Time at top of viewer says PDT and not SLT

[BelindaMercedes]

Hadn't noticed this before.  And was almost certain the current time in world used to say SLT.  But mine now says PDT.  I realise they are the same.  But am I imagining that it used to say SLT?

[Alwin Alcott]

29 minutes ago, BelindaMercedes said:

Hadn't noticed this before.  And was almost certain the current time in world used to say SLT.  But mine now says PDT.  I realise they are the same.  But am I imagining that it used to say SLT?

ehm to be honest i never seen slt on firestorm ?

Edited October 16, 2022 by Alwin Alcott

[belindacarson]

More importantly, does it actually matter?

[Kimpa Tammas]

Second Life Time is the Pacific Standard Time (UTC -9) or Pacific Daylight Time (for summer time). PDT occurs the 2nd Sunday of March and ends the 1st Sunday of November.

[BelindaMercedes]

1 hour ago, belindacarson said:

More importantly, does it actually matter?

It does if you didn't know SLT was same as PDT... and lived in a different country time zone.  you'd never then actually be sure it was showing you the SLT.  You'd need to know they are the same time zones to know that.  And some people may/will not.. So yep.. it may matter to some people.  

[Lindal Kidd]

I agree with @BelindaMercedes. This is a minor annoyance that's existed since forever.

LL should change that time to read "SLT", especially since much of the world does not use or understand the strange US custom of "Daylight Savings Time".

Another thing they should change: make ALL times shown in the viewer SLT. Some notifications about when a message was received appear in your local time.

[Rowan Amore]

Time Zone Abbreviations - Worldwide List (timeanddate.com)

[Rolig Loon]

49 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I agree with @BelindaMercedes. This is a minor annoyance that's existed since forever.

LL should change that time to read "SLT", especially since much of the world does not use or understand the strange US custom of "Daylight Savings Time".

Another thing they should change: make ALL times shown in the viewer SLT. Some notifications about when a message was received appear in your local time.

All good observations.  LL started using "PDT" regularly instead of "SLT" sometime around 2009, if I recall properly, but SLT has remained popular. The rationale was debated in the forums briefly, with some voices pointing out that "SLT" doesn't appear among any standard time zone abbreviations, so it's confusing to newcomers. Other people pointed out, as you have just now, that anyone outside the U.S. will find "PDT/PST" just as confusing. To make things even more confusing, many scripts in common use tell time by referring to the LSL function llGetTimestamp, which produces a time and date in UTC (which, confusingly, is what many of us learned as "GMT" -- Greenwich Mean Time).  I suspect that's common in scripts that send out a lot of notices.

Fortunately, most of the time it really doesn't make much difference to most people, because we aren't often hurrying to make a 8:00 a.m. staff meeting. For much of our time in SL, we can ignore the RL clock happily.  We're on vacation here. 😎 When time does make a difference, we can refer to the time that our own computers tell us is "local time", in the lower right corner of the screen (in most operating systems).  We're used to talking with people in wildly different time zones already, so starting with everyone's familiar local RL time zone is the safest solution.

[Odaks]

As a non-USA resident, I find SLT to be a highly confusing concept around the time that "Daylight Savings" or "Summer time" variations kick in or out. SLT is "SLT" in both phases, so a knowledge of the exact dates that the changes occur is required. This would be easier if the USA and Europe changed times on the same dates, but they don't. Okay, I admit that it is only a couple of weeks each time that the clocks change when confusion reigns, but it would be completely avoided if Pacific Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Time (PST/PDT) were used instead of SLT.

Just to add into the mix, not everywhere changes times anyway. So, my vote goes to displaying exactly where Second Life is, at any time of the year, by displaying PST or PDT as appropriate. At least that way we'd know exactly where to start our conversion from. Now to get the plussing or minussing right!

[animats]

4 hours ago, Odaks said:

Just to add into the mix, not everywhere changes times anyway.

Yes. Second Life's data center used to be near Phoenix, AZ, which does not use daylight savings time. That may be where SLT came from.

Starting next year, the US will go on daylight savings time and stay there. No return to standard time in November 2023.

[Ceka Cianci]

I just got one of those clocks that you set to your local time then adjust the difference from the viewer time so I know when things like events are happening..

I don't really care  how they word it, as long as I know the time difference..

[Rowan Amore]

43 minutes ago, animats said:

Yes. Second Life's data center used to be near Phoenix, AZ, which does not use daylight savings time. That may be where SLT came from.

Starting next year, the US will go on daylight savings time and stay there. No return to standard time in November 2023.

Has that bill actually passed the Congress yet?  I didn't think it had.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Rowan Amore

[bigmoe Whitfield]

9 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Has that bill actually passed the Congress yet?  I didn't think it had.

that's what I had believed too, I had not seen any progress on it in ages.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623

 

still has not moved.

[shireena1]

Hmmm, we have "daylight time" and "standard time" in my part of RL (not in the u.s) so it isn't unusual for me, its just annoying when I log in and miss an event due to time changes, but really, as a reply to the OP, no I hadn't really noticed .

[Lindal Kidd]

16 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

Has that bill actually passed the Congress yet?  I didn't think it had.

I am no fan of Daylight Savings Time, but I hope that bill does NOT pass. Yes, there should be a standard, but it should be Standard Time, not DST. Why would the USA want to be one hour off from everyone else in the world?

Oh, right, of course. And around here, we set pi equal to 3.

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 10/16/2022 at 2:46 AM, BelindaMercedes said:

Hadn't noticed this before.  And was almost certain the current time in world used to say SLT.  But mine now says PDT.  I realise they are the same.  But am I imagining that it used to say SLT?

LL made the change some years ago because enough people complained it was confusing for them.

SLT stood for Standard Linden Time which is the same as PST/PDT.

[Silent Mistwalker]

21 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623

 

still has not moved.

On the west coast, Washington and Oregon have agreed to ditch DST but only if when California does it. 

The whole thing is just absolutely stupid. WWII ended almost 80 years ago! FFS! Enough is enough! Stop torturing me!

🤬🔥🤬

[Sid Nagy]

With the current energy prices, daylight saving is a good thing. Especially when one lives up north, where the summer season has an excess of sun hours when everybody is still sleeping.

[Lindal Kidd]

4 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

SLT stood for Standard Linden Time which is the same as PST/PDT.

I learned something today, thank you Silent. I always assumed it stood for "Second Life Time"

[Silent Mistwalker]

20 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I learned something today, thank you Silent. I always assumed it stood for "Second Life Time"

I did too until a Linden hit me over the head with a 2x4. 🤭

[LittleMe Jewell]

On 10/16/2022 at 2:16 PM, animats said:

Starting next year, the US will go on daylight savings time and stay there. No return to standard time in November 2023.

As mentioned, this hasn't been finalized.  The bill passed the Senate in mid March of this year, but so far the House has not done anything with it yet.  There hasn't been any statement of when or if the House will consider the bill.