# SDMB clock is 4 minutes slow

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [February 19, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538 "2016-02-19T09:49:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538/1 "2016-02-19T09:49:50Z")

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Lately the times shown on SDMB posts are 4 minutes less than [the time shown at the U.S. government’s official clock.](http://www.time.gov/) There’a Mafia game in progress with deadlines so you need to fix this! 😉

Yes, this may be a silly nitpick, but it did strike me as odd; until recently I think the times were correct. I happened to notice the discrepancy when I was checking the 5-minute time for a post edit.

(At first I assumed the time on my aging and obsolescent laptop was wrong, rather than that of the supercomputers directing the World’s Best Message Board. 🆒 I almost just reset my laptop’s time without further ado, but invested a few keystrokes to check WWV.)

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538/2 "2016-02-19T10:00:08Z")

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Yeah. There’s already been a thread on this, though it was started back when we were [only two minutes slow](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=774738), but eventually progressed to four minutes.

I mentioned potential tech problems that it could cause, but I never thought about Mafia.

I can only think the cron job that should be checking the network time isn’t running properly.

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538/3 "2016-02-19T10:05:54Z")

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Gak! Embarassing. :o Mods, please close this redundant thread.

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538/4 "2016-02-19T13:11:43Z")

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The upcoming leap day (the 29th) should take care of this.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-clock-is-4-minutes-slow/746538/5 "2016-02-19T15:46:56Z")

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**Moderator Action**

> [@septimus](#):
>
> Gak! Embarassing. :o Mods, please close this redundant thread.

Ok.

Thread closed.