Timezones are my worst enemies

Offbeatreboot · April 23, 2016, 06:22:27 AM

Considering how much time I spend chatting it up online, timezones are the thing that really prevent me from conversing with people up far west or east. Meaning America and Asia respectively. I'm in Eastern Europe and you don't always get to talk to a lot of people from that part of the world.

So I gotta ask, what's the general-ish timezone around here, when people are most active?
If you honestly have no clue, just share your timezone. I'm in EEST right now.
Which is 2 hours in front of England (UK) so that's probably the easiest jumping off point (For me at least, that's almost always what I compare it to.)

And what do y'all usually talk about?

Lurking is very time consuming and jumping into the fray is a lot more fun.

Razmoudah · April 23, 2016, 09:48:52 AM

This forum doesn't see much activity these days, but it used to be a lot more active a few years ago when I first joined. These things come and go in cycles though.

As for my timezone, I'm in GMT-6, your timezone is GMT+2 if you're two hours ahead of England. I'm using these because back when I started doing a lot of things online most timezone calculations were based off of Greenwich Mean Time (by the way, the International Date Line has GMT-12 on one side and GMT+11 on the other, at least if I'm remembering correctly it does as I don't think they're -11 and +12). I do know that they've established a Universal Time Code, but I don't know what it's respective calculations are. Finally, I'm typically active in the mid- to late-mornings where I am, which would roughly be early- to mid-evenings where you are.

Gabi · April 23, 2016, 07:52:48 PM

I'm in GMT-3, so you're 5 hours ahead of me. I log in at unpredictable times, but not late at night. This is about as late as you'll probably find me. Which I guess means no early mornings for you.

Offbeatreboot · April 24, 2016, 02:32:30 AM

Well by the time I got to see it, you were already gone~
An early morning so early that it was 2 am lmfao

Merlin · April 24, 2016, 06:01:20 AM

I'm in Australia, it's pretty bad for catching non-Australians online.

We've got people from all over!

Tapewolf · April 24, 2016, 06:37:40 AM

Quote from: Merlin on April 24, 2016, 06:01:20 AM
I'm in Australia, it's pretty bad for catching non-Australians online. We've got people from all over!

I'm in the UK, except when I'm not (Anthrocon). Working closely with Merlin for Project Future and Epsilon is a mixture of fun and frustration - When I'm at work, she's at home and vice-versa. I have to be quick replying around lunch or she'll have gone to bed and I don't get an answer until late in the evening.

On the flipside, I get art files with dates in the future. This makes linux sulk a bit and the ls command won't show the time unless forced to because it doesn't believe it. This weirdness with the time zones does also mean that if I'm fast with the colouring and page assembly, I can sometimes get the comic coloured before she's drawn it.

Aisha deCabre · April 24, 2016, 03:17:36 PM

I'm in Eastern Standard Time, which is the east coast of the U.S. Five hours behind GMT, according to Google. *chuckle* I feel like I should know time zone codes off the top of my head, just so I don't seem ignorant.

I work evenings where I am, which has turned me into a night owl. XD Which makes for planning things like D&D games with my New Zealand friend easy, as I can stay up until at most 5 AM. x3

Dishonored · April 25, 2016, 01:05:04 AM

I'm in Central Daylight Time, USA, which is at -5 GMT on the site I checked. I'm on at random because A: I'm awake at random times, and 2: I often have the attention span of a crack-addled gnat.

Razmoudah · April 25, 2016, 09:48:11 AM

Dishonored, you might want to double check that timezone difference. I'm also in the same timezone as you, and technically when you are going by the GMT +/-# value you go by your Standard Time, whether or not you are currently in Daylight Savings Time (this is because DST is not observed everywhere) and then mention whether or not you have DST where you are at. Although what you listed is currently technically correct this November it won't be anymore, as DST will have ended, which is why you just go by the Standard Time figures. Also, not everywhere that observes DST changes the name of their timezone to reflect that, so really only those of us in the States, or willing to look it up, would even know that you are currently in DST from the timezone you mentioned.

And I just realized that I forgot to mention that I'm currently in DST myself, it doesn't help that I usually forget completely about it.

Dishonored · April 25, 2016, 10:03:08 AM

Meh, it's current now, though I see your point.

Wouldn't it just be easier, overall, to go by forum time if you wanted to synch activity on the forum? Or am I still only half-awake again?

Mao · April 25, 2016, 11:50:40 AM

Atlantic time here. East Coast Canada. I generally check the boards just before bed and during my lunch breaks if I'm bored. Mostly just keep an eye out for any janitorial work that needs doing around here. Post removal, checking new accounts just to be safe, etc.

Offbeatreboot · April 25, 2016, 02:39:51 PM

Well this topic got more traction than expected.

Quote from: Dishonored on April 25, 2016, 10:03:08 AMWouldn't it just be easier, overall, to go by forum time if you wanted to synch activity on the forum? Or am I still only half-awake again?

Indeed it would be! I was just curious about where people are from more or less.
And having a notion about their timezone says a lot, even if you all just use a time like the forum time.

Though, I don't plan on starting any full forum sized events that actually require synchronization.
So unless someone has some suggestions on that, not very likely to happen any time soon.
I'm glad I was able to get some of you up and about with this thread, but I don't plan on a hostile forum event takeover just yet

That said, seems like all of us dislike timezones to some extent.
Also I've been reading bits and pieces about convention activity here. Any good stories to share?

I don't intend on being able to join on any considering my current situation

But hey, I'd love to hear some cool stuff.

llearch n'n'daCorna · April 26, 2016, 09:45:51 AM

Quote from: Razmoudah on April 23, 2016, 09:48:52 AM
This forum doesn't see much activity these days, but it used to be a lot more active a few years ago when I first joined. These things come and go in cycles though.

As for my timezone, I'm in GMT-6, your timezone is GMT+2 if you're two hours ahead of England. I'm using these because back when I started doing a lot of things online most timezone calculations were based off of Greenwich Mean Time (by the way, the International Date Line has GMT-12 on one side and GMT+11 on the other, at least if I'm remembering correctly it does as I don't think they're -11 and +12). I do know that they've established a Universal Time Code, but I don't know what it's respective calculations are. Finally, I'm typically active in the mid- to late-mornings where I am, which would roughly be early- to mid-evenings where you are.

FYI, UTC (universal time co-ordinaire; it's French, metric time) is basically the same as GMT, only different, because its French. The difference is that Greenwich Mean Time, per se, goes into British Summer Time in, well, the British summer; UTC remains static, and does not invoke daylight saving. The other difference is that GMT has leap seconds every so often to nudge the day into the correct alignment with the clocks. UTC does not, which results in a difference of, I believe, some 12 seconds between UTC and GMT since Jan 1, 1970.

This makes UTC excellent for computers, since they can just keep counting seconds and it all works out fine. It makes it a bit harder for people, though.

Having said that, I'm also in the UK, at least for the moment. I'm a bit peripatetic, though.

Razmoudah · April 26, 2016, 10:08:33 AM

Quote from: Dishonored on April 25, 2016, 10:03:08 AM
Meh, it's current now, though I see your point.

Wouldn't it just be easier, overall, to go by forum time if you wanted to synch activity on the forum? Or am I still only half-awake again?

It certainly would, but where do you find the forum time? All of the post times have been synced to my local time and I don't know where to find a base server time.

Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on April 26, 2016, 09:45:51 AMFYI, UTC (universal time co-ordinaire; it's French, metric time) is basically the same as GMT, only different, because its French. The difference is that Greenwich Mean Time, per se, goes into British Summer Time in, well, the British summer; UTC remains static, and does not invoke daylight saving. The other difference is that GMT has leap seconds every so often to nudge the day into the correct alignment with the clocks. UTC does not, which results in a difference of, I believe, some 12 seconds between UTC and GMT since Jan 1, 1970.

This makes UTC excellent for computers, since they can just keep counting seconds and it all works out fine. It makes it a bit harder for people, though.

Having said that, I'm also in the UK, at least for the moment. I'm a bit peripatetic, though.

Ah, so that's the difference. Thanks, llearch n'n'daCorna.