You already do this, possibly without realizing, but you do it all the time.

Whenever someone says "I'll be on around 5", you a: has to sort out which time zone they are talking about, and b: adjust to your own.

The only difference by having a standard clock on the site (or in addition to the current one) would be that it'd be easier for some people who are already struggling with this.

It's mainly an awareness issue tho - I doubt most people having problems adding or subtracting small numbers - it's more a matter of everyone thinking inside their own small bubble without relating to these aspects at all.

I am well aware that I am doing this already - but I feel that I dont need to figure out something back to my own time.

If I was going to play someone from the USA at a time they suggested - I already know they are 16-19 hours behind my time. But to have it set to GMT, I would have to make two calculations to figure out what time that is for me.

The calculations would take a matter of seconds I know, but it would be far more convenient for everyone to work off their local time.

I think its fine how it is and it doesnt need changing.

You wouldn't make two calculations, you would still do one - and the same one regardless of who you are talking to, since everyone would use GMT and nothing else.

I have over a decade of experience with large military networks and international exercises where coordinating a large number of different people and systems is necessary. The single way to do this is to have them all run zulu time (UTC) and ban all use of time zones and daylight saving. That way, everyone speaks the same language, and a time is a definite time, interpreted the same by all.

The main gain here would be that everyone would relate to a single time zone difference = themselves vs UTC. A single conversion to concern yourself with.

Instead of having to relate to any number of different time zones, where people get the differences wrong or even mess up whether to add or subtract.

As a digression, on the international space station (ISS), the common clock is zulu. When doing shuttle operations, they even take it one step further and use Mission Elapsed Time (MET) which simple counts from the time of liftoff, to ensure a simple, single clock for everyone to coordinate by.

instead of all of this zulu, MET and all of that stuff I just purely do not understnad, why dont we stick to what we have now as there is no major fault with it.

If we are going to change the clocks, then I would be up for an acurate server clock which does not require resetting all the time.

I have already repeated myself a few times now and there is no use for me continuing unless there is another point I have to make - but at the moment the clocks show my time, and thats the time I need to worry about.

If I need to figure out someone elses time, then I will do that - but for now, i think we should just keep what we have, which is a clock which roughly shows the right time in my time zone, which i am more than comfortable with and I am sure that others feel the same.

Totally agree with aflumpire, why change a perfectly good system that has been operating for years without problems?

If personnel put what country they are from on their profile, you can easily work out what time zone they are on by using something like timeanddate.com

I believe that if it were to change from the current system, would only cause more grief and trouble between members.

Some would be happy at the new time, others would moan and grumble, that they are still not happy with the new time zone!

I say leave it as it is!!

I believe it depends on what time your computer is set to. I've logged on at work on occasion and seen mad forum post times (based on the time of day it was) but when I corrected the system time, the forum post times were corrected.

You clearly DO understand all this, possible without thinking about it, otherwise you would been unable to communicate to others about time at all. These are just the technical names of things you relate to everyday - don't let that put you off.

The basic question is whether or not we should run a standard clock here on FP rather than have "5 pm" mean potentially 28 different things. (yes, there are potentially more than 24 zones)




That's a different topic entirely. Why the server hosting the FP site isn't properly synchronized is a bit of a mystery to me since this is both simple and completely free, not to mention 100% common.




Then don't

And please, again, realize that I'm not trying to make a big deal out of this. I'm just trying to remove some misconceptions about this topic - misconceptions you confirm with every post.

Correct for some countries, incorrect for many others
(like USA, australia, russia etc etc) who have many different zones within a single country.

And the point is that you shouldn't have to mind where other people are from. By running a standard time you wouldn't have to.




Ironically, the more unhappy people would be, the more this confirms the need.

as I have said before jan, this is all well and good for you to say this as you are in Europe like most players on the game are.

But because I am in Australia, I wouldnt be able to stand having to run by the time I run by everyday, and then come online and work by some other time, its just not practical if you live on the other side of the world.

This is very simple for you to say as you live in Norway, and the clocks if changed would not change much to what you are used to.

But for me to come on at say 9pm at night and the clock tells me its 11am, that will only create confusion for the Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, Canadians and the like.

I know a lot about time zones, but other people do not understnad that concept. I know and hear of a few 11-14 year olds on here and if they lived in Australia and saw 11am when its 9pm at night, they would be totally confused.

It doesnt affect those living in England at all, and thats obviously something that you do not quite understand.

I am making sure I am making a big deal of this to avoid confusion and arguments in the future.

As I hgave said, it is all well and good if you are living only a couple of hours difference of the London time (which I presume this would switch to) - but you cant force people who live in a totally different zone adopt another time zone for when they come onto funkypool.

Keep it as it is, and if needed, there is timeanddate.com

I say leave it as it is!!

If we, Europeans, were to join a games site, on the other side of the world, we would be using the time zone that they are on.

Therefore why change something that would cause massive dissruption to a perfectly good system that is in place and has been for several years without discreancies over time zones...

I say leave it as it is!!

No offense intended (not much anyway ), but based on this repeated statement, you clearly are not getting the point here at all.

The suggested change is more important the less aware any given player already is - regardless of being in Europe or not.

Correct! Bingo!

Now hold on to that idea, because that is precisely the message I'm advocating here! Problem is that you somehow think what I'm suggesting is something else.

The current game lets people relate to times in their own, local time zones. Rather than do exactly what you just said and what I think is the best way by far to go: Use a single zone and force people to adjust to the fact that they are playing on a server hosted elsewhere in the world.

Enough of this silly argument anyway, it's impossible at this point to make people realize I'm advocating someone else's suggestion here - and that this is NOT a big deal. I only keep going because people clearly are not getting it (based on the responses).

It's fine to disagree, but not when it's based on not understanding what you are disagreeing with

it will fix nothing. Clan games will still go astray, and it would be total confusion for the Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, Canadians and whoever else lives on the other side of the world a while - thats what you dont understand.

I am on other sites where it based to GMT, and I am happy with this site being on my local time zone.

this is coming from a person who will be highly affected by it - and talking to others in Australia and New Zealand, they agree with me - but for some reason they dont post

I am perfectly aware that it won't fix issues about clan games, those are mainly caused by completely different factors.

As for not understanding, that's entirely on your part I'm afraid. The proposed change wouldn't introduce any new challenges people don't already cope with on a daily basis. The difference is merely that the challenge of time zones would become far more apparent, making it much less likely for people to forget to take it into account.

As Jim says, it's perfectly reasonable that people should relate to the time of where the game is hosted.

And please lose this ridiculous idea about you being so much worse off than others. I have been a user of online games and services hosted on 10+ hours offset myself for over a decade and there's nothing troublesome about that. Whether you add 1 hour or 10 makes really no difference to the fact that you have to adjust for it whether you like it or not.

Bottom line here is that the suggestion wouldn't really change anything other than increase people's awareness. Nothing would be harder or easier - it would merely reduce the change of forgetting to adjust.