# It's about time



## Parla

VBulletin appears to be confused about the time. When we were on Daylight Saving Time, it showed standard time. Now that we're on Standard Time, it's showing what would be our DST. I'm writing this at 1:58 p.m. EST—but the forum clock tells me that it's 2:58.


----------



## JamesM

Hmmm... I hadn't noticed.  I'm writing this at 11:42 Pacific Standard Time.  I wonder what will show up on the post?

[edit]  Looks okay to me.  Which clock are you looking at?  I've never noticed a time other than the one that shows up on posts.

[edit]  Oh... I see one way down at the bottom of the page in small print.  Is that what you're talking about?  Mine shows GMT-8, which is correct for me.

Any chance you shifted your time zone somewhere along the way?  You should be GMT-5, right?  You should be able to adjust it in your profile preferences.

Just tried it... it works.  Click on Settings (upper right, near Log Out) and then scroll down left-hand side until you see General Settings.  You can set your time zone there.  Be sure to hit the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page after you've changed it.

(By the way, your post showed up for me as 10:58 PST, which is correct for 1:58pm EST, so I think the board's working fine.)


----------



## Parla

Well, that would be 2:42 p.m. here in the East. The time stamp on your message: 3:43 p.m.

I'll follow your suggestion and see what happens . . .

_Edit_: Well, it _was_ set to GMT-5. I guess it didn't realize that we went back to ST last week (and the UK had gone off Summer Time the week before).  I told it to forget about DST, and it's now showing the same time as my computer and my clock. I'll just change it again when we go back to EDT (I'm already counting the days; I really hate how early it gets dark now).

I actually didn't realize we can control that. Thanks!


----------



## JamesM

Some software hasn't adjusted to the change in Daylight Saving Time in the U.S., even though the law was changed by George W. Bush.  It could be that it was jumping around early.  Our atomic clock does that.  We have to set it to Mountain Time for a few weeks until the new Standard Time date comes around.

Glad you got it fixed!


----------



## Wordsmyth

JamesM said:


> _[...] _Which clock are you looking at? I've never noticed a time other than the one that shows up on posts.
> 
> [edit] Oh... I see one way down at the bottom of the page in small print. Is that what you're talking about? _[...] _


 I'd never noticed that one either ... but I'd be a bit wary of it. It seems to show the right time when you first navigate to a page, then it freezes at that time until you refresh the page or navigate to another one. It's currently telling me that the time now is 8:55 PM (which is what it showed 9 minutes ago), but it's actually 9:04 pm.

_[Edit]:_ The correct time appeared in the post header when I sent it (Quick Reply), but the little clock at the bottom still insisted it was 8:55 PM. After going into Edit and back out, it corrected itself. ... Oh, except that after this latest edit, it didn't. It's now 9:12, but it reads 9:05. 

Not that it's a problem: I can't see anyone using it as an alarm clock!

Ws


----------



## JamesM

It's not a real-time clock.   Web pages are refreshed only when you go to a new one or refresh the current one.  Think of it as a time stamp that tells you when the page was displayed.


----------



## mkellogg

It is a bit complex.  It actually uses some Javascript on your computer to figure out if DST/ "summer time" is in effect on your computer and shows you the time it is for you.  I just tried to test it and needed to restart my web browser to get it to show me the correct time again.


----------



## Wordsmyth

Thanks, Mike. 

It's not a big issue. I don't think anyone would use it as a real-time clock. I guess it's useful to check that vBulletin is correctly recognising one's time zone (which, in my case, it is). 

Ws


----------

