Daylight Saving Time And You! :D

Alrighty boys and girls, it's time for a lesson in Daylight Saving Time! =D I'm sure you're all VERY excited.

This post has become necessary because it has come to my attention that many don't know exactly what the ST or DT mean in EST/CST/MST/PST and EDT/CDT/MDT/PDT. This can cause quite a lot of confusion when trying to organize events and make sure that there are no conflicts.

For reference, a lot of this information can be found in Wikipedia's Daylight Saving Time Article

The basic way that Daylight Saving Time works is you move your clock forward one hour in the Spring and move your clock backward one hour in the Fall. This is where we get the "Spring ahead" and "Fall behind" phrases.

Below is a picture that illustrates which areas of the world use Daylight Saving Time and which areas do not. The blue represents areas that use it, the orange represents areas that used to use it, and the red represents areas that never used it.



Below is a pic (or link if the pic doesn't work) that shows time zones around the world in "Standard Time". Remember, Standard Time is the time from Fall to Spring. This means that if you're in the US, "Standard Time" would be from the first Sunday in November til the second Sunday in March. "Daylight Time" however is the time from the second Sunday in March til the first Sunday in November. For example, from Nov > Mar areas in the Eastern part of the US located in the "Eastern Time" zone are GMT-5 and use the "Eastern Standard Time". But, those same areas in the "Eastern Time" zone are GMT-4 from Mar > Nov and follow "Eastern Daylight Time".



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/2007-02-20_time_zones.svg



Now then, this brings us to an interesting point. Have you ever noticed when the server message says there's going to be maintenance from like 11:00 PDT to 13:00 PDT? Well, that "PDT" means Pacific Daylight Time and is GMT-7 from Mar > Nov which is MST or Mountain Standard Time from Nov > Mar.




^ is an advertisement that was used in the U.S. during 2001. The date is inaccurate, but I thought it was a funny pic to close with.

any one who cant google this up needs to quit life.

Well... I figured I'd compile it and try to help people understand Daylight Saving and the +/- GMT along with the acronyms. I had a lovely conversation last night with someone that thought we were entering a zone at the wrong time due to an error in their understanding of Daylight Saving Time.

Pretty colors. :3

That's sad.

Yeah, I agree. But, instead of being angry/upset... I'd rather try to increase their understanding of it so that these types of errors don't happen in the future.

I forget to breathe sometimes. Good thing I have this pocket guide.

I think its a valid post, I know I totally forget about the daylight savings. I didn't know until recently about US has the daylight savings weeks before the UK does.
Yea I am one of those :(

*** daylight savings time.

*** the green movement.

..and *** this guy:

lol... Silly trolls.
Thanks, Alyria.
I'm just trying to be a good leader and promote good practices, communication, and understanding intra and inter linkshell.


Ummm... I believe it's actually "Daylight Saving Time". Pretty sure there's no s. >.>

Yea they haven't had their medicine today. Actually I have to admit, I didnt know what the pdt, etc. acronyms were either til recently because I never heard or read anyone ever use it.

Yea i needa read more :/

All my stuff in my house with a timer does it automatically. :P

Hehe, no worries, Alyria.
Even though I 'knew' what they meant before and knew that Daylight Time was from Spring to Fall, I always used to say EST for Eastern Time instead of saying EDT because 90% of the country uses Daylight Time. It would be wonderful if all of a sudden everyone started using the correct acronyms and understood the +/- associated with them so we could stop perpetuating this cycle of miscommunications.

This is a nice post. I forget everything, including birthdays and anniversaries and time switches. Someone be very nice to me and make a post on Mother's Day so I don't have three angry mothers growling that I forgot to call them. ,~_~, !

lol... I'll try, Liela. It's next Sunday the 10th, right? >.>

Bring
Up
My
Post
!

I pray for the day the USA goes "Orange". DST fails. Personally, I think everyone in the world should be on a Universal Time and learn to cope with what time of the day that is for them.

Yeah, that'd be nice tbh. Then we wouldn't have people thinking you're entering a zone an hour early or an hour late.

I'd be down for that, I've got no issues with the whole world reverting to GMT onry.


3? O_o

Biological, Adopted, and In-law?

When some NA themselves are unable to convert correctly PST<>CST<>EST that's a bit optimistic :]

Also no more 12hour system would be nice, cause that's prolly the most HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE thing ever. A day is *** 24 hours, why use AM/PM ? Makes things even more complicated for everyone.

Yeah, seriously... 7pm is not 0700. And 2000 is not 10pm... Though really.. Unless ALL of our clocks and watches actually followed the 24hr "Military Time" cycle, most people wouldn't know what time it was.

OMG the teachers are out to get us! Enough with the education i tell you!

Yeah we told someone in my LS that we had shiki ToD and it was at like 8pm PST and his answer was "Sorry thats 5 my time(EST) so I will just be leaving work."

/facepalm

I liked this. You know how many times I've told someone a time and there like um so when is that in game? Yeah pretty much anytime I'm talking with EU players. And alot of Us players especially the ones that don't still practice this outdated system that no longer serves the purpose it was created for.

Confusion comes with midnight/noon. Going from 11.59am to 12.00pm makes no sense to anyone who lives in a country where 24hr system is used (90% of the World). Not to mention that to apply an offset while using UTC, it's way easier to do it with 24 hours clock than 12 hours.

To avoid confusion I give relative time, so it works with HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE people. Instead of saying "we have [insert event here] at [x.xx AM/PM]" I'd just use in [number of hours from now].