Poll: UTC or local time

[Vancanneyt Sander]

We received a few average ratings in regards of the use of UTC, some prople hate to calculate the difference of their current time zone with UTC. So a poll to see what you guys prefer and we can see what we can do about it.

PS: if we switch to local time, we won't be able to do it on every bit (for example the solar flare list start, max and end time)

[farm24]

maybe there could be a settings section where you can change to what time option you want?

or like a little slider on the main page

[Vancanneyt Sander]

8 minuten geleden, farm24 zei:

maybe there could be a settings section where you can change to what time option you want?

or like a little slider on the main page

That’s a bit more difficult as we need to update each chart after changing setting.

[farm24]

1 minute ago, Vancanneyt Sander said:

That’s a bit more difficult as we need to update each chart after changing setting.

Ah ok, i don think mixing the times (say having local for live only) would be good, as it may confuse some people. But those are just my ideas i may be wrong.

[Sam Warfel]

UTC, the scientific way is good enough for all of us

[Solarflaretracker200]

I’ve learned to read UTC time and automatically correct it to my local time. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Solarflaretracker200

[Sam Warfel]

Tbh I never even have to convert anything to local time, I just see “oh CME shock hit DSCOVR about an hour ago” or whatnot 

[farm24]

I have begun to just use UTC online, as all the tools i use are in UTC. Although IRL i still use CDT.

[CMEHunter]

1 hour ago, Orneno said:

Tbh I never even have to convert anything to local time, I just see “oh CME shock hit DSCOVR about an hour ago” or whatnot 

Same, usually the only time I do the conversion is looking at the Kp forecast, to know what time of day I can possibly expect things to ramp up (like will it line up with nighttime).

[Sunshine]

UTC is what events are timestamped with. Converting it to local time would only create confusion, when people keep referring to those events here in this forum in their local time, I believe. We are more or less like minded and interested in science. Therefore we should aim to understand each other.

Just my two pence...

[Vancanneyt Sander]

We have a clear winner: UTC all the way. 

[Sam Warfel]

44 minutes ago, Vancanneyt Sander said:

We have a clear winner: UTC all the way. 

Among the sample that is forum users, likely making up the very most dedicated enthusiasts, and less so the casual visitor, who might be those who prefer local time. 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Orneno

[Vancanneyt Sander]

21 minuten geleden, Orneno zei:

Among the sample that is forum users, likely making up the very most dedicated enthusiasts, and less so the casual visitor, who might be those who prefer local time. 

True, but implementing user configurable options isn't really a possibility (which would require user logins to be able to save preferences and t would have a huge impact on the performance of SWL). It's one or the other. 

[Sam Warfel]

3 hours ago, Vancanneyt Sander said:

True, but implementing user configurable options isn't really a possibility (which would require user logins to be able to save preferences and t would have a huge impact on the performance of SWL). It's one or the other. 

And in that case, I definitely support UTC. I’m just making sure we consider all the variables 😁

[CMEHunter]

Another UTC plus: all solar images are timestamped in UTC, and if things (for me, especially the x-ray flux graph) were in local time, we would still be doing the conversion. For example, earlier I was watching LASCO after the M1 flare, and it's nice to have consistent times to see "oh, flare happened at 15:00, but LASCO's only updated to 13:00, gotta wait still" 😉