Forum Time?

DiscussionBucks

DiscussionBucks

Member
Affected version
2.2.10 Patch 1
Hello,

I've been experiencing some issues with my forum's time. I have the guest timezone set for Eastern Time, and I assumed everything would run off of the default timezone. I even went into cPanel and followed Namecheap's instructions on how to set my website as Eastern Time. With this being said, forum statistics are resetting around 8 pm EST instead of midnight. This is causing an issue with some of my addons because the addons are running cron entries at around midnight and it's throwing them off because the actual forum info resets hours before they do. I have searched all over trying to find an answer to this with no luck. Could someone please give me some insight into why I'm experiencing this issue?
 
beerForo said:
xenforo.com

Base all cron jobs off admin settable time and not GMT

Currently cron jobs, if set for a certain hour of the day to run like the Daily Statistics cron, run based off of GMT time. This makes it more of a "24hr statistics" than a "daily statistics" unless you live in the GMT timezone and then you get lucky. Although this isn't the end of the world...
xenforo.com xenforo.com
Click to expand...
So if I understand correctly, it runs off of GMT time. So I would need to adjust cron run times to match up with GMT?
 
That's correct, the issue I had was when the clocks changed it would be off again but in the US that will not be an issue in 2023. 😳
 
I'm not sure which is worse basing cron jobs off of GMT or the U.S. Senate voting towards making DST permanent. Both are pretty bad.
 
Brogan said:
Changing the clocks twice a year is a recent man made activity.

Humans survived for thousands of years without it so I think we'll be fine.
Click to expand...

That's my point. The U.S. Senate thinks shifting the clocks ahead an hour all year long is a solution to a problem. I think differently. Arguments can be made for and against DST, but shifting an hour all year long has just as many downsides. Standard time for everyone!
 
Last edited:
bzcomputers said:
Standard time for everyone!
Click to expand...
The law passed in Ontario is also locking in Daylight Time and I would prefer standard. However, our economy is very dependent on the US so basically whatever the neighbouring states (New York, Michigan, Ohio) do, we will do. Businesses here will scream bloody murder if our clocks aren't in sync with those neighbors. Right now, though, the law here has a trigger clause that it only kicks in if Quebec and the US neighbors change.
 
Brogan said:
Changing the clocks twice a year is a recent man made activity.

Humans survived for thousands of years without it so I think we'll be fine.
Click to expand...
It's not a question of survival. It's a question of saving energy... but we can give a damn about the climate, it's not forbidden.
 
nicodak said:
It's not a question of survival. It's a question of saving energy... but we can give a damn about the climate, it's not forbidden.
Click to expand...
Brilliant suggestion on "saving energy"... how about pushing your local jurisdictions into trying to implement many of the fantastic suggestions offered by the fine folks over at the International Dark-Sky Association. Not only does it help save energy, it's good for the environment.
 
beerForo said:
Do you guys realize this is a bug report?
Click to expand...
Yep... maybe they'll split it off.... but as for GMT for the system... it's not really a "bug" as most servers run using GMT as their core time format. You could basically say it's "Industry Standard".
 
Nowhere in cron entries does it tell you time time zone, when adding your own entry and selecting a time, one might just expect it to reflect the rest of time settings on your forum. I ran into the same issue as the poster here, and adjusted for the time zone which was no problem. I had a cron that had to run exactly at midnight for a contest to announce a winner, and it could not be an hour off. But 2 times a year it was off, so unless you set an alarm on your phone to remind you to adjust the cron, it will be. So I think the suggestion is a good one.
 
Tracy Perry said:
Yep... maybe they'll split it off.... but as for GMT for the system... it's not really a "bug" as most servers run using GMT as their core time format. You could basically say it's "Industry Standard".
Click to expand...
Sorry, yes not a bug. You are correct. The suggestion however is here:
xenforo.com

Base all cron jobs off admin settable time and not GMT

Currently cron jobs, if set for a certain hour of the day to run like the Daily Statistics cron, run based off of GMT time. This makes it more of a "24hr statistics" than a "daily statistics" unless you live in the GMT timezone and then you get lucky. Although this isn't the end of the world...
xenforo.com xenforo.com
 
beerForo said:
Nowhere in cron entries does it tell you time time zone, when adding your own entry and selecting a time, one might just expect it to reflect the rest of time settings on your forum. I ran into the same issue as the poster here, and adjusted for the time zone which was no problem. I had a cron that had to run exactly at midnight for a contest to announce a winner, and it could not be an hour off. But 2 times a year it was off, so unless you set an alarm on your phone to remind you to adjust the cron, it will be. So I think the suggestion is a good one.
Click to expand...
Can you explain then how to me your "adjustment" from GMT/UTC was different than adjusting for
Mountain Time
Central Time
Pacific Time
Eastern Time

Just because you ran it at midnight YOUR TIME ZONE didn't mean it was midnight at MY TIME ZONE.
In fact, you argue the VERY POINT of keeping it in GMT/UTC... that time is ALWAYS CONSISTENT. There is no adaptation for daylight savings or going back to "normal time". 1300 ZULU is 1300 ZULU year around... If you want it specific to your time zone, then you simply adjust that CRON to run -0600 or -0500 hours (specific to Central Time). There is a reason that militaries use GMT/UTC for their services...

By keeping it in GMT/UTC there is ONE STANDARD TIME to be concerned with... adaptation for the end user is already done from my understanding. And when running a contest, you simply tell your users that it will close/resolve at 00:00 UTC.

I DO agree that there should be a notice that when you set a CRON to run, it should let you know that it is being set using GMT/UTC and not based upon your time zone. This was something I had to wrap my head around in the early 1.2 days... but once I got more involved in server administration (specifically Linux boxes) and now astronomy... it's a LOT easier to wrap my head around... it's MORE of a hassle trying to remember if I'm in DST or standard time.

As for discussions of the forum setup..... setting your server to use your local time zone actually throws the CRON's off specific to your time zone and not a standard time.
 
Last edited:
Tracy Perry said:
Can you explain then how to me your "adjustment" from GMT/UTC was different than adjusting for
Mountain Time
Central Time
Pacific Time
Eastern Time
Click to expand...
The CRON time currently has no setting that can be easily adjusted. As for setting the forum time, there is a specific setting and that setting remains during all updates.

If you change XenForo's built in cron entry times, they will be overwritten on all XenForo updates and will need to be changed again. If you disable XenForo's cron entries and recreate your own they will not be overwritten but will still need to be adjusted twice a year for DST in areas that use DST in order to remain consistent and be accurate.

It would be easy for XenForo to just add a CRON Time setting with a DST option.

Some crons run 24 statistics, it would be convenient for those to actually run at midnight year round in your most active timezone. Some crons are server intensive, it would be nice for those to run year round when the server is least active (without adjustment in Australia, this currently happens during the morning when usage may be peaking, for those in the USA it currently happens in the evening another peak time). There are numerous reasons to able to run crons based off something other than GMT without going through the hassle of recreating the cron entries or having to update them twice a year for DST or after each XenForo update. It would by a simple setting that makes an admin's job a little easier. If you wouldn't use it that's fine, but many would for its' convenience.
 
bzcomputers said:
The CRON time currently has no setting that can be easily adjusted. As for setting the forum time, there is a specific setting and that setting remains during all updates.

If you change XenForo's built in cron entry times, they will be overwritten on all XenForo updates and will need to be changed again. If you disable XenForo's cron entries and recreate your own they will not be overwritten but will still need to be adjusted twice a year for DST in areas that use DST in order to remain consistent and be accurate.

It would be easy for XenForo to just add a CRON Time setting with a DST option.

Some crons run 24 statistics, it would be convenient for those to actually run at midnight year round in your most active timezone. Some crons are server intensive, it would be nice for those to run year round when the server is least active (without adjustment in Australia, this currently happens during the morning when usage may be peaking, for those in the USA it currently happens in the evening another peak time). There are numerous reasons to able to run crons based off something other than GMT without going through the hassle of recreating the cron entries or having to update them twice a year for DST or after each XenForo update. It would by a simple setting that makes an admin's job a little easier. If you wouldn't use it that's fine, but many would for its' convenience.
Click to expand...
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