Timestamp URI
Chaser Zaks
Second Life Residents come from all parts of the world, however something that divides us is timezones.
I propose a feature that will help unify us in that regard, and that feature being a Timestamp URI extension.
The proposed implementation would allow for URIs such as
secondlife:///app/timestamp/<unix timestamp>?timezone=SLT&format=H:m:s
. Where <unix timestamp>
is the standardized Unix Timestamp integer, which is based off GMT. (LSL has the ability to fetch the Unix Timestamp)By default, it will display SLT time, but
timezone
can be specified to show local
or other timezones, such as GMT
.The viewer already has timezone capabilities in it.
Format can be a constant of
full
, short
, time
, or date
, or a custom formatting such as H:m:S
following a specification such as that laid out by python's strftime, which I believe is also the same used by PHP and Perl.This would allow us to share time and dates, while ensuring Residents' privacy is respected, as we do not have to request a user's timezone information.
Notably, Discord has this feature, and it is used extensively by users to coordinate meetings, online times, and other information. (See this gist for examples) For example, a user may put a timestamp in their profile to show that "I am online between <timestamp a> and <timestamp b>" which shows local time. Residents on Second Life would be able to do the same thing by using this URI Extension.
Some example use cases:
* Specifying the start of an event, such as SLB or a shopping event.
* Specifying online times.
* Specifying event log times in local time.
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Nyx Onyx
I would suggest that if implemented, it should clearly show that it's been auto-converted into local time, because often it's assumed that if no timezone is provided SLT is intended. It should also be kept in mind that if someone then copies this text to a new chat or elsewhere, this indication should come with. Perhaps the viewer can default to include TZ info in the display, but that the user can disable this. In addition, if localizing display of time and date info based on the OS settings, add overrides for this in preferences.
Bumping Pixels
Discord does this and it's super useful! Would love to have this in Second Life chat, profiles, group profiles, anywhere really! Would be an awesome help to coordinate with international friends.
Sasy Scarborough
Bumping Pixels Discord does, but it almost caused an issue the other week when I started copy pasting to other discords and it was pasting my timezone, not the SLT one, so I almost sent many people to a meeting on a completely different day.
Bumping Pixels
Sasy Scarborough I'm not 100% sure that we're talking about the same feature. What I am talking about is the text chat ability to copy a UTC unix timestamp and paste it as
<t:1747165751:F>
and it display as Tuesday 13 May 2025 at 14:49
to the user (me) in the US/Chicago timezone.Are you talking about that, or the events system that servers can utilize which also show in your local timezone?
Sasy Scarborough
Bumping Pixels the latter I guess :) .... would the same not occur though, unless it actually says chicago time zone in the output ? we are so SLT brain trained at this point :)
Bumping Pixels
Sasy Scarborough So when timestamps display this way they show in a special highlight to mark them as different and not normal text, that kind of makes this idea work because it marks it clear to the user reading it that it's being displayed special; exactly how links to profiles in SL show special. :)