[tz] Ambiguous abbreviations for Australian timezones when daylight savings is in affect

[Stephen Colebourne]

On 30 March 2013 22:37, Robert Elz <kre at munnari.oz.au> wrote:
>     From:        Timothy Arceri <t.arceri at bom.gov.au>
>   | The issue is not that the identifiers are not unique worldwide.
>   | The problem is that they are not unique to bordering states in the
>   | same country which run along the same time zone.
>
> The problem is that you're using those absurd abbreviations at all.
> Just stop using the things, and all the problems you're having with
> them will magically go away.

[snipped much additional similar comment]

I don't comment here much, but I do think that a little more humility
towards users is warranted. Its clear from the many discussions over
the years that a majority of Australians want this change. Its not one
that greatly affects anyone negatively AFAICT. And it clearly does
cause some users pain.

Whether the pain is of there own making, or whether they shouldn't be
doing what they are doing, really is a secondary point. The fact is
that they *are* using the data in that way. Unless the tzdb authors
want to remove the data in that column entirely, then users are going
to continue to use/misuse it.

In summary, please make the change, because deliberately inflicting
pain on users, even if you disagree with their use cases, just isn't
right or fair.

Stephen