Army

UPDATE: I’ve run more tests and talked with Hostgator and can confirm that the date/time being displayed by 2 rss plugins are based on UTC and NOT the Hostgator server time, which is Central time (only a 2 hour difference). All indications show that MY server timezone is correctly offset to Los Angeles time via my php.ini file.

The date/time displayed by the rss plugins is a 7 HOUR DIFFERENCE. Therefore, I don’t believe it is possible that it’s a server issue at all since the plugins are showing the default WordPress UTC date/time, regardless of what I set it to in WP’s General Settings.

Clearly, for some strange reason, rss plugins are not reading WordPress’ timezone offset correctly and ONLY drawing from the default UTC timezone. I can confirm that posts and other basic WP functions are displaying the correct offset date/time. I will try other plugins to see if any show the correct offset date/time but as of now, I have no idea how to fix the issue or explain why it’s not happening with anyone else.

It’s definitely not the WordPress multi-site installation or any other plugin.

Here’s a single user WordPress installation test page on the same server with no other plugins running. http://deepinsidethekings.com/testrss/

Same problem!

So we can eliminate other plugins or the multi-site wordpress install.

That leaves the WP RSS Multi Importer plugin or the server. I will run another test with a different RSS aggregator to rule out WP RSS Multi Importer. I think it may be the server but I have no idea what to ask Hostgator.

For some reason that screencast video will not play. It hangs forever and says, “Please wait … the video is loading.” The video immediately after it plays just fine … “Uninstall but keep database settings” http://www.screencast.com/t/Cw2BBkhsDdX

Also, when I enter the full video URL it says the file is corrupt: http://content.screencast.com/users/amweiss/folders/Snagit/media/6735a36d-b1ce-45b3-9e7c-ed79e48a96b6/2014-06-03_06-09-34.mp4

I tested multiple templates but no change in behavior. Jumping still occurs will every template I select. For example, right now it’s set to ‘clean separated’ and refreshing still has the dates change every time.

http://pucknewsdaily.com/testrss/

Meanwhile, the other test site with the modified WP file is still stable and working as expected.

http://deepinsidethekings.com/testrss/

Ok, sorry for all the posts but I ran another test with an interesting result.

On the “deepinsidethekings” site I changed the wp_settings.php from

// WordPress calculates offsets from UTC.
date_default_timezone_set( ‘UTC’ );

to

// WordPress calculates offsets from UTC.
date_default_timezone_set( ‘America/Los_Angeles’ );

And the test page (http://deepinsidethekings.com/testrss/) is now consistently displaying the correct date!

I will leave that PHP file alone for a while to see what happens as I’m afraid to do it on the kings fan daily site for fear of crashing it. Does this help explain things better to you? It’s over my head but I’m just concerned that by changing this file permanently it will cause havoc as others have indicated when I did a quick search about modifying this critical WP file. Of course, I imagine your wp_settings.php on your test site is set to the default UTC so I don’t know what to make of it.

Here are two potentially pertinent articles that are over my head: https://core.trac.ww.wp.xz.cn/ticket/23384
http://weston.ruter.net/2013/04/02/do-not-change-the-default-timezone-from-utc-in-wordpress/

It’s so strange now. I set up a test page on the main wordpress multisite and it is changing dates with each and every refresh. June 01 to June 02, over and over.

http://pucknewsdaily.com/testrss/

Kings Fan Daily is now doing the same thing. I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the shortcode settings. Could you confirm what your test page settings are?

But I don’t think it does as I have changed them to various settings with the same result. I guess it could be a plugin conflict. I’ve disabled a bunch but maybe I have to disable them all. Not sure. I do have Hostgator looking into the issue to see if it’s something on their end. I’m wondering if it’s a multisite issue too so I’m going to install the plugin on yet another site on my shared server that isn’t part of the multisite install.

Now back to the incorrect dates…

Changed the file as directed to the following:

date_default_timezone_set(‘America/Los_Angeles’); ///NEED TO ADD THIS

//date_default_timezone_set( get_option( ‘timezone_string’ ) ); ///THIS SHOULD WORK

Currently monitoring, but as of the change, the incorrect dates are showing.

Hi Allen, thanks for taking the time. I replaced the file last night and monitored it. The dates are going back and forth. One moment they are all correct, then the next they jump back to the way it was before. For example, all the incorrect Sun, Jun 01, 2014 feeds changed to Sat, May 31, 2014. Then, a little while later, all the correct Sat, May 31, 2014 dates changed back to Sun, Jun 01, 2014. I confirmed this with multiple browsers, clearing the cache as well as checking multiple devices. There were no exceptions with regards to particular feeds.