Time zones of observation and upload

[gcwarbler]

I just did a double-take on an observation which seemed to have been uploaded about 42 minutes before it was observed. Then I realized that the observation time was in EDT (correct for the location of the sighting) but the upload time is displayed in CDT (my home time zone). See the attached screen capture.

Is this time zone representation functioning the way iNat intended? It’s just slightly confusing on occasion. There’s a vast array of time zone topics on the forum* but I can’t seem to find an explanation of this little detail.
(* including this bug report: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/observation-time-in-the-future-relative-to-upload-time/16631)

[ephofmann]

I have occasionally noticed errors in time of upload when my camera’s time was incorrectly set, especially around Daylight Savings in the US (leading to observations being uploaded “before” they happened). Not directly related to a time-zone issue, but that could also be playing into it.

[pisum]

on the website’s observation detail page, the observation date is displayed in the time zone recorded by the observer while the submit date is displayed in the default time zone for the viewer (your time zone is CDT).

i’m not sure exactly why it’s done this way. maybe it’s that submit date is standardized because it’s assigned by the system while observed date is not always standardized because it’s user defined.