How to make the time display correctly (REVISED) NOTE: The following post was originally authored on 9/12/2005 and was accurate at that time. Since then, DegreeInfo has changed servers again and the original information became inaccurate. This post has now been edited on 10/8/2005 to make it accurate again. For those who are technical and don't need it all explained to them; and who remember that the corrective time offset, before, was +11 hours from whatever your normal timezone settings here should be... for those people, the new corrective time offset is +18 hours from whatever your normal timezone settings here should be. For the rest of us, just read... Someone emailed me and asked me about this, and since it seemed like everyone could benefit from the answer, I decided to answer here... As most of you may have noticed, posting times, as displayed on your screen in the threads (and in PMs, and in the "You last visited..." thingy on the front page of the forums) around here, are usually incorrect. This is because the time on the server is not set right. It wasn't set right even before the server changeover a few months ago, and it's even more wrong now. Or, alternatively, the server time may be set right, but the master offset within vBulletin may not be set right. Whichever. Or maybe both... who knows. At any rate, if the server time were set correctly (and/or, if it is set correctly, then if the offset were correctly configured in vBulletin), as it's supposed to be, then whatever time zone you specificed (that you're actually physically in) when you first signed-up here would correct for the difference between your time and the server's time and would, therefore, display correct posting times relative to you in the threads and elsewhere here. But, alas, that is not the case. However, as luck would have it, you can compensate for it by resetting your time zone, in the "options" area of your user control panel, to a time zone that, while incorrect for where you're actually physically located, will nevertheless fix the problem. In the computer industry, we call it a "workaround," and it's the absolutely worst way to fix any problem... but since I don't control this site's server or its copy of vBulletin, a workaround's the best I can offer. If the person managing the server would correct the time and/or vBulletin master settings, then everyone's correct time zone settings here would cause the time to display correctly. But until that happens, below are the instructions for making the appropriate compensating settings... NOTE: For those who are technical and don't need the take-you-by-the-hand version of the instructions that follow, simply reset your time zone here to +18 hours from whatever is your setting that is correct for your physical location. Before you go change it, though, stop and notice how I worded that: I didn't say +18 hours from GMT. I said +18 hours from what your time zone setting should be, based on where you're physically located. For the rest of us mere mortals who still have "12:00, 12:00, 12:00" flashing on the front of our VCRs, here's the take-you-by-the-hand version of the instructions: First open a new browser window so you can go do the things you're about to be instructed to do in that window, while you keep these instructions in this window so you can jump back and refer to these instructions, here; then, in the other browser window, go to www.forums.degreeinfo.com; and then, in that window (not this one), look up above the forum area itself, on the gray bar near the top of the screen, just below all the DegreeInfo top-of-page graphics, and click on "User CP"; and then, on the resulting page, click on "Edit Options"; and then, on the resulting page, scroll down to the "Date & Time Options" area and notice the drop-down selector field (which is not really what Microsoft calls it, for those of you who know the correct name... but my experience is that "drop-down selector field" works better with most folks); and then, click on the little down-arrow thingy (which is also what Microsoft doesn't call it... but I digress again) at the right end of the selector field; and then, Those in the U.S./Canadian Eastern Time Zone, select: (GMT -11:00 hours) Midway Island, Samoa Those in the U.S./Canadian Central Time Zone, select: (GMT +12:00 hours) Auckland, Wellington, Fiji, Kamchatka, Marshall Island Those in the U.S./Canadian Mountain Time Zone, select: (GMT +11:00 hours) Magadan, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia Those in the U.S./Canadian Pacific Time Zone, select: (GMT +10:00 hours) EAST(East Australian Standard), Guam, Papua New Guinea, Vladivostok and then scroll down a tiny bit further and click on the "Submit Modifications" button. Wait for a new page to paint. Then click on the Distance Learning Forums link to go back to the front/main page of the forums; and then, scroll down to the bottom of the page and look in the lower left corner area. It should say: All times are GMT +x hours. The time now is yy:yy yM. where "x" is: -11 for those of you in the Eastern Time Zone, +12 for those in the Central, +11 for those in Mountain, and +10 for those in the Pacific Time Zone; and "yy:yy yM" is the correct time for you. If so, then you should start noticing that whenever you make a post in a thread, the posting time will start being right; and, moreover, all previous posting times in all posts in all threads will now be correct for you... and relative to you. In other words, as I recall of the behavior of this fairly old version of vBulletin, if you're in the Pacific Time Zone, and Joe Blow is in the Eastern Time Zone; then if you post at 10:00 AM, your post will be correctly date stamped as 10:00 AM for you, but as 1:00 PM for Joe Blow; and if he posts in response at 1:20 PM his time, then it will so display on his screen, but it will be displayed as 10:20 AM on yours. That's the way it's supposed to be, but we've all, I think, gotten so used to it being not just wrong, but way wrong, around here that we've all stopped looking at the post times altogether. But I think if everyone makes the compensation adjustments that I've prescribed herein, above, then everyone's post times (and all other forum time references) will start being right. For those outside the continental US and Canada, just set the time zone in your profile here to +18 hours from what your time zone setting should be here. For example, if you live in Bueno Aires, your normal, correct time zone setting, here, should be GMT -3 hours. However, because of the screwed-up time on the DI serrver (and/or the wrong master offset setting in the vBulletin software itself), to make the time display here correctly for you, you have to start at your normal -3 hours setting, and then go in the "+" direction 18 hours to GMT -9 hours... as if you were physically almost on the other side of the planet, in Alaska. Don't start at GMT and move +18 hours; rather, start at the setting that is supposed to work for you here, and then count +18 hours, and choose that setting (which will be wrong for your physical location, but which will, nevertheless, make the time appear here correctly). Hope this helps, everyone! Let me know if it doesn't. It's working on my computer (and has been, for a long time, now), for what that's worth. I'm sorry I didn't think to share this with everyone sooner; and thanks to the person who emailed me and asked me about it or I might never have thought to!
Well that was easy enough. Thanks Gregg! Now if I would just receive email notifications I will be happy, ah, happier.
Jimmy, as I pointed-out in the other thread where this was discussed, you need to check with your ISP (or, your email service provider isn't your ISP, then you need to check with your email service provider) and find out if either DegreeInfo.com or its IP address (66.220.2.16) or the domain name sbgc.workingmansoftware.com (or simply workingmansoftware.com) (which uses the same IP address as DegreeInfo) are on some kind of POP3 (incoming) email server black/block list. You say the problem began when DegreeInfo changed servers. At that time it also changed IP addresses. If nothing changed on your end (i.e., if you didn't happen to get a new email service provider or change your ISP or something) at about that same time; and if you did nothing to your computer or email software that would cause email from either of those domains or that IP address to be blocked, then a very likely culprit is that your email service provider subscribes to (or simply downloads and uses) a list that blocks all known spammer domain names and IP addresses. DegreeInfo's new IP address might happen to be one that once belonged to a spammer, or maybe a spammer was once on the same server and so the IP address is now on one of the various RBL or block/black-lists. Check with your email service provider. I'm not ready to bet that that's the problem, but I'm thinkin' it might be.
This post, made on 10/8/2005, is to bump this thread to the top. That's normally something we don't want people doing around here, but if you read the words in red at the top of the thread-starting post, you'll realize that I'm bumping it back to the top because there's been a change and members here now need the new, revised information.
One question. What do the people who live in a GMT +9:30 timezone do? Pretend they don't and be happy to be accurate to within half an hour?
Too bad the choices don't include a 30 minute offset between each whole hour even for timezones in which no such thing exists, eh? But that would be too weird. Yeah, the 30 minute thing is a problem. If the server's clock and/or vBulletin's settings were right, you could just pick your normal, correct timezone... which, of course, is among the choices. But there's no 30 minute offset anywhere out in the +18 (from what should be your setting) range. Sorry. This is why workarounds are never really the answer. Anything worth doing is worth doing right; and anything work fixing is work fixing right... or so used to always say my ol' man. Actually, being happy to be within 30 minutes isn't all that bad. The whole point is to make it so that for each user, s/he can tell when someone actually posted something. If you get it within 30 minutes and then just always make a mental note to add or subtract 30 minutes from the time actually shown (depending on whether you set to ahead of or behind where you actually need to be), you'll very easily adjust and after a while you'll stop noticing that you're even making the mental calculation whenever you look at a given post's date-/time-stamp. Sorry it's not a cleaner solution. The real solution is to either set the server to the correct time and/or make sure the master time setting in the vBulletin software is right. That, I suspect, is on the list of things to do behind making the SEARCH function around here starting working right again. I'm sure someone will get to it eventually. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
