24 hour clock versus AM-PM

I know this is going to sound silly to most of you, and generate some flak probably, but I have a little suggestion.

Could LL please change the SL clock from the 12 hour AM-PM system to a 24 hours clock, or as I heard Americans call it "Military Time"?

Reason I'm suggesting, is that most european countries use a 24 hour clock, which is easier in use, allows for less difficlult transistion to other timezones then SLT, and since the day has 24 hours, makes a lot more sense. (to this humble Dutch fox anyway).

The largest userbase is still American and British, but the number of users outside those counries is steadily growing.

I personally have great difficulty with planning events etc. in our club, breaking my head over timezones every time, and this would be a LOT easier with a 24 hour system.
Of course, I'd already be very much happier if *both* times were indicated in the SL client.

The 24 hour clock imakes much more sense, is easier to use and I think a bit more accurate. At least it prevents a lot of confusion to those not used to the outdated AM-PM time.

There's a very good reason the US (and other counties') military and computer manufacturers stick to the 24 hour system.

I'd like the clock set to about 5-10 minutes fast so I can try to trick myself into not being late. This is fair to do, please change all SL time to 5-10 mins fast.

I prefer 24 hour as well but freely use both in conversation, I also don't have a problem translating between the different timezones, as I have many US friends which I'm always working out time differences with. I'm 8 hours ahead of SLT so it's common for me to change time even within game, and 18.00 SLT > 10.00 GMT would be quicker than 6.00pm > 10.00am for most people I think.

However, I can definitely see an argument for giving us the option of 12 and 24 hour clock as an option within the game so that we can choose how time is displayed.

Lewis

While you say that the am/pm system is confusing, I could just as well say that the 24-hour system is more confusing to me than am/pm.

The 24-hour system makes more logical sense, but it's not what the majority of SL's userbase uses (I imagine).

So I think it'd be best if you could say... click on the clock in the corner of the SL window to switch between 12 and 24-hour time. That way, everyone is happy.

It only took about a year of imploring customers to get an SL Time clock put in the mostly empty top bar. I expect this will be addressed never.

Never underestimate the capacity of the US people to be stupidly tradition bound in their measurements. (Said as a resident of the US who still has no idea how many teaspoons are in a gallon (768, of course)).

Since my time is two hours faster than SL's time, I get confused as it is. I wish it showed the actual time on the PC and SL's time in game. I end up getting two hours behind a lot.

Why not just let us change the setting of the clock to whatever we want? Default would be what it is now. Changing it should also change the times given on events, so if I change my clock to EST instead of PST it'll make it so I don't get confused on event times etc.

Bingo.

Optional, always optional.

You know what would be neat? If our in-world account history differentiated between AM and PM.

Tuesday Jul 11, 2006
[....snip...]
01:28 50 - SomeRandom Avatar bought Dominus Shadow Monster R/C Car
[....snip...]


Is that 1:28am? Or 13:28 in the afternoon? It doesn't differentiate

The other fun part is if you have too many sales, it starts to roll over, so your sales aren't even sorted in any particular order

(Yes, I have bug reported this, no, I've never received any reaction to my bug report)

I agree with the topicstarter. At least make it a setting where you can choose between the 12 and 24 hour clock. Or make it an option to set SL time to your local time. It cant be too hard to recalculate event times to either the 24 hour system or to local time? (Hey, even I do it myself all the time )
I'm at SLT +9. So if I see an event announced (SL will be down wednesday from 3 am-11 am SLT) I have to add 9 hours (so that would be 12 to 20). Sometimes it isnt even the same day!
So please give us local time!

But all the event times are listed in PST, so it could still be confusing.

I don't know if this helps you any or not, but I know someone who makes a HUD clock that goes on the 24 hour system and it can actually be set to five different time zones so that you can also be able to glance up and know exactly what time it is for that friend you're talking to or hanging with. If it interests you at all it is on Slexchange.
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=37662

I have installed iClock at my Mac... you can test it for free or install a sharp version...

It have made my SL world a bit easier...

/Tina - EXAKT now in Shanghai - where its time to take a two hour nap before going out in the evening...11.20 in Stockholm, 0520 am in NY NY, 02.20 am in SF... Sydney 0720 pm and Shanghai 17.20.....

From my days/nights working as a bartender in Georgetown, that's called BAR TIME...

And I did 3 yrs in the Navy, so I can handle Mil Time too. For years I had the habit of thinking in Zulu Time... (aka GMT).

It's terrible when you go to bed at 8am and you wake up at 9 and you don't know if you've been asleep for 1 hour or 13 hours!.

Suggested this a while back in Feature Suggestion, got me flamed pretty good. .hehe..

/13/83/84586/1.html

Well being as LL is on US pacific time makes sense their clock would be too. I also am on pacific time so it's perfect for me. the majority of LL users are US so making it military or 24 hour for europe makes no sense. Would be like telling us to use kilometers instead of miles just because it's easier for you. Though strangely in the game we do

However like others have suggested I think you should be able to set it to local time have 2 clocks actually LL time and local time or the ability to mouseover for the default. SL is all about customizing right? So give people not on US time the ability to customize thier clock to something they are used to.

Heck feel lucky we even have a clock in the game most don't and everyone has to calculate local times and figgure out who can be on when then consult each other and figgure it out together. Least this way everyone can know what the time is compared to everyone else well by looking at the clock and adding or subtracting..

qft

When I was new to SL I found the clock a nightmare, hehe.

I am in England, 8 hours ahead of Linden time, which can sometimes mean I am in a different day to Second Live. I lost track of how many times I went to classes or events early or on the wrong day.

I am now surprisingly good at converting. As well as SL time and my own time I also have to deal with those of my best friends - -5 hours and +1 hour. Although I have cheated and made a little conversion chart on my cork board here, just in case.

But this has taken me nearly 2 years to get to grip with (OK, I know, I am particularly stupid, hehe). Having both times listed, or some sort of roll-over conversion would have been wonderful.

But having 24 hours clock would certainly help! Yes please! At least the turning up on the wrong day would be avoided somewhat.

Please, please can we have it as an account option??

Yep, same here. I missed quite a few classes when I started because of the confusion. And lets not forget that different countries apply daylight savings time changes on different dates, so that eight hour time difference might fluctuate for a couple of weeks of the year. Easily calculated though, given that you've got Linden Time at the top of the SL window, and local time on the task bar (OS depending)...but I would welcome a new feature that maybe displayed local time above event times when you hover the mouse over the search result.

I wouldn't mind software update times being reported in Universal Time (UT/GMT) on the forums too. Maybe in brackets after the Linden Time, if LT/PST is so important.

I vote for 24hrs

I vote for 24hr and also to be in the GMT+0 timezone AND not adjusted for Daylight Savings Time (DST)
Starting this year, DST start date and end date are different for USA than for the rest of the world practicing DST adjustments, as well as almost all of the southern hemisphere, which makes no such adjustment at all.

In other words, since this is an international service, the time should be in coordinated universal time (UTC)

For the record, I live in the Eastern US time zone (GMT-5) I find the Pacific clock pretty useless and can never plan my RL around SL events for this reason. (maybe that's a good thing)

no way I have to see the 24 hour clock enough with being in the military

Can't speak for Macs, but iirc Windows comes with system function which formats provided time in accordance with user-defined preferences (used to display clock on toolbar, 'created/last modified' data for files etc)

You'd think it'd be easiest for LL to just hook SL client with it, allowing users to have their clock just how they want it and without need to play with some extra settings to emulate what they already configured once... o.O;

24 hour SL clock Pict

I got so confuzeled trying to understand what thie it was for different ppls I created a 24 hour clock with 5 hands that is a HUD (Heads up display). Hands in different colors to represnet different places.

Red UK, Dark Blue Thailand, Light green Australia, Light Blue SL and Brown NY. With one simple glance I can see what time it is in relation to me. Makes life loads easier.