Tintin Forums

The forum's clock has been changed from our default server time (US Pacific Standard Time/PST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), on a trial basis. Given that UK-based users form a large portion of our membership, it makes sense to make the switch. There is, however, a server performance hit associated with the time change. If the forum performance degrades too much, we will need to reset the clock to server time/US PST.

Due to system limitations, there is currently no option to let each user set his/her own time offset.

Well i'm in Australia, so you're all backwards to me.

Go the Aussies!

I would say that CET (Central European Time) would be slightly more preferable. Guess the members from CET-countries are in majority and it is the time for Tintin, in Belgium.
CET

GMT although significant in older times, I would say CET is the more commonplace nowdays.

GMT although significant in older times, I would say CET is the more commonplace nowdays.

I'm interested to hear what the basis of that assertion is, labrador road 26.

Personally I'd rather stay with what we had if there is a risk of the forum degrading because of the time change. It would be all the same to me if the clock was set to Timbuktu time!

Tintin-time is anytime! :-)

Ranko: I'm interested to hear what the basis of that assertion is, labrador road 26.

I've noticed that some tv-channels although broadcasting from England uses CET instead of GMT. Looking at the link I provided shows clearly that a lot more countries uses CET than GMT. It's more like an impression I got than hard facts.

I really can't see how the server clock could have anything to do with the performance, the server doesn't really know if it is stationed in Los Angeles, London, Brussels or Tokyo does it?

I would say that a European time, CET or GMT would make the 24/48 hours rules in the trivia easier to uphold, for everyone living in Europe of course, the Aussies would still have the same problem.

Maybe a poll could give the answer to which time-zone is preferred by most members.

Tintin-time is of course the local time at the place Tintin happens to be at the moment. The night-time moon rocket launching in Syldavia surely would happen during day-time in Chicago. Moulinsart (the company, not the manor) might say Tintin-time is the same as in Belgium (CET) or whenever a Tintin-merchandise is sold.

labrador road 26 wrote: I really can't see how the server clock could have anything to do with the performance...

The more load the server has, the slower it runs: all dates and times are stored in the database server's time zone; in order to display date/time values in a different time zone on the client end, the server needs to convert those values on the fly for each user request.

labrador road 26
I've noticed that some tv-channels although broadcasting from England uses CET instead of GMT.
I must admit to total ignorance of CET - up until I read your post, I’d not known really what it was (although I think I recall seeing an article in the last week or so about some country adopting it from January 2007) - and as the UK doesn’t use it (we are obviously GMT/BST or sometimes Universal Coordinated Time I think for scientific purposes), I would be interested to know what channels use it, and if you could suggest why. I’m not aware of any of the usual UK channels using it, and wonder if it is only an accommodation made when transmitting to the continent?

MTV (Europe) broadcasts from England but uses CET for showing which times programs start. For the moment I haven't any other channels broadcasting from England, but maybe BBC World and Sky News also uses CET.