Subj : Message Timezones
To   : Dream Master
From : Digital Man
Date : Thu Mar 31 2022 12:48:52

  Re: Message Timezones
  By: Dream Master to Digital Man on Thu Mar 31 2022 10:47 am

 > Good day, Sir!
 >
 > Just a thought about messages and timezones...
 >
 > Whenever I read through QWK and FTN-based messages, I see each message
 > tagged with a timezone or offset.

Unfortunately, not all messages are.

 > This is great, yet I also feel it isn't
 > necessary. Instead, why can't we inquire with the user during sign-up and
 > within the Default User Config.

I've considered it. Users do move around however, sometimes between time zones. The BBS usually stays in one time zone.

If the standard was to timestamp messagse in UTC, then at least for message creation, it would be a moot point (what zone the BBS or the author was in), but unfortunately, that's not how existing BBS message networks work. The date/time stamps of messages are generally expected to be in the local time of the BBS.

 > Asking the user their timezone, utilizing a similar manner to that of RHEL
 > and Debian-based /usr/share/zoneinfo/zone1970.tab could help populate the
 > request from the user.  Then, when displaying messages, all messages are
 > displayed based upon the offset and not the original source message.
 >
 > Just a thought...

A message reader could already do that in theory: just display a message's timestamp in UTC or convert to the user's preferred zone on the fly.

I kind of like seeing the originating timezone and the local time myself however. <shrug>
-- 
                                            digital man (rob)

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