Person died today - cant edit data due to timezone

+16 votes
626 views

A little annoying, a politician from my country died earlier today (Jan 7 2018) however I can't but the full date of death because I get the following message: 

"Error: Invalid data. The following must be corrected:

  1. Death Dates should not be in the future.

If you are saving without changes consider an explanation in the text. "

I shall continue to breathe, add the day of the month tomorrow and fill in the time by writing bios for the couple of dozen profiles I connected yesterday... damn timezones!

WikiTree profile: Jim Anderton
in WikiTree Tech by Richard Shelley G2G6 Pilot (243k points)
edited by Richard Shelley
You gotta love computers!
Works now - sorry - couldn't resist.
Thanks Isabelle!
I quite agree Richard.

I too am in New  Zealand and often suffer errors on websites that are caused by Timezone differences

Wikitreeshould allow for a submitter's location.
I only found out about this due to news feeds in my Facebook page. Wow. You are on the ball. When there was mention about NZ, I didn't really realize it was a Kiwi MP when I was reading the thread on my phone yesterday!

3 Answers

+9 votes
Never woulda thought of that happening!!!  :)
by Betty Tindle G2G6 Mach 8 (86.0k points)
To be honest, neither did I!
Not sure of all the technical stuff, but WikiTree's time is based on where the servers (???) are which I think is on the east coast of the United States.  This is effectively 15 hours behind the east coast of Australia, and 18 hours behind New Zealand.  It's why when we have 'a-thons' starting at 12 midnight Friday, it's usually late on Saturday in this part of the world.

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html??
Makes perfect sense, John.  I know they are worldwide, just didn't think about it in tha way! :)
I'm wondering if it would be such a problem to start the thons at 12 NOON Fridays. It would be a bit more fair for other parts of the world.
I think that would be a good idea, Isabelle!
Actually I think the servers are on Greenwich time. The EOM badges are calculated to end at about 5 pm on the West Coast, which is only 8 -m on the east, but would be about midnight in Greenwich. If that doesn't make sense let me know. I haven't had coffee yet.

It makes sense to this brain caffeine or not!

Me too, Richard.  Just never gave it a thought. :)
I know it makes sense because I typically see my EOM badge register under my badge tally at noon (or later if I'm not on at the time!)
+5 votes
You are right on top of it!  The guy is barely cold and you're working on the date :)  In fact, Wikitree could call you prescient . . .
by Cindy Cooper G2G6 Pilot (322k points)

:-)  Don't go there, Cindy. Did you see the movie (or read the Philip K. Dick short story) Minority Report? Can you imagine four "precogs" wired into WikiTree, building profiles a few days before people die?  =:o

Love that idea of Pre-Crime.   We need to ask Ales for a Pre-death field for the predictions!!  LOL

Hey! Just because it happened to be across all my news feeds yesterday morning, and that I direct a project aimed solely at the politicians of my country and therefore had a profile that I was gradually working on (started on the 26th of August of last year (check his party categories if you doubt!)). It only shows yesterday's date as the date of profile because I had made a mistake with the LNAB and hence is the result of the merged profile. 

A job well done!
But Edison... the big newspapers keep Obits handy for prominent names so they can be ready when the "Notable" dies.
+4 votes
Thanks, Richard. We'll look into it.
by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (718k points)
Happy to help Abby :)

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