OK, we all know how the clock had trouble processing things such as DST for Southern Hemispherean posters on the old forum, but the new forum seemed to be handling it fine. When we went onto daylight savings last month, it changed appropriately, while we haven't been troubled by Northern Hemispherean daylight savings ending or anything like that.
Until now, it seems. Bizarrely, overnight, it seems our clocks have skipped back an hour. The especially bizarre part is that it seems the timezones have not in fact altered for DST elsewhere, but have in fact just moved back an hour inexplicably. The DST correction is working fine; the base time has changed.
Below is exactly what is happening right now. Keep in mind that until 2am this morning, everything was perfectly fine. I did not notice this until about 2:30, when I noticed my clock was displaying 1:30. A couple of other people from Australia and New Zealand have also observed their clocks have become an hour behind. However, Northern Hemisphere posters I've spoken to seem unaffected.
A BUNCH OF EXAMPLES
Let's assume that the time at GMT +0000 is exactly 0000. Remember, GMT = UTC and never changes. Britain may have DST, but when it goes on DST, it becomes GMT +0100. GMT +0000 is constant throughout the year. Now let's go through some timezones that I've tested.
+0930 (has DST, thus currently +1030)
What the time should be on DST: 10:30am
What is displayed, with "automatically detect DST settings" (presumes DST): 9:30am
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always on": 9:30am
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always off": 8:30am
+1000 (has DST, thus currently +1100)
What the time should be on DST: 11am
What is displayed, with "automatically detect DST settings" (presumes DST): 10am
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always on": 10am
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always off": 9am
+1100
What the time should be, no DST: 11am
What is displayed, with "automatically detect DST settings" (presumes no DST): 10am
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always on": 11am
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always off": 10am
+1200 (has DST, thus currently +1300)
What the time should be on DST: 1pm
What is displayed, with "automatically detect DST settings" (presumes DST): 12 noon
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always on": 12 noon
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always off": 11am
To put it mathematically:
For GMT+x
What the time should be on DST: GMT+x+1 [note: when no DST, should be GMT+x]
What is displayed, with "automatically detect DST settings" (presumes DST): GMT+x [note: when it does not presume DST, it displays GMT+x-1]
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always on": GMT+x
What is displayed, with "DST corrections always off": GMT+x-1
CONCLUSION
The "DST corrections always on/off" setting reveals the problem. Essentially, the forum's GMT, in calculating all of the above timezones, has moved back an hour. When it calculates a timezone without DST, it produces a time one hour behind what it should be, i.e. for GMT+x, it gives GMT+x-1. It is then adding the DST correction correctly, but since the base time is already an hour behind, adding the DST correction only puts the timezone on its standard time of GMT+x, not on its DST time of GMT+x+1. Thus, the problem is not with DST correction, but with the clock's calculation of the base time.