not signed in.
When not...the posts read four hours earlier than when I am signed in.
:confused:
OakLeaf
03-29-2010, 04:09 AM
Because when you're signed on, the time displays in whatever time zone you selected in your profile.

When you're not signed in, you see the forum default.
7rider
03-29-2010, 05:03 AM
Because when you're signed on, the time displays in whatever time zone you selected in your profile.

When you're not signed in, you see the forum default.

That's what I assumed. I just can't figure out why the default if 4 hours off. If TE is in Oregon, I would have pegged the default to be 3 hours off my time.
OakLeaf
03-29-2010, 05:13 AM
That's because Zulu is Zulu (GMT) regardless of local corrections for Daylight Savings Time. And the forum has a user-selectable option to automatically update for DST... although I wonder if it actually has all the worldwide DST settings in the software, or if it's only for the USA. :confused:

I had to logout to see it - but forum default is GMT-8 (Pacific Standard Time). Right now you and I are on Eastern Daylight Time, GMT-4.
Catrin
03-29-2010, 07:25 AM
Ok, this makes perfect sense. I am generally signed in at home but not at work - so it could be that I hadn't realized when this happened. I just couldn't figure out why it would be 4 hours :p
marni
03-29-2010, 05:46 PM
and then there are those of us who function on a 24 hour system and spend our lives translating to and from that system to standard time, daylight savings time and time in any one of about 7 time zones that people write from.

marni