Birth Date in Admin and Member Accounts change after selecting specific date

I, as Administrator of my forum, and my Main Forum Moderator, have noticed that our Birth Date (as originally set by us in our Account Profiles)

becomes changed to a different Birth Date after having made a Post or Posts.

NOTE: Birth Date does NOT appear to change if we make no posts; but rather just browsing threw the forum and looking at others' posts, comments, etc.

[NOTE: Please refer to Screen Shot 2 for additional information!]

The change is (as example in MY Birth Date Data) goes From Feb.10 TO Feb. 9.

My Moderator told me the same thing happened to his Birth Date. His was Originally Jan. 31, but got changed TO Jan.30

In one recent event (I made several postings today), the change went FROM Feb. 09 TO Feb.08.

I had not made a correction to my Birth Date that appeared as Feb.9th prior to making posts today.

Later, before making this "bug report", I changed the Birth Date in my Account Profile Settings back to what it should be: (Feb. 10).

Please see attached Screen Shot.

DJ,

Ruff Seas

UPDATE: 9:20 PM

Please see additional Screen Shot (with explanation text) relating to this issue.

Quote from Alexander Ebert

It appears to be more a timezone issue with the date formatting. The displayed input value is dynamically calculated, but that doesn't change the value in the database - unless you submit that faulty value of course. Would you be so kindly to tell me what timezone is set for that particular user account? Also, does the user have a different timezone on his/her device?

For the record: This has nothing to do with posts being written.

Thank you for your reply.

The Time Zone for BOTH me (as Administrator) and my Forum Moderator is set at: (UTC - 08:00) Pacific Time, Tijuna

In answer to your 2nd question: No

Additional information:

After making my last entry on Woltlab Forum regarding this issue, I went into the Accounts of both me (Admin) and

my Moderator. I changed the Birth Dates to what they should be: Admin, Feb 10; and Moderator, Jan 31.

I just checked these settings now as I am answering your reply to me, and I noticed that my Moderator's Birth Date

now reads Jan 29; Admin's Birth Date reads as Feb 9

I have been logged on as Administrator several times since last changing these values.

To the best of my knowledge, the Moderator logged on Thursday, 13 April at 8:36 PM (time zone 8).

I first noticed this problem at some date in March; I changed the setting back to Feb 10, and thought no more about it

until I noticed that Account Info for Admin (as appears in the Left area of a Post made by Admin), read Feb 9 -

that was this Month.

Then I checked other accounts regarding the Birth Date issue, and it was then that I noticed that Birth Dates for ALL

accounts changes (as noted above).

UPDATE:

Out of curiosity I just checked an Account of a Member (personal friend of my Moderator).

I see that as a Registered Member he has not logged in since March 20th.

But I also noticed that his "settings" are (Arizona, USA) and not his actual Time Zone where he resides UTC - 08:00, Tijuna.

Although he has NOT logged in since March 20^th, his Birth Date has also changed in the same manner as I noted above

regarding Admin and Moderator.

Unfortunately, I do not know the date of when this change occurred.

UPDATE: 16 April

After having spent several hours going thru every possible combination and setting I could think of with regard

to this Birth Date problem, and discussing with my Moderator his settings, etc., I have discovered the one

item that is consistently repeating itself regardless of how many times I make a correction - or that my Moderator

corrects. By the way, we both use Firefox Mozilla, we both have are settings as UTC - 08:00.

The "item" I refer to is in the ACP Settings > Users > Edit > Personal Data

In Personal Data there is a provision for setting the Birth Date.

When I re-set this figure (for Admin (me) and my Moderator, and then click on "submit", I go back and discover

that the incorrect Birth Date is again showing (Feb.9) and (Jan 30) respectively.

I then go to the Main Forum Page, click on my Admin Symbol > Edit Profile > Scroll down to where Birth Date

data shows on the screen, and make the change to Feb 10. I click on "save", look at the Birth Date again, it shows

(without leaving this page) Feb 10. I then exit this area, go to Main Forum Page, again click on Admin Symbol at

top of Forum, click on Edit Profile, then look at Birth Date - it now has changed back to Feb 9.

Again I look at my account details in the ACP (as described above) , and it shows Birth Date as Feb 9

So WHY is the Birth Date NOT staying (remaining) as set by me (or when my Moderator makes a re-set) ?

[And I can assume, I believe, that this would be the same result for anyone who is a Member of the Forum,

and they had re-set their Birth Date]

Please advise as to what you believe may be the problem.

Thank you.

DJ

Please take note that I have changed the Thread Title as this change reflects a more accurate issue, e.g., the selected Birth Date

(using the built in Calendar of month, day, and year) changes by itself after selected by either me (as Admin) and also changes

for Members.

The change (with ONE exception noted by me) changes to a previous Birth Date; meaning that if I select Feb 10, click on submit,

then go back to "Edit Profile", it shows the Birth Date as Feb 9

The one exception I mentioned was with my Moderator - his Birth Date actually went back two Days, FROM Jan 31 to Jan 29;

but I believe this only happened once - otherwise it is FROM Jan 31 TO Jan 30

Also, it doesn't make any difference if the Birth Date Settings are made FROM the ACP (USERS) OR from the Drop Down Menu on

Main forum page, i.e,, Edit profile - the change still occurs.

Quote from tunhj1

Have you check the Time Zone on the server (hosting)

Thanks for your interest in my problem.

But to answer your question: No, I have not. My Hosting is with a company based not in my country OR Time Zone;

however they have options as to which server location I prefer; but I don't remember which area I asked for.

However having said that, I fail to understand WHY the server location Time Zone would affect the Birth Date Setting.

A Birth Date is (or should be) a stationary (fixed) setting; meaning that if my Birth Date is Feb 10 (it is) then it should

remain just that - Feb 10 - as viewed by any Member ( or me as Admin) from anywhere in the world.

Originally when I reported this situation in "Bugs", I noticed this issue I am having for one reason:

A Post that I had made (along with my Profile Data shown on the Left Side of the Page) indicated my Birth Date was Feb 9

HOWEVER, even though this was originally what drew my attention to this issue, it has NOT occurred again since March.

That is to say, My Profile Stats (which includes my Birth Date on the Left side of ANY Post I make) has remained Feb 10,

EVEN THOUGH my personal Profile Settings for me continue to show incorrectly Feb 9, even after I make a correction to

Feb 10.

Meaning: The correction of the Birth Date for ME (as Admin) will NOT "hold" - it reverts to the incorrect date immediately

upon checking it.

My Moderator has the same problem; and he checked a Birth Date entry for a friend of his who has an account on my

Forum - his Birth Date setting is also showing incorrectly.

Regardless of how one views this problem (issue), the fact the entered Birth Date will NOT stay as entered is a "malfunction";

whether or not that malfunction is "bug" related issue (or something else) is not in my expertise to determine.

Hopefully Alexander Ebert (or perhaps someone else at Woltlab) will be able to tell me what the problem is.

I am not so much concerned about this problem as might be a Member (present or future Member) of my Forum;

some people (members of forums) have a strong tendency to come "unglued" at the slightest inaccuracies!

DJ

Quote from marcbelgique

a date in php is usualy a datetime + timezone

please check your timezome in your profil and check the timezone of yourserver and the timezone of your forum in acp

because each date is calculated with the timezone

Going by what you said - but correct me if I misunderstood you - you have indicated a Members' Birth Date

(or that of the Admin, Mod, etc.) is dependent upon the time zone of the person viewing that information,

e.g., the Birth Date Setting in this case.

To my way of thinking, that is illogical.

The Birth Date of ANY individual who is part of a forum - any forum, not just my forum - is just that, the individual's Birth Date.

To say that any individual's Birth Date can be (or is) a "value" that is determined by the location of the "viewer",

just doesn't make sense.

IF indeed the Woltlab Designers have built that particular criteria into Woltlab Suite Core 3.0.x,

then they would have made an error in judgment as to common sense.

Until I hear back from Alexander Ebert, I am going to assume Woltlab has made no such internal design setting that makes an

individual's Birth Date (the "value" which displays as the individual's Birth Date) dependent upon Time Zones!

DJ

Quote from Ruff Seas

Going by what you said - but correct me if I misunderstood you - you have indicated a Members' Birth Date

(or that of the Admin, Mod, etc.) is dependent upon the time zone of the person viewing that information,

e.g., the Birth Date Setting in this case.

To my way of thinking, that is illogical.

The Birth Date of ANY individual who is part of a forum - any forum, not just my forum - is just that, the individual's Birth Date.

To say that any individual's Birth Date can be (or is) a "value" that is determined by the location of the "viewer",

just doesn't make sense.

IF indeed the Woltlab Designers have built that particular criteria into Woltlab Suite Core 3.0.x,

then they would have made an error in judgment as to common sense.

Until I hear back from Alexander Ebert, I am going to assume Woltlab has made no such internal design setting that makes an

individual's Birth Date (the "value" which displays as the individual's Birth Date) dependent upon Time Zones!

DJ

Display More

I contacted my Hosting Server Provider today and informed them - in detail - regarding the problem with the Birth Day Setting changing even though I have tried re-setting the value several times, i.e. for me as Admin, Feb 10

Their response to me - after having extensively looked into (and changed) the settings regarding Time Zone and PHP settings - was the following:

"I have set the "America/Los_Angeles" PHP timezone on your server. You can verify it using https://www.ttttforum.com/phpinfo.php
Can you please test it again now. If you still experience a problem, I think you will need to contact the script maker for further assistance

as the issue might be due to the software."

I did log onto my Forum and re-checked the Birth Day setting in my Profile section (as Admin), and also via ACP >USERS.

The setting on the Birth Date for me (as Admin) will not stay as set.

I also checked my Moderator's Birth Date settings, and found the problem still persists; except of course his Birth Day changes 2 days backwards,

while mine changes by 1 day backwards; e.g., Feb 10 to Feb 9, and, Jan. 31 to Jan 29, respectively.

DJ

Quote from Alexander Ebert

It appears to be more a timezone issue with the date formatting. The displayed input value is dynamically calculated, but that doesn't change the value in the database - unless you submit that faulty value of course. Would you be so kindly to tell me what timezone is set for that particular user account? Also, does the user have a different timezone on his/her device?

For the record: This has nothing to do with posts being written.

Please see Post #9 above for UPDATE.

DJ

Quote from Alexander Ebert

This is the whole point of it: The value is not actually changed, but the date picker reports an incorrect value. If you submit the faulty value, exactly that value is send to the server and the cycle begins again.

Whatever appears in the "edit profile" section is not relevant, only what is really shown on the "about me" tab in your profile, because this value is what is really saved on the server. Opening the profile editor does not alter an value, but for some reason the date picker appears to miscalculate the value. This is happening because date calculation in JavaScript is always subject to timezones and if by any chance there is a bad timezone calculation going on, things get messed up.

I'll have to run some tests with different timezone settings, to understand what exactly is happening, e.g. in which combination of timezones things start to mess up. Until then, relax and enjoy life, I'm on it

Edit: Okay, it is really a JavaScript issue, because it happens when my PC's timezone is behind UTC, the user's timezone as well as the server timezone are not relevant here.

Edit 2: Issue found, fix will arrive with the next update. You can circumvent the issue until then by selecting the next day instead, if (and only if!) your PC's timezone is behind UTC. Please look on the profile tab (not edit mode) to see if the value was saved correctly.

Ruff Seas Thanks for your patience and your efforts, it really helped me narrowing down the issue.

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Re: "Edit 2: Issue found, ... "

Happy to hear (read) it!

As for the part about: " ... can circumvent the issue ... ",

I will wait until you apply the "fix" in the next UPDATE.

Thank you for YOUR patience with me; and for finding the problem!

Ruff Seas,

DJ