OK, this has now been released. All newly created observations will now be assigned a time zone automatically, based on their true coordinates (and without taking accuracy/precision into account). The same goes for editing existing observations - if the observation’s coordinates are changed at all, it will automatically be assigned a time zone based on the new coordinates.
As part of this update, we’ve removed the ability to manually edit the time zone for observations as well; you’re just responsible for adding accurate location and local time of day information. The system will take care of the time zone.
While this doesn’t solve every potential issue with times, it should prevent two of the major issues on iNat when it comes to time zones:
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Assigning a time zone to an observation based on the observer’s account time zone, which many (most?) people forget to change when they post photos from their travels.
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Mislabeling time zones that we get from some apps, which is currently an issue in iOS.
There’s also a Offset Time tool in the uploader, which has been there for a while now. That should help if you forgot to update your camera’s clock after a time change.
If you find any bugs, please start a topic in #bug-reports.