OK, so the webpage says the time shown is GMT - 6 hours. It then says that the time is 2:50.
However. My watch, that I use as part of my work at which we use GMT/UTC exclusively, says the time is 0750 UTC. This should make the time 1:50 yes? Or am I wrong in thinking that GMT and UTC are the same thing (I’m 99.9% sure I’m not)?
Hmmmm. That’s probably not a very descriptive subject line sorry. Can I make a postpost change? Perhaps to:
Is the time shown on the SDMB correct?
It looks correct to me. Remember that in the may parts of the USA, on Sunday 7 April 2002 we move our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings Time.
Well if it’s Daylight Savings Time at present, the little blurb at the bottom should say GMT - 5.
At present the website says:
Times are GMT - 6
Current time is 4:19am
As GMT is 0919, one of the above statements is incorrect. Either times are GMT - 5 or the current time is 3:19am
Thank you for your patience with my nitpick 
I’ve not really thought this through too carefully, so there could well be a big blunder here somewhere, but, the time according to the board is ca. 11 am GMT. How can that be right? It is about 11 am, but we switched over to British Summer Time a couple of weeks ago. Isn’t it 10 am GMT? Am I an idiot?
No you’re not an idiot. Some minor thing seems to be wrong with the time function. BST should be 1 hour ahead of GMT. So when your personal clock said 11:00am it is 10:00am GMT which should make the board’s time 4:00am (GMT - 6). But you posted at around 5:00am according to SMDB Time. So basically, the math don’t add up dude!
I’m sure I have something more important to worry about!
Sorry for the delay Skogcat. I got lazy but since several people are asking about it, I described the behaviour of the software in the technical issues FAQ.
I have read the explanation in the technical issues thread. Neither the daylight savings issue or the GMT issue accounts for the incorrect times.
GMT is not affected by Daylight Savings.
GMT + 9.5 should currently equal 6:53
SMDB says that GMT + 9.5 = 7:53
Conclusion: SMDB has GMT set 1 hour fast.
When I log in as a guest I get GMT only and it is consistantly 1
hour fast.
I have my watch set to GMT for my job so I’m not getting confused by any arithmetic or anything.
Appologies for starting a seperate thread on the same topic
Yes. That’s so that everyone who is in the same timezone as the server doesn’t have to go manually change their user options to see the correct time on their posts.
Are the majority of posters in the same timezone as the server? I suppose they probably are.
How do I manually set the time offset?
I can’t just select another timezone 1 hour behind mine because it is a 1/2 hour out, ie there is no option for GMT + 8.5.
Maybe not, but the majority are in an area whose DST scheme matches that of the physical location of the server.
You can’t.
There is now, created specially just for you. Now don’t say I never did anything for you.
Just to clarify the nitpick: The SDMB is set for GT (Greenwich time) -6, aside from perhaps a week or two difference in when England and the U. S. switch to summer time. However, the page does not say “GT”, it says “GMT”, or Greenwich Mean time, which specifically means “Greenwich time without the funny summer adjustments”. In other words, in the summer, GT is an hour ahead of GMT, and it’s the former, not the latter, that the Board (approximately) tracks.
Ok, I’m impressed!! Thank you very much Arnold Winkelried
Can the offset be set for the “half” time zone, in Nova Scotia?
Hey, I posted after Skogcat on the 17th, but the forum view still shows his post as the last one. What’s up with that?
Fiver - a) exactly what offset would you need
b) If you read the technical issues FAQ you will notice a section saying that sometimes the post creation process gets interrupted because the database is too busy. That’s probably what happened to your “last post by” in the forum display.