Timezones Part 3, The Final Solution?

Wed Nov 04, 2015 - Timezones Part 3, The Final Solution?

In case you weren't following the news the past 2 days, here are Part1 and Part 2 to catch you up.

Due to popular demand, I decided to bring back how it worked before, as an option.
You can find it in your settings/site wide, where you can turn off dates localization and do the 1 day offset.

If you were one of the users with issues with the new system - does this fix it for you? Let me know!

comments [49]

comment # 1 by Miah17

Only Available For Premium Members everyone

comment # 2 by santah

Yes.

As this will add a lot of overhead (maintaining 2 code paths for a lot of airdate related things on the site) - customizing the site to work as it did (when it was inaccurate but you're used to it) - is now part of our Premium list of features.

comment # 3 by graybags

It was working for me with the "new" system, but now it's not. My homepage is showing "Today's Episodes" as things that aired on Tuesday.

comment # 4 by santah

@graybags - most likely because the 1 day offset is now under settings/site wide and you don't have it turned on.

comment # 5 by bigcal

So yesterday I could turn on the setting to do the 1 day offset... today I can't because I'm not premium. Thanks... :P.

Just changed my time settings instead, works the same :).

comment # 6 by tadhgk

Why is it now "only Premium"?
This used to work just fine.

comment # 7 by BlackBox

Now I don't get it. Again - I had The Walking Dead in the calendar for Sunday but on the front page it was listed for Monday - that was fine.
Now I can have it with a site wide setting either Sunday or Monday. So it is not as before :|
Or how do I set the toggles to set this right?

comment # 8 by santah

Why do you want the calendar and the homepage out of sync BB?

comment # 9 by BlackBox

Because I like the calendar to show the actual airdate but on the front page the date the show is "available" for me.
It is easier to talk about Friday night shows when you can see them listed under Friday ;)

comment # 10 by graybags

So I can't change it to the "correct" setting because I'm not a premium member? I thought you said that you've fixed it to how it should be, but only premium members to "unfix" it to how it used to be?

There used to be a little dropdown, -1, 0, or +1, that's gone, and that's what I used to alter to get it display properly. My time setting is set to GMT, I don't see why I should have to change that to get it to display what it should be for GMT users.

comment # 11 by Fairchild

Now it works again for me. Thanks!

comment # 12 by santah

@tadhgk, @graybags - guys read my comment #2 here.

comment # 13 by graybags

Yes I read that, but it confused me. I thought that you'd fixed it so that the dates are now accurate, but to make them how they used to be (wrong!) I'd need to be a premium user.

It was all working fine yesterday for the first time ever, but now it's worse than it was before for me. The only thing that wasn't working before was the time setting, I had to use GMT+2 or something like that, but the days were ok.

Are you saying for this site to be usable to me, I have to pay?

comment # 14 by santah

How are the dates not accurate for you graybags? Please show me an example of show that is not airing today in your timezone, but is showing that it is.

And please read the yesterday's post (explaining why episodes airing Sunday night in US will show up Monday in EU), linked in this news post before you reply.

comment # 15 by graybags

I've always had my homepage set up so that shows that aired "yesterday" are ready for me to download, shows that air today will be ready tomorrow. The only issue I had was that the shows never changed at midnight.

On my homepage, "Today's TV Episodes" list iZombie, Marvels Agents of SHIELD and The Flash. But I think they all aired last night, as I have downloaded them already.

Yesterday before the change these same shows showed on "Today's TV Episodes", and when I checked at midnight last night to see if you had fixed the issue with GMT not working properly, it was all perfect.

But today it looks like it's gone wrong again. I am confused :(

comment # 16 by graybags

p.s. Calling anything "The Final Solution" is quite controversial :)

comment # 17 by bcjammerx

this only affects premium members so all i want to know is how do i stop these updates?

comment # 18 by santah

@bcjammerx - get premium and you'll be able to use it as it was before, inaccurate as it was

@graybags - are we on the same page, that you now have the shows appear in the correct date, according to when they aired in your timezone? But that you liked how it worked before - even though it was off?

Look guys, I'm trying to please everyone.

It seems most people are fine with the change, and it's gonna be very positive in the long run.

For the few that are not happy with it - I've added support to how it worked before. It's for Premium members yes.

comment # 19 by Keisu

Offsetting dates adds a lot of overhead? As a software developer I find that improbable, or you are doing it wrong.

I'm disturbed by the direction of this site/and the apps. I paid for both the iOS app and Android app as a way of supporting this site (when they both cost money), but now they have been made free, and I have to pay additional money for "pro features"? And now previously free features of the website are brought to premium? It is kind of backwards is what I'm saying.

Sure, premium doesn't cost a lot of money, but the way you go about it is wrong IMO. I can't support that.

comment # 20 by santah

@Keisu - maintaining 2 code paths is the overhead

The paid iOS and Android apps did not become free. There were 2 tiers within the free app - one for old (who paid before) users, with more features and no ads, and another - for new users - with ads and less features. Old users also got 50% discount on the Pro Upgrade.

Also, these apps are supported for more than 4 - 5 years now? Most developers simply make new versions and make you pay again every year, or just abandon the app you paid for after a year or two.

As for taking away features from the free website - allow me to not look at it that way. I'm improving things and I'm supporting the users who were used to how it worked before, even though it was broken.

You'd think after 10 years and 3 news posts about this I'd earn some benefit of he doubt that I'm trying my best to improve this site and make everyone happy.

comment # 21 by flyfixer

It sounds like the admins think is the old timezone system is broken by the sound of it so why does it need a paywall if it's broken? It seems like you're asking people pay for something that you believe to be broken. It was free and that was no problem but as soon as you see how many people wanted it back you though that could earn a lot of money, I love this site but I really don't like where it's going. I'm fine if you want to lock new features behind a payment of premium membership but removing a feature that messes up many people's site layout is off and then adding it back because people want it but with a paywall is wrong.

You could always add a live countdown clock feature that would count down for seconds and make that a payment feature behind a wall. or even just live countdowns that don't need the pages to reload to update.

I do however like there is a way to get the old system back so thank you for that. Maybe I don't have the right to say you're wrong or right but I don't agree with it and I understand you've got to make ends meet. Thanks for all your hard work, it's appreciated and I understand it's hard to make everyone happy.

Have a wonderful day everyone! Be safe. I'm really sorry if my spelling and grammar are way of

EDIT, some people having corrected me rightly, please read below. I didn't mean to accuse and I'm sorry that's how it came across it was mainly a question about how something can be broken and paid content. I understand now. I'll leave all the above comment because removing it will confuse people and also make a new comment. Have a wonderful day! Be safe.

comment # 22 by santah

It's behind a paywall because it'll add a lot of work for me going forward - supporting the broken way it worked before and the new, correct system.

I don't believe it'll make a lot of money, and from what I've seen - very few people actually need this.

comment # 23 by Keisu

well, whoever those other developers are who charge people every year for a new version of an app, they do not receive my support either.

comment # 24 by santah

That's the only thing you got from my reply?

comment # 25 by augiz

Wow, the negativity of you people ! Especially flyfixer accusing the developer of trying to rip off money. I have used this site for around 5 years and all that time it was totally free, I used it almost every day, and paid nothing. The premium really does not cost that much ! I have paid much more for so many things that has much less value.

I am just trying to offset the negativity a bit. Thank you for the good work santah !

comment # 26 by santah

@augiz - much appreciated, here and in the other news post where you chimed in!

comment # 27 by graybags

I am not being negative at all. Santah wants the site to be as perfect as it can, so do I, so do most other people here I expect. We point out things to him that aren't right, that's what he wants. Constructive criticism is not the same as being negative.

Anyway, my homepage is listing shows "Today" that were aired last night, but I don't want that. It never used to happen, it's only started happening since yesterday. The only thing that was wrong was my timezone, I had to set that +2 hours ahead for the days to work properly at midnight. Monday, it wasn't right. Yesterday it was fixed (better for me than ever, as the timezone was correct). Today it's wrong again. *sigh*

comment # 28 by santah

@graybags - I know why you have issue and how you're used to it working.

I'm trying to explain something to you. Please try and understand what I'm saying here. The following thing you said is false:

>my homepage is listing shows "Today" that were aired last night

They were not aired last night. They were aired in the morning. So technically, they're Today.

I completely understand why this is an issue for you, but I want you to understand what happened here and why.

comment # 29 by Halo2

So disappointed by this, I now have to pay now to get the site as it was before? I'd say pay for making it correct but you've made the site totally confusing for me, and the only way to fix it and get it back like it was (and has been for 5 (?) years) is to go premium? I'm all up for paying for things but I don't use this site as much as I used to (for other various reasons)...

From a brief skim over the comments there's no way to do this, just changing my timezone to a US one isn't enough?

EDIT:

Though saying this the Past/Present on the right hand side is showing the correct days... Confused.

comment # 30 by santah

@Halo2 it should be enough, yes.

Everything ok for you after you switched to a US timezone?

comment # 31 by ioanna23

Just posted in Part 2 by mistake, but here is the gist of it again:

Personally, I like the change as I prefer being able to see the correct air time locally, though it does, as some others have said, slightly mess with the days on which shows are shown to be airing. Having said that, it shouldn't be too difficult to get used to, and the option to change back is always there if it gets too annoying. So thanks for the change santah.

Suggestion to appease everyone: would it be possible to have a setting which effectively 'voids' the time zone for the purposes of the calendar (but keeps it correct for the show pages)? So you'd still see the local air time on the show page, but it would keep the shows within the correct days on the calendar, etc? One way of doing this might be to apply the user's time zone for episodes and show pages, but to apply the show's air time (in its own time zone - as it was before) for the calendar...?

comment # 32 by Halo2

Yeah I think so, but then like BB was saying UK shows are now wrong, so I changed back...!

comment # 33 by tadhgk

@santah "As this will add a lot of overhead (maintaining 2 code paths for a lot of airdate related things on the site) - customizing the site to work as it did (when it was inaccurate but you're used to it) - is now part of our Premium list of features."

Man that sucks as a reason. Look I get that you have to pay the bills. But I've paid for the app and I'm one of those people who doesn't run adblock on your site. Small but nonetheless. I use NE every day and have for years specifically because of how it handles date offsets. This whole mess seems to be one of your own making (i.e. there was no problem before, you went and made a problem where there was none and now the fix isn't really a fix). Just revert the whole thing back and move on.

comment # 34 by tadhgk

FYI for everyone else, if you go to Homepage settings and set to show 1 day from the past week you'll effectively get your offsets back in a way that makes common sense.

comment # 35 by graybags

@Santah "They were not aired last night. They were aired in the morning. So technically, they're Today."

Surely it should be relative to the timezone we set? If that's not the point of having the ability to change your timezone, what is?

comment # 36 by santah

Yes. It is. I hope the point got across - that this is the correct behavior?

If you set it to a US timezone, it shall be as you were used to?

comment # 37 by Quinlan

This was a VERY basic feature that was free and it was working (at least for me). Now I changed the settings before you made it premium to reflect the sorta new way, you changed it again and now it's premium, messed up and I can't revert back.

From what I understood, mostly new features would be premium and I was cool with it. But now moving the traditionnal free features to premium, that's a bad sign.

comment # 38 by Quinlan

And for the record, toying with the timezone is a big no no for many obvious reasons so it not a fix to use. There can be consequences on cookie stuff, etc., yadayada.

comment # 39 by graybags

My point is, why doesn't it work when I set it to MY timezone? Doing it another way doesn't make any sense to me at all. It worked fine, now it doesn't and won't unless I spend money. We're doomed if this is the way things are going.

comment # 40 by al2612

Just my two cents.

I like this change, it makes sense to me, and it will make a HUGE amount of sense to new members. If a show is broadcast in New York at 10PM Sunday, which is 3AM Monday in London, and I live in London, then that show should certainly appear as "Monday" to me. After all, it's only on Monday that I can download and watch it -- and what else matters? :) I'm not sure why I would want (or need) to know when it was broadcast in America? If you do need that, then go premium, baby :)

I don't feel there is anything wrong with making it "Premium only". I'm reminded on an old biblical proverb, "the worker deserves his wages". I really appreciate all of the tremendous work Santah has done over the years, and I think he's done a superb job, too. If he wants to make certain things premium only to earn a living, then good for him. I've never found another site that works as well as n-e, and IMHO this latest change makes it even better.

Good work, santah. I'm looking forward to seeing whatever improvements you make next.

comment # 41 by tsakmak

Omg. I really dont understand so much drama over this change. You can either adapt or buy premium. Its not that expensive but still i understand that beeing out of your comfort zone can be "scary". You see Santah is taking all your crap here and trying to be posivite with explaining things. Doesnt a developer who takes time out of his personal life to answer your needs deserve a fee like premium? No it shouldnt be mandatory to pay for it but hey...you dont always get what you want.

comment # 42 by Quinlan

There's nothing dramatic about a TV show tracking site. And seriously, confort zone? scary? It's not a job interview. He he ;)

The point is that Next-Episode was a free fun and simple site. Most probably the best. It wasn't even asking for an email to be able to use it (except forums). I remember finding that awesome at the time, quite exceptional.

Premium came and that was fine, people had the choice :

Slowly, messages to become Premium became more invasive to counter adblockers. Mm ok...

And now, without much of a warning, a basic feature (not a new one) just became Premium after being fixed and refixed.

What's coming ? Homepage going Premium? Forums?

----------------------
Reminder:
"April 24, 2014
It will help a ton with the costs of operating the site, will hide the ads and will enable for you ---- some neat new features! ----
.......

P.S. Please don't be too harsh, this is not a money grab or anything like that. I know this is not for everyone.
If you love Next Episode and want to support it - it'd be great to have you as a Premium Member.

--- If not - it's cool - I'll continue improving and supporting the site for you as well.---"
----------------------

I'm just saying. Personnally, if it goes on in that direction, I might just dig up my old project of making my own tracking page because I can do it. Nobody will cry about my leave. New members, hopefully for them becoming Premium will replace me.

But the attitude of the site changed. No drama, just a fact. And that's just unfortunate. That's all.
;)

comment # 43 by tsakmak

I know the scary and comfort zone were just there to empasize the drama concept i was talking about :P.

But (correct me if i m wrong) santah is supposed to be living from the money made from this site or at least a big portion of his income comes from it. Its only logical to come to that.

What i m trying to say is i m astonished by the amount of time he is dedicating in trying to respond to people and assist on a personal level. Most developers have zero interaction with the people they make stuff for. They follow directions from people who they filter the feedback OTHERS receive. So yeah i think that talking to the developer really is significant and over the years i have to respect santah as he improves the site directly from feedback from us. But with the site growing you can never satisfy everyone.

Unfortunate yes. Unexpected no.

comment # 44 by ArniVidar

I must admit I can't fully grasp graybags' problem, but wouldn't it be solved by simply reintroducing the option of doing a -1 / 0 / +1 offset on the calendar and the site separately, like it was before?

Regardless of the whole timezone changes, I see no reason for removing that particular option set, since it is a separate option and lives outside any time zones.

To those of you still bothered about this, I changed my time zone to New York yesterday, and all my shows now air exactly like they did before the change.

The US shows air on a Friday, the UK shows that air the same day (albeit several hours before) air on a Friday, and even the Japanese shows that air on a Friday some 13-14 hours before, are still showing as a Friday.

So for me, changing over to New York solved all my problems (and it's outside the premium paywall). What problems are you having that I don't?

comment # 45 by graybags

My problem is this: Before the change my shows appeared on the homepage as I liked them, and now they don't. Shows that aired yesterday used to show up as yesterday, and then I knew I can download them. The shows that showed up as today I know I can download tomorrow. It's midnight here in the UK and I cannot alter the timezone to get it to do that.

I know it's my problem, and I'm sorry you can't "fully grasp" my problem, but thanks to many of you for making me feel completely goddam worthless here. I don't think I'll post again, and I don't for one minute imagine I'll be missed.

comment # 46 by andrew%40andrewdonovan.com

I've always had Today's TV Episodes on the home page offset by 1 day. And this was part of the "new" system as well, which was working fine until today. I don't understand why this has been changed to a premium feature.

comment # 47 by ArniVidar

@graybags: Pull your head our of your arse, bro, and take a breather. I was actually trying to get answers (from santah, not you) and help. In no way was I insinuating that you are worthless.

comment # 48 by flyfixer

My mistake, I'm sorry I came across as hostile. I'm really crappy at trying to express my points somethings. I'd like to say on a 0% negativity level. This site is amazing and I love the rare resorce it provides. if the admins wish me to remove my message then I'll happily comply. I look forward to the future and wish everyone the best! I was wrong, sorry.

Have a wonderful night! Be safe.

comment # 49 by graybags

Apologies if I came across like my head was up my arse. I'm on Nightshift this week, and that always puts me in a bad mood.

Plus, it was frustrating trying to explain my issue over and over again, with people not understanding, even though Santah himself acknowledged there has always been an issue.

Anyway, Santah listened and now it's all working perfect for me, better than it's ever been.

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