Time stamp discrepancy on Latest forum activity - New posts list

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:47 am

The displayed time for the posting of posts in the "Latest forum activity - New posts" column currently appears to be 5 hours earlier than the actual forum time (UTC+1) that they correctly appear as in the main forum pages.

Not the end of the world I know, but...

OK. It is the end of the world.

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 11:52 am

Seems to now be fixed, so hopefully someone did something!

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 12:50 pm

No, going wrong again. Random!

by **shufflebeat** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:19 pm

It's probably Brexit related. I think you'll find we're now somewhere in the mid Atlantic. My Harrison chronograph is at the menders so can't pin down where but everything is (probably) being done to remedy the situation.

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:05 pm

A Harrison chronograph would be immeasurably far more accurate! :D

Still doing it. Keeps swapping between right and wrong time. Here's a 1-hour difference one.

by **Forum Admin** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:57 pm

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll report it to our (French) web guru who may be working on a script to force time backwards as we get closer to 31st October... :D :tongue: ;)

Being serious, it feels like it is cache-related as I know we have lengthy cache times on those sidebars to keep page-loading times as nippy as possible.

Other things that affect the time view are whether you are logged in or out. When Logged In it checks your forum Time/Location setting in preferences and adjust all post times accordingly (well, that's the theory); Logged Out it knows not which timezone your are in nor links you to your references (logged out you are considered 'anonymous guest' status) and thus uses the phpBB forum software's server time for post time-stamping.

Leave it with us and we'll see if there's a quick fix... but it is Friday and our developer is +1 hours ahead of the UK anyway, so likely to be next week now before a fix is found.

cheers,
IAN

by **Forum Admin** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:58 pm

FYI, the Time stamp shows accurately for my previous post: 3:57pm UK time (UTC+1).

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:23 pm

Well, I'm certainly logged in. Not convinced about the cache idea (at least at the user computer end) as sometimes it's the right time and sometimes it's not and the latest post list itself is correct in its content. And that time difference changes; always whole hours out, but the amount varies.

by **Kwackman** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:33 pm

I've been on and off the forum several times today since your first post on this, and the times have been displayed correctly each time.

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:59 pm

It is mainly right, but now and then it seems to throw a wobbly.

by **Wonks** » Fri Aug 09, 2019 6:18 pm

Like now..

Win 10 Latest Firefox.

And Ctrl-F5 (force a cache refresh) doesn't fix things.

by **Forum Admin** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:55 pm

Hi guys, our tech guru has informed me that this sidebar block has always worked like this and offers this explanation:

"The timezone used depends on the timezone of the first person who primes the cache. There is no way round this which doesn't involve a performance hit -- the forum already hammers the server disproportionately hard due to the large (and ever growing) number of posts."

In short, this means we have to live with it for the time being.

by **Wonks** » Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:19 am

Strange but interesting!

by **Martin Walker** » Wed Aug 14, 2019 4:42 pm

Wonks wrote:Strange but interesting!

Just like you Wonks! :thumbup: 8-) :D

Martin

SOUND ON SOUND

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Time stamp discrepancy on Latest forum activity - New posts list