Different vibes in different time zones

[dinty]

[disclaimer : my first new thread on AP – I searched several ways but found nothing similar, so here goes ... ]

I suspect the four cups of Oolong Tea were to blame for it, but whatever the reason was, I found myself awake at 3:30 a.m. when most (sensible) people in my time-zone are soundly sleeping!

I'm located in the Pacific Time Zone, so I'm used to "real time" interaction with other Pacific folks, as well as with Eastern/Mountain/Central folks and with Canadians and Central Americans in similar zones. We also occasionally overlap with AP's UK night-owls and AP's Australian early-birds. However, by the time AP's Asians and Central Europeans have logged in, most Pacific folk have staggered off to bed. So Pacific folk rarely get to interact with them in "real-time", and instead have to play tag (responding hours later to the messages they send, and vice versa).

I mention this because during that sleepless night, I logged into AP at 3:30 a.m. and found myself interacting with an entirely different group of AP folk! (AP's Central/Western Europeans and Asians). It was initially very disorienting – but interesting and enjoyable too ... and I'm not quite sure how, but the vibe was very different then.

So I was wondering -- have any other AP folk done something similar to this? Have you logged into AP during a time that's not "typical" for your time zone and noticed any differences?

I'm very curious about this now! -- about the ebb and flow of different groups of people through this forum during a typical 24 hour segment.

[Taleran]

Eastern Time Here for a mark point Current Time is : 2:15 AM

[dinty]

And it's 11:21 here in Pacific, which means that you Eastern folks will probably be going to bed in an hour or two if they aren't there already, and Pacific folks will probably be up another 2 or 3 hours (when I see the first posts from AP's Hawaiians and Australians, then I know I've stayed up too late) ;)

[EDIT : I meant to say "when I see the LAST posts from AP's Hawaiians and Australians" (since they're on an earlier time zone than I am) ]

Anyone else here right now reading this in a different time-zone who might want to make some commentary about it, about the vibe, etc.

Taleran, if you don't mind me asking, do you usually stay up this late? If not, do you notice anything different about this time than the times you usually visit AP? (More or fewer people, different crowd, different tone of messages, etc…)

[Local-chan]

Mid-Day Greenwich time is soooooo boring, theres usually like…10 people on

[dinty]

Hi Local! You're in UK then, right? So that would be a time when most Europeans are at school or at lunch or at work, but most of USA and some of Asia is still asleep. Well, that probably accounts for the lack of people here then. Does it pick up typically in a few hours – like, for instance, about 4-6 in the evening, or is it still "dead" until much later?

[Local-chan]

Yea most people usually don't get on here till around 6pm or so.

[BobTheDarkOne]

Well, the only time I see very few people on is early in the morning(from like 5 am to 9 am). I don't get on the much during the day since i'm usually either at school or with friends, but since I'm in the eastern time zone(i think) I guess the activity level is pretty high. And now its almost 3 AM for me (I came back from a concert) and there's still lots of people on.

[dinty]

Hi Bob – Yes, if it's three where you're at, then you're probably in the Eastern time zone. It's midnight here in the Pacific time zone. Since many of us stay up (especially on a Friday) past midnight, that could account for the crowds here right now. But when it gets to be 2 or 3 here, then almost all of USA is (theoretcally) in bed asleep, and that could account for the slow-down then. But I imagine that within an hour or two after that, it would get busy again, as Europe and Asia spend nighttime and early morning online.

A handy time-zone map for those who aren't sure where they're at time-zone wise :

http://www.worldtimezone.com/index.html

[dinty]

This post is deleted!

[Local-chan]

you could also check the little clock in the bottom right corner of your desktop and then click Time Zone ^_^

[dinty]

tries it

Haha! Learned something new every day.
Thanks Local!

[BobTheDarkOne]

Heh I guess you're right Dinty.

I didn't know about that clock thing either. D:

But now I'm tired like hell and I'm gonna go…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[dinty]

I hear ya, Bob. I don't think I can last much longer either, but I'm hoping that while I'm getting some much needed zzzzz's, people will continue what we've started, or maybe experiment over the weekend and try waking up in the middle of the night, or getting up a few hours earlier or later, to see if there's much difference between then and when they usually post.

But that's not even necessary either – it's been interesting just hearing more about the typical patterns and stuff.

[captain usopp]

I'm the same time as taleran, but because of work, I'm asleep and awake at kind of wierd hours. BTW, it is currently 7:16am here. I was up and on AP at 5:30am though. It's kind of dead right now. a few people are on.

I usually go to bed around 9pm. Usually just in time to miss ADC post a new episode. lol I find, it doesn't get busy till later in the afternoon, and then again, after supper hours.

[dinty]

Hi captain usopp – thanks for commenting! Let's see, so if you're in the Eastern time-zone with Taleran, then that means three hours difference from Pacific.

So when you posted at 7:16, it was about 4:00am in my zone, and about noon in Paris (which may have explained why the the most recent chapter thread had a spike in activity from Europeans for an hour or so -- because it's lunchtime for them.

Interesting!

(well, to me at least, but I'm funny like that) :)

[AD-HD Pirate]

I shall heal this thread.

Okay, I am from Finland. And now clock is 14.16

…Time that I should go to bed.

Here in Finland it is:
GMT+02:00

[Skymo]

I'm from Portugal and for me you all have been posting since 7am!lol

[CosmicDebris]

It's kind of a shame we don't have a chatroom.

I'm usually on at any point between 9:00am - 1:00am Pacific Standard Time.
Since I don't actually chat much, but post on the forum, I don't really notice so much of a descrepency.

[Masta D.]

It's 8:19 in Eastern United States here. You guys posted at 7:00 p.m.

[GearSecond]

Yeah…alot less members on late at night/early morning in the pacific time zone.

I usually do end up playing "message tag" with Australians.

[dinty]

Oh wow! I just stumbled across my little thread and have discovered the mini-flurry of activity that it received just before Christmas! (And from some elusive Europeans, too!) … Unfortunately I was offline for most of that week and was unable to be here to reply to your messages.

But thanks for leaving them here anyways!

So, let's see now: AD-HD, you are from Finland. And that is about 10 hours ahead of Pacific Standard time, right? I notice you often post in threads at about the same time as I do when I am taking my morning break at work. This would be about 9:30am for me, so about 7:30pm for you? (Or did I calculate that incorrectly). Well, if that's right, then it makes sense that you'd post at that time because it's just past dinnertime but just before bedtime, so a good opportunity to jump on the computer for a few hours in between.

Hi Skymo, let's see, if you are in Portugal, then that's GMT time, yes? So you and Local-chan (who is in the UK) would have similar patterns of activity here on AP -- assuming you have similar schedules for work, school, meals, etc.

Cosmic D.! Hi! :) Yes, this sort of thread probably would have been well-suited for a chart room now that you mention it -- but to be honest, I almost never go into chats, so I'm glad that we don't have one here. I spend too much time reading all the threads! -- like you, I do all my "chatting" on them too! Since you're on AP a lot (being an Admin/Admiral/Mod and all) you probably have a good feel for some of AP's "traffic patterns" -- like when to expect hordes of visitors, and when this place is more like a ghost town. Something else I'm curious about -- do you notice if AP gets surges of new members at certain times of the year or month, and does this seem to coincide with anything? (major plot moments in the manga, anime conventions, the release of Shonen Jump USA translations, etc). I wonder what draws people here and what makes them finally sign on and become official.

Hi MastaD -- another Easterner! So many of them have come to this thread. You and Taleran and Capain Usopp and Bob are all Easterners.

GearSecond -- hi! So you've noticed that too. Yeah, I can stay up until the Hawaiians arrive on the scene, then I usually have to go to bed, waking up a few hours later to see what Oceania added to the discussion. :)

[KamenRiderNeko]

I think when I'm on in the evening, there's a lot of people. I'm in the Central US timezone, I believe. Around this time, I usually talk to Local for a bit before he starts his day, and then in the late afternoon, before his day is done.

I really shouldn't be up right now, I have work in the morning lol!

Interesting topic though~

[mr_bushido]

Wow, this thread is rather interesting, Dinty. I'm in Texas (which is Central Time) and because of my ex-job, I have the most effed up schedule… I used to work 6pm-6am, but since I've lost my job, I'm usually on between the times of 4pm & 8am. I've never really taken into account the time discrepancy between our members before...

[Zulen]

The forums seems generally empty during my nights, and I live over in Maryland.

While many people are online… they just... don't... post...

[captain usopp]

I notice that too sometimes. I'm bored, I come here, I see, oh good, lots of people. I'll be entertained for a while…I post something, and then, for hours, nothing happens, on here, even though there are lots of people. I wonder, if some people, jsut leave their computer in the middle of something. I know local, will leave his browser on AP, and be off, watching Dr who, or playing his DS XD

[dinty]

Hi Everyone – thanks for commenting! Looks like you all were online just as I was going to bed through, so I missed being there in "real time" to interact with you. Something interesting will happen to my schedule this weekend. My worktime has been adjusted so that I'll come to work four hours earlier than usual and leave four hours earlier than usual. This means everything else (eating, sleeping, surfin' the internet, etc) will slide into a segment that's four hours earlier, too. So even though I'm in the Pacific Time Zone, my posting and viewing patterns on AP will be more like an Eastern Time Zone person!

This thread was visited by our Central Time Zone Marimos? Sweet! Howdy pardners!

Pirateneko -- _. Central seems to be a good Time Zone for interacting with the Greenwich Meridian Europeans – it's got a few times that are "humane" for both of you, so neither has to stay up too late or get up too early to accomidate the other. It's fortunate that Local's located where he is and you are where you are. (as opposed to being in, say, Moscow and Seattle).

Mr Bushido -- wow, so you were keeping a graveyard/swing shift at work and visiting AP WAYYYY out of synch with your time zone (and still are, out of habit). Interesting! So that means your hours are more like an Eastern European than like an American, and your chances of being online at the same time as folks like Natli, Majek, and etc are pretty high.

Zulen. Hi -- Maryland is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you'd have to wait until about 10 or 11 pm your time for all the other USA time zones to return home from work or school, have dinner and get online. (That's one advantage we have here in Pacific : once we've finished dinner and gone online, most people in other USA timezones have already done the same too, so it's rarely empty here then. As for the lack of people posting then ... hmm... I haven't noticed that. It's always seemed very busy to me ... ( But then again, it could be just because our styles of posting are so different! I usually don't have enough time in one evening to keep up with -- let alone respond to -- all the posts that were posted that evening in the threads that interest me).

Like this one for example.

Captain Usopp -- interesting! Yes, I imagine that could be true. I turn my computer off the instant I'm going away to do something else (because I don't like to burn any more electricity/energy/etc than is necessary) but I know many people who leave them on all day, just so they can catch e-mail, stock quotes, etc the moment that stuff hits their inboxes._

[Carly]

I often stay up late these days to catch my friends in Singapore and Taiwan, and since I don't have to get up particularly early for my classes (my first class on Mondays is at 1.30. like whoa) I am sometimes on here late too. Although it's hard for me to keep track of who lives where so I don't know much difference ^^;…

[dinty]

Hi Carly – wow, your avatar is hynotizing me! Those eyes are so intense. What is he saying? :)

It's difficult for me to keep track of where most people live too, because very few people actually state their location in the "location" section of their profile!

So I like to guess the location, usually based on when they post and the sort of slang and phrasing that they use. Sometimes, the big hint comes from context in a message they've written : for instance, someone talking about a visit to an anime convention, or comparing something in their homeland with something in Japan, or etc.

I like to see how far across the globe this forum stretches -- I know we have people here from South America and the Middle East, too -- not just Europe, Asia and USA. I wonder if we have any from Africa yet. That would be very cool. Then we'd have someone from every continent (well, except Antarctica, but we could have had that too, if my friend had decided to spend another winter-over instead of returning to the USA) ;)

[igalsfy]

and here i thought i already posted here…

frankly at GMT+1, it's quite boring. because most people don't post that much when i tend to. ie. when i'm at work.

[dinty]

Bonjour Igalsfy! – I'm responding to your post at 5:00am Pacific Time (GMT -8), which is rather early for Pacific Folks to be online, but not too early for Eastern USA and Europe to be online. I leave for work in about 20 minutes, then have my first breaktime at work in about three hours. Breaktimes are my only chance to be online during work, though I'm sometimes able to read AP -- but not respond to it -- when work is slow.

I think you're right about how very few people will post when you do because you're able to post at work (most people don't have that luxury!). I think it's also quiet during that time because those time zones seem to have smaller crowds than the time zones closest to my own.

However, now that my work schedule has moved so early into the morning, my "active" time zone and my actual timezone seem very different! (I wouldn't have posted so early in the morning a few weeks ago!). Ok, time for me to get offline and go to work now!