Multiple people have reported having accounts set to Hawaiian Time (HST) without ever intentionally setting it:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/date-and-time-zone-issue/11879
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/observations-show-incorrect-time-time-zone-error/11781
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/time-zones-are-they-important-how-do-you-change-it/4718/3
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/time-zone-is-wrong-on-so-many-of-my-observations/10959/6
@kueda said at one point
but it’s not clear to me if he thinks people are accidentally selecting Hawaii as they manipulate the time zone drop-down (not really a bug) vs not making a selection at all and having the system choose Hawaii for them (definitely a bug).
I believe I figured out how at least some accounts are getting set to HST without any action from the user.
Step 1: Use the Android app to create a new account (web account creation didn’t cause this error, I didn’t test iOS). This account now has no time zone set, it registers as UTC (the time zone under date added is the time zone of the account):
Step 2: go to the Account Settings page on the website. Some of the settings show blanks as defaults, e.g. Search place, but Time zone is already on Hawaii.
Step 3: Finish your business on this page – maybe it was to change email notifications or licensing or whatever. Fail to notice that the time zone drop-down already has Hawaii selected.
Step 4: Go to the bottom of the page and save your account settings. Now, without intentionally choosing Hawaii or interacting with the time zone drop-down at all, account is set to HST.