If I double-click the Time on my Startup bar, I can reset what time zone I want to use to display the current time.

WinXP offers about ~66 (or maybe it was 68, it being hard to count quickly on a window shade) separate time zones I can choose from. For those who are in "odd places" I believe the report I saw a while back indicated that "patches" are available for download from Microsoft for an additional hundred or so places that are "somewhat deviant." There are also instructions available for programmers who don't like any of those choices and wish to "roll their own."

The original question, though, was not how to know what time it is, but to have the time of individual posts shown in "user time."

I can't see any particular value in this, as the only thing that really matters much is whether it's a current thread, or a several-year-old one that's been refreshed by another spam post; and even that isn't usually very significant here.

If nobody has posted, you're be next. If the one who posted ahead of you isn't around, someone else likely will respond unless you post a "thread killer" and everyone goes home. (But I'd never do that.)

It also appears that the question could be a "scavenger hunt" thing, as I've found the identically stated question asked on at least a half dozen other sites - blogs and/or chats.

Or it could just be that a very few people all thought of the same curiosity at about the same time.

Indicating post times in different time zones could only cause confusion, as frequently we refer each other to posts by the date/time of the post, within a thread. If we each see different times, the reference value of the timestamp is non-existent, and it's quite useful as it is.

John