closed events setting time options for GMT 0 (NOT London), predicament international RSVPers

A headscratcher for us...
I searched but didn't find another discussion about this (apologies if there is one).

Our site ( http://lewwwp.com = a Ning site today, but hopefully a JamRoom site before Oct. 1 2016), is a site for learning/practicing/teaching English. We have lots of synchronous classes, and attendees/RSVPers from all around the world, from all time zones.

We chose the (see attached screenshot) GMT 0 choice... but it's not going to work for us.

I see this "Setting the System Time Zone will adjust all of the output Date and Time stamps to the specified time zone, regardless of where your actual server may be physically located.
Default: GMT -00:00 - (GMT) Lisbon, London, Dublin

Template Variable: {$_conf.jrCore_system_timezone}
Last Updated: 09/15/16 23:10:42 by Holly Dilatush"

and hope that this means there is a way for us to tweak this, to resolve our challenge.

Because:
When we play with this on our Events Calendar, the times are all wrong by one hour (DST not figured in? or London not the same time!)
The following link shows my time, London time, and GMT/UTC time... each
different!

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/meeting-planner-times.aspx?&L0=US-VA&Day=15&Mon=9&Y=2016&L1=UTC&L2=GB&L3=&L4=&L5=&L6=&L7=

I need our calendar to show the correct "0" time.

Can someone help?

Thanks!

updated by @holly-dilatush: 01/03/17 03:19:02PM

Could you rephrase this in a way that allows me to setup a test environment to understand if there is a problem with the system.

As Im reading it: "Our server is in london, the timezone is set to londons timezone, but when I add an event, that event is displaying 1 hour later than the actual start time of the event."

Is that close?

I'm not seeing any issue on your site - all events are showing the time set. Maybe that's because I'm in the UK or not understanding your issue. We have had DST issues in the past with the event module but thought we'd nailed all of those - maybe that's not the case?
All your events are 'online' events (as opposed to actual gigs at a venue) so maybe you want the times shown to site visitors shown in their locale?
Please explain more.
Thanks


--
Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

I thought the worldtimeserver link I shared would help.
I live in GMT-4 zone
On our existing Ning site I list classes at GMT.

On our JamRoom site I selected your GMT 0 option.

However, the imported classes for this month are all showing an hour off, are showing as if I were in a GMT-5 hour zone.

ALL classes are showing an hour off / wrong time.

This link might help:
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/gmt-utc-time.html

I guess this means that UTC is the setting I need!

If we use GMT 0, our times are going to be wrong for half the year!

Note this link, too: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/gmt

Hope this helps clarify the challenge.

Thank you,

Holly

Hi all
I cooperate with Holly, and we tried to set out site to GMT.
But, London time during summer is not GMT.
In the screenshoot Holly posted, you can see for example that Istanbul is GMT+2, and this is not true now. Now Istanbul is GMT+3. During summer time most members will see wrong time of our classes if they "change" their time.
However, if it would be possible to show members their time, it would be great.
Joanna

http://englishworldwide.ning.com/events/transcription-pronunciation-class-faster-paced-7
[link to an event on our existing Ning site]

http://lewwwpcom.jamroomhosting.com/holly-dilatush/class/2085/transcription-pronunciation-class-faster-paced

One hour difference.
[link to the same event, imported to JamRoom]

Hi Holly
In Jamroom dates and times are stored as absolute GMT but then, when they are displayed, they get the DST and selected locale applied to them. The above event is showing at time of 4:30 PM but looking at its time on the database its 3:30 PM which is the correct event time, I believe?
Going forward, when creating new events on JR all will be ok, but a fix for imported events might be for me to subtract one hour from all imported events on your database. Does that sound right?


--
Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Hi Paul,
We can easily edit / correct upcoming classes (most of them will be 'past' classes by the time we go live.

It won't really matter for past classes.

The more urgent problem is a fix going forward.

If I'm understanding you correctly, though, going forward we should be OK.

I just created a test class/event, recurring, past our upcoming DST... and it works!

Hooray! Issue resolved. This discussion may be closed.

Thank you!

OK. So.
Here's a screenshot showing that I added a post at 00:51:19 GMT on Sept. 19th.
But it's only 20:41 as I write this now... and since we are GMT-4, that means I posted this at 00:41:__, prior to the 'reality' of what the site clock shows!
[If it's only twenty before 1 a.m. on Monday when I wrote this note in this forum, how could I possibly have added a post ten minutes from now?]

This will be very confusing to us, and to members... to see times they are posting/reading posts showing inaccurate times.

Suggestions?
updated by @holly-dilatush: 09/18/16 05:49:16PM

Still hoping for some help on this one.

There server time is always 100% correct There may be times where it attempts to ADJUST the time to your settings and gets it wrong (although I think it is all working as it should), but if you POST something to your Jamroom site and it shows a time stamp of 00:51, then that is correct. If your "local clock" on your system shows 00:41, then it means your local system clock is off by 10 minutes and you will need to set the time correctly on your system.

The clock on all Jamroom Hosted servers is synchronized to a network time server and are never off by more than maybe 1 second.

Let me know if that helps.


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

OK. I am (once again) not communicating clearly.

The challenge is not a ten-minute challenge, but a one-hour challenge.

Let me try it this way.

If it is 4 p.m. my real time (Virginia, USA, EST/DST time) and I add a blog post, I am adding it at 8 p.m. real UTC/GMT time.

BUT the notification is going to show that I added it at 9 p.m. GMT (because JamRoom's GMT is not 'real' UTC time).

This is not a problem for others in different time zones, since JamRoom does let us choose to post blogs at future times.

BUT when I am sitting in my chair and I know I added it 'now' and I see it on JamRoom added now (because I did NOT change the 00:00:00 options in blog edit box), it is downright WEIRD to see that I posted something at 9 p.m. GMT when it is only 8 p.m. GMT when you look at our UTC/GMT (the CORRECT time clock that is on our site).

I'm attaching a screenshot of our calendar/classes page showing a correct current time of 8:49 GMT. JamRoom's clocks say it is 9:49 GMT at the same time this clock says it is 8:49 GMT.

Many times members are posting new discussions and replies back and forth 'live time'.

Seeing wrong times is just downright confusing, complicating.

[Maybe Joanna or someone else who understands what I'm trying to say can explain it better?]

I've moved this to a support ticket issue. Will close this discussion for now.

The awesome team here has added a UTC time for us.
We're still working on adjusting to the calendar in Ningja skin, JamRoom 6 but the UTC time is now available and so this discussion will be closed.

Thank you,