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Believe it or not, West Africa exists. Perhaps a better indicator would be regional, ie. Casablanca/Dakar (+0h). edit: reply below (correctly) points out that

by Arubis 15y ago

Believe it or not, West Africa exists. Perhaps a better indicator would be regional, ie. Casablanca/Dakar (+0h). edit: reply below (correctly) points out that Casablanca is on WET. go figure.

mseebach 15y ago
The only reliable indicator of offset is political geographical features. This would also keep you from making the exact error that the parent pointed out, as Casablanca is observing summertime and is thus currently in GMT+1. As far as I can tell, the only territory currently at GMT+0 is Cape Verde, which I would think it's fair to classify as "almost no-one".
- cashman 15y ago
  Reykjavik, Iceland, is always at GMT+0 and has no DST. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=211 http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=211 (That doesn't really contradict "almost no-one", of course.)
  - mseebach 15y ago
    So according to http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/eu/gmt.html http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/e... http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/africa/gmt.html http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/a... a comprehensive list of territories observing GMT all year: * Iceland * Burkina Faso * Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) * Gambia * Ghana * Guinea-Bissau * Guinea * Liberia * Mali * Mauritania * Saint Helena * Sao Tome and Principe * Senegal * Sierra Leone * Togo
- skrebbel 15y ago
  there certainly are time zones with less than 500k inhabitants. if you're dropping GMT+0, it'd only be fair to drop those other time zones too!
- Arubis 15y ago
  If I may prove one of your points whule disputing another... I could've sworn Casablanca was GMT, and I live in a GMT territory. So, yes, it is confusing. However, it's also worth pointing out that there _are_ people living here. This comment's sibling describes GMT as <500k inhabitants, but Dakar alone has over a million residents.
- mseebach 15y ago
  Errata: Cape Verde is the only territory currently at GMT-1. Got my timezone trivia wrong, sorry.
- fanf2 15y ago
  There are occasional cases where a location isn't enough to identify a TZ rule. The most famous is Xinjiang where the Han run on Beijing time (like the rest of China) and the Uighurs run on Beijing-2 (traditional and more normal for their location) and both live in the same place. But that's a pathological case :-) More seriously, iCalendar, the main standard for exchanging schedules, has broken models of time and place, and I don't see any desire to fix it properly. http://fanf.livejournal.com/104586.html http://fanf.livejournal.com/104586.html
StavrosK 15y ago
That's what I was implying with my comment above, i.e. that the selector should mention the region rather than the abstract timezone. By "almost nobody" I meant the people who need to use the abstract timezone rather than refer to some specific area.

by Arubis 15y ago

Believe it or not, West Africa exists. Perhaps a better indicator would be regional, ie. Casablanca/Dakar (+0h). edit: reply below (correctly) points out that Casablanca is on WET. go figure.

mseebach 15y ago

The only reliable indicator of offset is political geographical features. This would also keep you from making the exact error that the parent pointed out, as Casablanca is observing summertime and is thus currently in GMT+1. As far as I can tell, the only territory currently at GMT+0 is Cape Verde, which I would think it's fair to classify as "almost no-one".

cashman 15y ago
Reykjavik, Iceland, is always at GMT+0 and has no DST. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=211 http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=211 (That doesn't really contradict "almost no-one", of course.)
- mseebach 15y ago
  So according to http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/eu/gmt.html http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/e... http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/africa/gmt.html http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/a... a comprehensive list of territories observing GMT all year: * Iceland * Burkina Faso * Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) * Gambia * Ghana * Guinea-Bissau * Guinea * Liberia * Mali * Mauritania * Saint Helena * Sao Tome and Principe * Senegal * Sierra Leone * Togo
skrebbel 15y ago
there certainly are time zones with less than 500k inhabitants. if you're dropping GMT+0, it'd only be fair to drop those other time zones too!
Arubis 15y ago
If I may prove one of your points whule disputing another... I could've sworn Casablanca was GMT, and I live in a GMT territory. So, yes, it is confusing. However, it's also worth pointing out that there _are_ people living here. This comment's sibling describes GMT as <500k inhabitants, but Dakar alone has over a million residents.
mseebach 15y ago
Errata: Cape Verde is the only territory currently at GMT-1. Got my timezone trivia wrong, sorry.
fanf2 15y ago
There are occasional cases where a location isn't enough to identify a TZ rule. The most famous is Xinjiang where the Han run on Beijing time (like the rest of China) and the Uighurs run on Beijing-2 (traditional and more normal for their location) and both live in the same place. But that's a pathological case :-) More seriously, iCalendar, the main standard for exchanging schedules, has broken models of time and place, and I don't see any desire to fix it properly. http://fanf.livejournal.com/104586.html http://fanf.livejournal.com/104586.html

StavrosK 15y ago

That's what I was implying with my comment above, i.e. that the selector should mention the region rather than the abstract timezone. By "almost nobody" I meant the people who need to use the abstract timezone rather than refer to some specific area.