23

All the times seem to be in GMT. Is there a time zone setting so they will show up in my time zone?

Also will this affect the "consecutive day" badge calculations?

Improve this question
6
  • 4
    It's been requested and declined: Make recent activity “today” etc. buttons based on user's time zone, Make times on the site in user's local time zone; see also When does a day start? and What Time Zone do the SO servers operate in? (and dozens of others)
    – Pops
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 17:59
  • possible duplicate of Change the definiton of a "day" to be localized for users
    – Pops
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 18:03
  • As for your second question, yes, this affects the "consecutive day" calculations. There are literally dozens of complaints about this on MSO, although most are from before the count was visible in user profiles and some have been deleted.
    – Pops
    Commented Feb 24, 2011 at 18:07
  • 1
    @Popular Demand: How can a time zone setting that does not exist affect the "consecutive day" calculations? Also, please move these comments and/or clarification to an answer so I can accept.
    – 700 Software
    Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 1:09
  • 1
    The reporting (and calculation) should be UTC, but a day in arrears. The problem at the moment (really obvious here in sunny UTC+13 New Zealand), is that the labels and reporting don't make a lot of sense.
    – david6
    Commented Nov 22, 2011 at 1:47
  • Is there a Chrome extension that can auto convert show (maybe as a pop up add-on to the UTC) SE date-time stamps with local/ chosen time zones?
    – Alex S
    Commented Nov 1, 2021 at 4:50

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

My original comment:

User-specific time zone settings have been requested and declined: Make recent activity “today” etc. buttons based on user's time zone, Make times on the site in user's local time zone; see also When does a day start? and What Time Zone do the SO servers operate in? (and dozens of others)

Your comment makes no sense to me. There is a time zone setting: it's UTC for everyone. That's where the very definition of "day" for consecutive day calculations comes from, so how could it not affect the calculations?

Improve this answer
7
  • 6
    "There is a time zone setting: it's UTC for everyone." ... Thanks, mod.
    – user1108579
    Commented Dec 5, 2013 at 0:06
  • Well... it is. Although now that I read the comment again I see that what the OP actually said was slightly different than what he meant (whether it's configurable on a user-by-user basis). And for what it's worth, I wrote this answer two and a half years before I joined the team.
    – Pops Staff
    Commented Dec 5, 2013 at 0:11
  • 6
    this is really annoying as far as consecutive days count is concerned... im pretty sure you can be on every day in your time zone but may have missed a UTC day by an hour or so, thus resetting your count. almost makes me think it is some dumb conspiracy to drive pageviews by making people try several times to get those dumb badges. no thanks i'm over it....
    – jm0
    Commented Jan 26, 2014 at 4:11
  • Is there a Chrome extension that can auto convert show (maybe as a pop up add-on to the UTC) SE date-time stamps with local/ chosen time zones?
    – Alex S
    Commented Nov 1, 2021 at 4:49
  • @user110857 what is the url of the setting pages, please?I fail to find out...
    – Grace
    Commented May 9, 2023 at 12:03
  • 1
    @Grace There's no configurable setting for time zone.
    – user1108579
    Commented May 11, 2023 at 0:27
  • @Pops Please let us change our time zone. The current time-zone discrepancy is inconvenient and pretty annoying.
    – xFioraMstr18
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 10:54
7

I think a great deal of the issues that people with this could be addressed with some additional/better labels on the profile screens.

Maybe not right by the profile image/score, but maybe when you click on the Username to see profile, then click on Reputation, and see the graph.
Maybe an extra note here for emphasis, something like:

"Note that profile 'days' for points go from midnight to midnight UTC (-a- to -b- your time)"

with -a- and -b- coming from the client if possible?

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    Totally agree. at least let it be known on the profile page page that its UTC and not even close to your local time zone. I was on 67 consecutive visits before visiting at 8:30 pm and discovering my visit counter dropped back to 1. Learned the hard way......
    – fontno
    Commented May 6, 2013 at 4:20
  • @fontno - me too ... so you need to visit more than once a day to be sure.
    – MT1
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 7:19
3

You can get this using the Stack App SOX.

Among its features, there is the one requested here:

  • Convert timestamps to your local time
    • Displays timestamps based on your time zone. You can also display time in 12-hour format by checking the option.
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .