[tz] Australian Timezone Abreviations - Next step

[Shaun Bouckaert]

On 11 October 2012 20:18, Alan Barrett <apb at cequrux.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Oct 2012, Shaun Bouckaert wrote:
>>
>> I honestly believe that the only argument for the status quo on this
>> issue is that it's been this way for a long time.
>
>
> The main argument, I think, is that people in Australia don't agree among
> themselves, so there is no basis for making any sort of change in the TZ
> database.
>
> If you can get the people in Australia to agree with each other, or if they
> already agree with each other then if you can document such agreement, then
> I think that it will be easy to persuade the tzdata community.  On the other
> hand, as long as the tzdata community is under the impression that there is
> no agreement within Australia, then it will be very difficult to persuade
> the tzdata community to make any changes.
>
>

It's kind of ridiculous to propose that we need to get ALL
Australians, even just on this list, need to agree before we change
it.

>> I have previously presented many good arguments as to why it needs to be
>> updated to reflect what is widely used amongst government and private
>> organisations across the country, and what is presented by the federal
>> government on this page
>> http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/time
>
>
> Some .gov.au web sites use three-letter abbreviations like "EST" and some
> use four letter abbreviationslike "AEST", as can easily be found by a google
> search for 'domain:.gov.au time zone EST|AEST'.  If you think that one set
> of abbreviations is correct and the other set is incorrect, then, to make a
> convincing argument, you need to do a lot more than selectively quote from
> just one site.
>
>

Did you ever think that existing uses of the three letter acronyms are
because that's the way they are currently in the database? If it's
being included based on data in the database, it's going to use what's
currently there.  This also isn't just one site. This is the page that
has been specifically set up to state what the timezones of Australia
are.

>> Hopefully, with responses from the relevant state departments, this issue
>> can be resolved and put to bed.
>
>
> Yes, official statements from national and state government departments
> would be useful.
>
> --apb (Alan Barrett)

Although I'm certainly making an attempt at this, I still believe that
there's more than enough reason to change it now. If there are people
in other states (other than Queensland who want to try to contact
their own appropriate government departments that would help.


Shaun Bouckaert