Manual: how to change the forum time to your local time.

[Dutch Uncle]

I posted this in a thread and now realized this might be a topic that could be useful for other members as well.

edit: New and Updated Guide.

If your Local Time doesn't match the Server Time, here is a fix that might end time-confusion for you:
- In the main forum screen, click (my) "Profile".
- When you mouse over "Modify Profile" in the new screen, there's the option "Look and Layout" (in the 'pull down menu'). Select that,
- and in the following screen you'll see the option "Time offset" where you can type a number in a box. update: next to the box you'll see (auto detect) . Clicking that will probably fix it, once and for all. It will also take care of Daylight Saving Time changes.

If for some reason the board-software fails to pick up the Time Difference between you and the server, here is how you go about it manually:
1) Sever Time is -8 hours from GMT. (which is US Pacific Time as far as I know)
2a) here is a link to a 'timekeeping' site: http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/usa/los-angeles . For me it shows automatically the time-difference between my place and the site's server. But quite probably it won't do the trick if the (auto detect) didn't work in the first place.
2b) Your own Time zone, as in relation to GMT, can be seen here: http://sydaby.eget.net/swe/tzones.htm
(There are plenty other sites that will give you that information)

3) Now add your timezone offset to "8" (as GMT is +8 hours with regard to the Server), to get the number you need to put in the "Time Offset Box" on this site.
For example: I live in the Central European Timezone, which is +1 GMT, so I fill in 9 in the box.
If you live in US Eastern Time, GMT -5, you fill in 3.
If you live in Japan, GMT +9, you fill in 17.
If you live in Hawaii, GMT -10, you fill in -2

4) Around the time Daylight Saving Time goes into (or out of) effect, you might experience a one-hour-off, probably only for a week or so, as in/out is country/region specific. The auto detect worked fine for me. So either live with it for a week, or simply add or subtract "1" to/from the number in the box

5) All post made will now be shown as when they were posted per your timezone.
If you select another member's Profile, You'll see what time it is for them, at home.

PS: GMT is sometimes referred to as UTC (Universal Time, Coordinated)

[Kizzie]

I was just going to post a reply but see you already found the answer.  Tks for posting the info for everyone!

[Dyess]

I think I did it right

[Dutch Uncle]

Today Daylight Saving Time ended where I live. "Oh the Horror! There is a time difference again!" My slightly OCD Inner Child/control freak starts nagging me. 

So I did some 'research' again, and it seems that US Pacific Time will revert from DST to Pacific Standard Time next week. So supposedly in one week from now all will be fine and dandy again. All by itself! 
(This might be different for those on the southern hemisphere though, as they'll might start having DST around this time of year. Not sure about that though.)

I do want to take the opportunity though to put a link to another 'timekeeping' site: http://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/usa/los-angeles , since for me it shows automatically the time-difference between my place and the site's server. I guess nowadays many web-browsers have a standard feature that detect ones IP address (much like this site logged your IP-adress for each post) and manage to fix a approximate location for it (probably the place of your local 'hosting'-server.)
So it might ease on the calculus-thing we have to do to get our local time right.

I'll check in next week with an update on this. 

[Dutch Uncle]

New and updated Guide in the Opening Post.

There's actually an (auto detect) feature, which I totally failed to spot at first. 
It might not work for everybody though, so perhaps my elaborate "manual" hasn't been in vain after all.
(well, definitely not, since I was quite happy to get my time 'in time' at the time (LOL), and I like to puzzle anyway.)

Here's to posts "right when you wanted them" !

[PunchDrunk]

When you're logged in, you can choose how the date and time of posts is displayed.
To change this from the default format, go to 'Profile', 'Modify Profile', 'Look and Layout', 'Time Format'. Rather than using one of the predetermined formats from the drop down box, you can customize the layout more by changing what's in the box below that. Here's a list of what some of the strings mean:


%Y      Year with century                 (e.g. 2016)
%y      Year without century            (e.g. 16)

%B      Full month name                  (e.g. February)
%b      Abbreviated month name    (e.g. Feb)
%m     Month as a decimal number (e.g. 02)

%d      Day of month as number      (e.g. 11)

%A      Full weekday name              (e.g. Thursday)
%a      Abbreviated weekday name(e.g. Thu)

%D      Month/Day/Year                    (e.g. 02/11/16)

%H      Hour in 24-Hour format        (e.g. 21)
%I       Hour in 12-Hour format        (e.g. 09)

%p      AM or PM indicator                (e.g. AM)

%M      Minute as decimal number   (e.g. 59)

%S       Second as decimal number  (e.g. 03)

You can put these in any order, and whatever you type between the strings is also displayed.
I'm using   %Y-%b-%d, %H:%M  which displays as  2016-Feb-11, 21:59
I find that easier to read - it's a bit less 'busy', there are no seconds displayed and the 24hr format prevents AM/PM from dribbling over onto the next line, as they sometimes do with the default format.

[Dutch Uncle]

Hi PunchDrunk,

thank you for adding this to the manuals. 
I thought it more fitting to merge this with the 'time-zone' thread since the two are so closely related.