Daylight time is different from standard time

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Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by 1.82 »

I'm putting this thread on this board because it's germane to every post on this board, but if there's a better place for it then please move it, mods.

Currently by fiat of our respective governments we are in daylight time, and we will be until November. This means that every post that announces times as "EST" or "CST" is incorrect; nobody in the 50 states is in standard time right now, unless they live in Arizona (like my dear friend Sam Rombro) or Hawaii. Properly these should be "EDT" and "CDT". If you don't care whether we're in daylight savings time or not, then that's fine, because just writing Eastern or Central (or ET or CT) is enough to get the message across. By adding the extra letter S, you introduce an additional unnecessary layer of precision that is actively incorrect. It's very easy not to do this, so don't do it until November, because until then it's wrong.
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by Cheynem »

Has this confused anyone ever?
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by Santa Claus »

Cheynem wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 9:02 pm Has this confused anyone ever?
I mean I imagine it would confuse ASU.
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by Cody »

Cheynem wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 9:02 pm Has this confused anyone ever?
I don't know if it's confused anyone, but it is a noticeable error and easily avoided. It's similar to writing "cf." as "c.f." -- the meaning may still be clear but it's also extremely obvious to observers that you've written it incorrectly. (And I personally fondly remember and appreciate the time Andrew Hart corrected my usage of "cf." on the IRC because I was doing exactly that.)

While I find it heart-warming when people use EDT and EST properly (s/o Emily Dickson), the real conclusion of this post is that you don't have to introduce the additional specificity in order to make sure people understand the timezone: just use Eastern (or whatever) and you'll be fine.
Last edited by Cody on Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by Cheynem »

Wait, I thought you actually were supposed to write it as "cf." not "c.f."
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by Cody »

Cheynem wrote: Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:48 pm Wait, I thought you actually were supposed to write it as "cf." not "c.f."
Yeah, I wrote it backwards; edited.
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by jonpin »

1.82 wrote: Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:15 pm I'm putting this thread on this board because it's germane to every post on this board, but if there's a better place for it then please move it, mods.

Currently by fiat of our respective governments we are in daylight time, and we will be until November. This means that every post that announces times as "EST" or "CST" is incorrect; nobody in the 50 states is in standard time right now, unless they live in Arizona (like my dear friend Sam Rombro) or Hawaii. Properly these should be "EDT" and "CDT". If you don't care whether we're in daylight savings time or not, then that's fine, because just writing Eastern or Central (or ET or CT) is enough to get the message across. By adding the extra letter S, you introduce an additional unnecessary layer of precision that is actively incorrect. It's very easy not to do this, so don't do it until November, because until then it's wrong.
Thank you; this is a tiny thing that tilts me more than it should (not just in QB settings but in others). It is not particularly likely to confuse US people, but it can easily mess up those outside of North America, because if you announce your thing as "9pm EST" and someone in the UK looks up and sees that EST is GMT-5, they're going to be off by an hour in terms of when the event actually is. Compounding the confusion is that in Europe, the 'S' has the exact opposite meaning. WET is standard Western European Time, and WEST is Western European Summer Time (their equivalent of our "daylight saving time").

And, since this is a thread based on pedantry...
By adding the extra letter S, you introduce an additional unnecessary layer [...] that is actively incorrect.
...also applies to Naveed in calling the thing "daylight savings time".
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Re: Daylight time is different from standard time

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

I can never remember which one is DT and which one is ST, so whenever I quote a time I make sure to say "ET" or "Central Time" rather than EST or Central Standard Time. This absolves me of the need to remember whether we are in DT or ST. Plus it saves a word or character.
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