Yahoo mail time stamps - how to read

[Steve]

---  "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> Does anyone understand how to read the time that an e-mail 
> message comes in? I had a long chat session with someone 
> from Yahoo and know no more than when I started. I figure 
> that someone here, maybe Steve, might know the answer better
> than they do.
> 
> If when I look at the inbox it says 11-9-07 and when I open
> the e-mail it says 11-10-07. Why is that? The message came 
> from somone in Europe. And what does 7:50:33 +0300, mean in
> real English for someone in the EST time zone?  Another 
> message sent from the U.S. says 6:35:55 -0500.
> 
> What does THAT mean in real English for someone in the 
> Eastern Time Zone? The person at Yahoo could not give me a
> straight answer. They kept saying that they were not in my 
> time zone, Yahoo is in the PST time zone and so this idiot 
> could not help me. 
> 
> I am sure someone here can. Help! Thanks.
> 
> Tonks_op
>

bboyminn:

Well, I think a combination of two things are happening.

First, Yahoo is responding pretty fast right now, but it when
it is slow, you used to see a huge gap between the date/time
in the main message list, and the date/time seen in the actual
message. Keep in mind that I always read at the groups web
page, not by email, and that Yahoo has made a couple of
minor format changes since I last noticed this.

I think this is reflecting when an email was sent (or arrived)
and when it is actually posted on line. Right now that is a
matter of seconds to at most a minute, so the time are 
virtually the same. But when Yahoo is slow, that gap can be
quite large, measured in a few to several hours.

So, think of it as the email time (message list time/date)
and the Post Time (the time/date seen when viewing a specific
message. I probably works slightly different when you 
receive posts by email, but the effect is similar.

As to the format you are seeing of 'time +- hours', I suspect
that is the either the time difference from GMT (Greenwich Mean 
Time) and local time, or it is the time differential between
the sender and the receiver. Most time zone are actually 
designated internationally as GMT +- 'hours'. For example,
I am in USA Central, so I am GMT-0600. In the Eastern Time
Zone, you are GMT-0500. Moscow would be GMT+0300. 

So, I'm guessing the time designations you are seeing are
GMT time plus or minus the time differential to your location,
or local time of the sender relative to the local time of
the receiver.

If the respective emails were from Moscow or a similar 
longitude and the other from USA Eastern Standard Time,
then the time differential designation are correct.

Does that help?

Steve/bboyminn