Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » Timezones

Let's be honest, people across the globe roleplay on this site. So this can mean a variety of timezones that people can get confused on. And then there is the situations where people would be having a good time roleplaying, when all of a sudden, the partner has to go to bed. To the partner, it's 10pm in California, while for me, it's 6pm in Ohio. It just leaves the people in earlier timezones out of the water.

So I propose that users should be able to display which time in that they are located in. This info can be pulled from the setting you can pick.

PROS:
[*] Better choices when it comes to Players. That means that they should be awake and go to bed around the same time you do, so you don't miss out good roleplaying because of pesky timezones.
[*] Better time allotment for international players. You can meet players that are across the country that you can roleplay with. With this, you'll be able to know when you can roleplay with these Players. That way, you can plan ahead with smaller roleplays, or bigger projects.
[*] A better sense of time. I can't explain this one, it just makes sense to me.
CONS:
[*] A potentiality of lots, and lots of coding. It would have to be on display for everyone on the Forums, Private chat lobbies (maybe) and who knows what else. It might take a long time to implement.
[*] A sense of betrayal when one player of the same timezone needs to leave. We all have different sleeping schedules, especially if you are a teen in high school, or an adult at work. So, one might find that they can either roleplay at best early in the morning, or late at night. This might keep a player from getting less time to roleplay with the other player. A way to fight this is to have another option of what times you are usually able to Roleplay.

It's just an idea, not a command. Take this as you will.

This could be good and it would be nice
Although, I'm sure that some players might want to keep their time zones hidden or such for the sake of privacy = even more coding to be done to not force the change on people

I currently enjoy a lot of RPs with 'foreign' people, they have much better and creative ideas than I do for example in my mind. There shouldn't be a problem when it comes to RPing across the globe. Sure the time zones might be causing them to be a tad bit slow, but that doesn't mean it can't be a good RP

So I'd say it's nice but not necessary immediately/in a hurry
If the coders have time and patience then sure

It's an interesting idea. It would require a lot of interfaces and additional programming to automate something that can easily be typed onto your profile. With the "just type it" option, you can also include additional details about your usual schedule, if you're the type of person who wants to provide that info.

At the moment, I prefer the people typing up their own info plan to the "reveal timezones automatically, if settings allow" plan, as I think that timezone alone is a weak, somewhat confusing indicator of when a potential partner might be active. Most of the pros you've listed are better obtained by simply asking someone when they are usually on, and how often. As you've already mentioned, a lot of people have schedules that are quite different than you might expect based on their time zones!

I feel all the Pros in this list are already achieved by the RP Finder search filter.



You have the option to filter topics by current activity, meaning you will only see topics from people who are online at the same time you are. I'm in the Netherlands and anywhere from 6-9 hours ahead of most Americans, but I also have frequent bouts of insomnia where I browse the site at what America considers late afternoon to the late evening, so this option has helped me find people in the appropriate timezones for the days that I'm on a certain schedule.