Forum Time Zone

Depending on the host (FreeBSD, Linux) and browser (firefox, chrome, iridium, chromium) I use, I see different times for the posts on the forum.

When the time stamp changes from "<up to 59> minutes ago" to some specific date and time, the time and date are never correct for my local time zone. All the browsers I have tried on FreeBSD seem to be consistently wrong. But the Linux browsers aren't even consistent.

The time zone is set correctly on all my hosts.

I'm not even sure what time zone the Forum should be displaying.

Does anyone have any insight on this issue?
 
Oops, I misread. Firefox shows 2:02 AM for yours, ie UTC, so is NOT mapping to local times like the Samsung browser does.

Further, this ancient Firefox mobile (last before Mozilla trashed it) still allows viewing source. This stanza from my post above, tidied up a bit, is illuminating: time is kept as UTC (of course) so any mapping to local browser is local, but happens here only on the Samsung one.

Code:
<li class="u-concealed">
    <a href="/threads/forum-time-zone.87292/post-589821" rel="nofollow">
        <time class="u-dt" dir="auto" datetime="2022-12-02T04:06:03+0000"
            data-time="1669953963" data-date-string="Dec 2, 2022"
            data-time-string="4:06 AM" title="Dec 2, 2022 at 4:06 AM"
            itemprop="datePublished">6 minutes ago</time>
    </a>
</li>

That 4:06 AM was in fact 15:06 here, +11h. In the Samsung browser - quite good these days BTW - it shows now as 3:06 PM, correctly.

The "6 minutes ago" is updated in realtime by the browser, though I see no .js or other code that would do that ... maybe it's mixed in with the .css? I won't even try ...

If you'd enjoy browsing the page source, let me know. It's about 53kb uncompressed.
 
Ah, double oops!

When I read this thread on Firefox, I had not logged in.

So after logging out on this Samsung browser then login on Firefox the times came good, ie are same for both.

I have now :)

So has that solved your issue on all browsers? Cheers
 
The browsers I have tested so far (firefox on FreeBSD and chromium on Linux) do not offer time zone selection preferences which accommodate daylight saving. So I have to set the zone to UTC+11 (New Calidonia) to get the right time for Sydney with daylight saving in operation (Sydney is EST-10 in winter and AEDT-11 in summer). That seems remarkably primitive.
 
The browsers I have tested so far (firefox on FreeBSD and chromium on Linux) do not offer time zone selection preferences which accommodate daylight saving.

I've never seen any browser that offers a setting re timezone at all. It's always been a system thing; it's the OS that adjusts for daylight 'saving' according to the TZ database - recently updated, but I don't think NSW was affected.

So I have to set the zone to UTC+11 (New Calidonia) to get the right time for Sydney with daylight saving in operation (Sydney is EST-10 in winter and AEDT-11 in summer). That seems remarkably primitive.

That's bizarre. Is your system set to local time or UTC? Your message is stamped today at 9:53 AM, is that when you posted it?


Right now running % date from console says Tue Dec 6 14:39:48 AEDT 2022, and I'll post in a minute or two. Is that what post time you see, given we're in the same timezone?

More anon ...
 
My Unix system times are just fine:
Code:
[strand.164] $ cmp /etc/localtime /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Sydney
[strand.165] $ echo $?
0
It's when I enter the FreeBSD Forums web site, and navigate "Your account -> Preferences -> Time zone" all of the options are for UTC+/-something. There are no options for daylight saving, except to change the offset form UTC manually twice a year.
 
My Unix system times are just fine:
Code:
[strand.164] $ cmp /etc/localtime /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Sydney
[strand.165] $ echo $?
0

And ... just checking ... $ date at console says date+time AEDT ?

And BIOS clock is local non-DST time, wall_cmos_clock exists?

It's when I enter the FreeBSD Forums web site, and navigate "Your account -> Preferences -> Time zone" all of the options are for UTC+/-something. There are no options for daylight saving, except to change the offset form UTC manually twice a year.

Well that's usual, and having to change it twice per year would be unusual. Our timezone is UTC+10h; the DST adjustments occur locally according to the dates in /etc/localtime.

That's why I asked about what time you actually see on my previous post ... it should say 2:42 PM, 14:42 ... does it?
 
Does Perseverance Further?

Reposting a snippet from above, the header for a post of mine, seen on the old FireFox when NOT logged into the forums, therefore using UTC by default:

Code:
<li class="u-concealed">
    <a href="/threads/forum-time-zone.87292/post-589821" rel="nofollow">
        <time class="u-dt" dir="auto" datetime="2022-12-02T04:06:03+0000"
            data-time="1669953963" data-date-string="Dec 2, 2022"
            data-time-string="4:06 AM" title="Dec 2, 2022 at 4:06 AM"
            itemprop="datePublished">6 minutes ago
        </time>
    </a>
</li>

And here is the same snippet when logged in, with Sydney UTC+10h set in forum prefs. Note that it knows that current time is AEDT, UTC+11h. I'm not entirely sure if that's set locally or server-side (since forum server should have current world TZ map too). In any case it Just Works, same in both browsers:

Code:
<li class="u-concealed">
    <a href="/threads/forum-time-zone.87292/post-589821" rel="nofollow">
    <time  class="u-dt" dir="auto" datetime="2022-12-02T15:06:03+1100"
        data-time="1669953963" data-date-string="Dec 2, 2022"
        data-time-string="3:06 PM" title="Dec 2, 2022 at 3:06 PM"
        itemprop="datePublished">Friday at 3:06 PM
    </time>
    </a>
</li>

HTH
 
You are correct. Selecting and saving "UTC+10 Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart" is now displaying AEDT-11 time on the web pages.

Looks like misunderstanding and some finger trouble on my part. Thanks.
 
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