Hacker News Reader

Comment by chc | Hacker News Reader

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?

View on HN

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.

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.

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.

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

>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.

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

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 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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com