local time display in forum

[David Balažic]

Hi!

I see times are displayed in , I quote "All times above are in your local time zone & format.The current ranch time (not your local time) is Sep 30, 2011 07:42:45."

This is really great!
It works and requires zero settings from the user (time zone, daylight savings...) like on some other forums.

I would just suggest to also print the current time in users zone and format, just to see if it really computes the correct time.

Something like:
All times above are in your local time zone & format.The current ranch time is Sep 30, 2011 07:42:45, your local time is Sep 30, 2011 15:42:45.


But it is a small thing, the time display above, on the page is the big thing!
Really glad to see it !

David

[Rob Spoor]

Can't you just check your system tray?

[Jaikiran Pai]

David Balažic wrote:
I would just suggest to also print the current time in users zone and format, just to see if it really computes the correct time.

When you make a post, the time is displayed on the post (like on the first post of this thread). You can compare that with your system time if you want to verify it.

[David Balažic]

Rob Spoor wrote:Can't you just check your system tray?

What does my system tray say about the correctness of forum code?

[David Balažic]

Jaikiran Pai wrote:

David Balažic wrote:
I would just suggest to also print the current time in users zone and format, just to see if it really computes the correct time.

When you make a post, the time is displayed on the post (like on the first post of this thread). You can compare that with your system time if you want to verify it.

Yes, but that would make me spam the forum. ;)
I just thought that the forums idea of my local time would be a more useful information than the ranch time.

[Paul Clapham]

David Balažic wrote:

Rob Spoor wrote:Can't you just check your system tray?

What does my system tray say about the correctness of forum code?

Your system tray is the quick way for you to test the correctness of the forum code. The slow way would be for you to wait for somebody here to agree that it would be a good thing to change the forum software so you could do the test you suggested.

I don't think that we're likely to make that change, since (as far as I know) so far nobody has complained that the forum is displaying incorrect times for them. Which sort of suggests that people are happy with the way it displays their local time, and that they don't need additional confirmation that it's working right.

[David Balažic]

Paul Clapham wrote:
Your system tray is the quick way for you to test the correctness of the forum code.

I might be slow.
My tray says 22:14.
That does not tell me anything about the forum code. (because it is independent of it).


Besides, this was a minor suggestion.
The important thing is the whole thing was implemented. I can hardly wait until all websites use something like this.

[Andrew Monkhouse]

This is an interesting idea, and should be relatively easy to implement. The only downside I see is that the bottom section is already taking up a lot of real-estate. Any thoughts on wording that will allow us to have both the local and ranch time without taking up too much more space?

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Thinking out loud:
All times above are in your local time zone & format.This page rendered at 19:22:45 local time, or Sep 30, 2011 19:22:45 ranch time.

[fred rosenberger]

just out of curiosity, what would you gain if they differ from each other? How would you know if we were computing the wrong ranch time, the wrong local time, or both?

[David Balažic]

If by "you" you mean the person visiting the web page:

"what would you gain if they differ from each other?"
Again, assuming you mean by "they" the displayed local time and the actual local time (which the user can determine by looking at the systray or his wristwatch):
I gain the knowledge, that all times on the page are off by a certain offset (zero, ideally).


"How would you know if we were computing the wrong ranch time, the wrong local time, or both?"
For local time: see above.
For ranch time:
- what "computing" does it involve?
- I don't see why a random web visitor would care about ranch time. (not saying there is no reason, just for me it is not an important information)

[fred rosenberger]

One reason you may care is that sometimes when we do upgrades or make changes, we'll say "we will be down from X to Y, Ranch time".

And I still fail to see what difference it makes if the time is off by 2 seconds or 5 minutes. I don't think we sync to the atomic clock in any case.

Again, if they differ (ranch time vs. local time vs. system tray time vs. wristwatch time), which one is wrong?

Personally, I don't care if the change is made or not. I just don't see what the benefit is, and I do like to have friendly discussions/debates.

[David Balažic]

fred rosenberger wrote:One reason you may care is that sometimes when we do upgrades or make changes, we'll say "we will be down from X to Y, Ranch time".

Well.... That could say the time in local time, could it not? ;)

And I still fail to see what difference it makes if the time is off by 2 seconds or 5 minutes. I don't think we sync to the atomic clock in any case.

I was thinking more about errors in the hours range.

[fred rosenberger]

David Balažic wrote:Well.... That could say the time in local time, could it not? ;)

not if i make an announcement thread in this forum, and say "The ranch will be down from 8-12 ranch time tomorrow"...

unless I say
The ranch will be down from 8-12 ranch time tomorrow
which is:7-11 central, 6-10 eastern...

[David Balažic]

Yeah, you could say 14 hours UTC or similar...

Or you could use a new (not yet existing) forum tag, that converts the time you enter into local time, like it does for the post times... ;)