Hacker News Reader

Comment by jdright | Hacker News Reader

I would like to raise awareness to a tiny detail:

> February 9th, at 4pm CT.

When using local time zones we should strive to always also add the equivalent GMT time to a global audience - even if this audience will not participate in the meeting, it is good to have an idea of when that is actually happening without needing to go through a timezone converter.

View on HN

As I said, not involved, so you should submit this feedback to them. I can try to pass it along, but there's no reason to have me as a middleman.

I don't think I understand. Those are both just time zones, right? So knowing what time it happens elsewhere requires a conversion no matter what time zone you gave originally, doesn't it?

I think the idea is that many people know the offset of their timezone from GMT/UTC, so they wouldn't have to look it up, but nobody can be expected to know their offset from any arbitrary other timezone.

Offsets from GMT/UTC are annoying when you have to deal with DST though, as it can be confusing to remember which offset applies at any given point in time.

This, of course, applies to any timezone, as the starts and ends of DSTs (if they exist) are different in different countries.

I think the point is you know how far your timezone is from GMT, but you don't necessarily know what "CT" means.

I think the point is that most people will know the offset of their own timezone from GMT/UTC. If you specify time in another timezone, they now need to know two offsets - theirs AND yours. Chances are they won't know yours and they have to look it up.

This is a very "HN bubble" perspective. No, most people do not know their time zone's offset from GMT and go through a timezone converter. When they have to set a timezone, they click a spot on a map or look up, "What timezone is Pittsburgh?" For most, it's faster to search "12:00 GMT to EST" or whatever than it is to remember it and do the arithmetic.

It might be different elsewhere, but most people in Europe really do know their GMT offset.

Most people in the US know their offsets from the other three US time zones as well.

Yes, and the point is that this post assumes their audience to be US-only with this. When dealing with a global audience, try to use GMT/UTC reference, a lot of people will appreciate it.

Rust isn't some US-only gathering. If only one time-zone should be used it logically should be GMT.

Rust Foundation seems pretty much targeted at HN-bubble-like groups, that do indeed have some familiarity with GMT/UTC.

Also CT is lucky to be unique. CST / BST / IST are a bit more of a guesswork for international groups.

I have no idea which one is CT. Nor does this seem important. Why should we care when this meeting takes place? Is this going to be live streamed? No? Then what's the point of mentioning it? This whole post seems completely devoid of real information. (Other than foundation 0.0.1 is released.)

Where are the bylaws? What are the responsibilities and rights of each role? Interim? Between what and what? ...

Sometimes Rust preaches inclusivity harder than it practices it.

/rant

Assuming most people do not know is also a "bubble" perspective. We don't know what "most" people know about their time zones. Most countries in Asia have only one timezone.

source: https://www.timetemperature.com/asia/asia_time_zones.shtml

It is easier for them to relate to GMT in my opinion.

>This is a very "HN bubble" perspective. No, most people do not know their time zone's offset from GMT

Well, almost everybody who's done server work knows their timezone offset from UTC, though, which is basically GMT.

Most people outside of north America knows their offset to the GMT timezone. GMT is a standard reference point, I barely know anyone that does not know about this. Even my old parents know it. I think the HN bubble is exactly the opposite, thinking only about north american timezones.

I think the point is that more people would be able to figure out what the local time is if it was listed as 4pm CT (22:00 GMT/UTC), since more would know what their local time is compared to GMT vs compared to CT.

I find it very funny that four people independently wrote almost the exact same response to your question.

https://github.com/rust-lang/foundation.rust-lang.org/issues

I usually try to avoid getting into TZ pedantry, but since you brought it up, UTC is preferred and is not interchangeable with GMT.

I see your point, but no, I actually meant GMT as it is an actual timezone AND a non-technical person (may) actually know about it.

Nice downvoting for an honest feedback.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com