Subj : Re: Message Timezones
To   : Digital Man
From : Vk3jed
Date : Fri Apr 01 2022 20:59:00

-=> On 03-31-22 12:48, Digital Man wrote to Dream Master <=-

 DM> I've considered it. Users do move around however, sometimes between
 DM> time zones. The BBS usually stays in one time zone.

I'm a case in point.  I'm currently 1 hour behind my BBS, but because this
laptop is still configured for my home time zone, timestamps on this message
are also an hour ahead of where I am. :D

 DM> If the standard was to timestamp messagse in UTC, then at least for
 DM> message creation, it would be a moot point (what zone the BBS or the
 DM> author was in), but unfortunately, that's not how existing BBS message
 DM> networks work. The date/time stamps of messages are generally expected
 DM> to be in the local time of the BBS.

Yeah that has been the standard, rather than letting each end work out its own
offset.

 > Asking the user their timezone, utilizing a similar manner to that of RHEL
 > and Debian-based /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone1970.tab could help populate the
 > request from the user.  Then, when displaying messages, all messages are
 > displayed based upon the offset and not the original source message.
 >
 > Just a thought...

 DM> A message reader could already do that in theory: just display a
 DM> message's timestamp in UTC or convert to the user's preferred zone on
 DM> the fly.

Assuming every link in the chain was set correctly, otherwise you'll see
apparent feats of time travil! :D

 DM> I kind of like seeing the originating timezone and the local time
 DM> myself however. <shrug> --
 DM>                                             digital man (rob)

It is an interesting curiosity, but harder to work out transit or response
times. :)


.... What if I told you I'm here to set you free?
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