RSS timestamps are *always* in UTC time. This is part of the RSS specification. They will not match your local time.
That cannot be right as the feeds are not being picked up by readers because they say they will not be posted for 5 hours in the future. There has got to be a way just like in the wordpress admin tool to tell the RSS it is -5 hours, isn’t there?
No, there is no such setting. The RSS timestamps are UTC/GMT. This is not alterable.
Check your feed to see if the time displayed corresponds with the UTC time that the post was made. If it’s wrong somehow, then probably your server has the wrong time set on it or something.
Also, when I look at your site, I can’t seem to load your real feed, I keep getting redirected to feedburner. If you’re using some kind of special plugin or alteration to go through feedburner instead, then all bets are off.
The time does correspond with the UTC time, but in WordPress options you can add -5 hours in it so the time is posted to the correct time. So what you are telling me is that every time I launch a post, I am going to have to wait for 5 hours for the feeds to pick it up?
No… Okay.. err.. Every post is posted at one specific moment. This is recorded in the database as the post_time_gmt time, and it’s the time the post was made. Local time is also recorded, and it’s basically that time plus whatever your adjustment is.
Now, RSS feeds display the GMT/UTC time. This isn’t “5 hours later”, it’s “now”. The time is correct, because it’s a UTC time, not a local one. If your feedreader is displaying it late, then the feedreader is broken.
In your case, you’re going through feedburner, which completely changes the dynamic and I have no idea what feedburner does. I cannot see your real feed because it’s sending me to feedburner instead. So I cannot tell you what’s wrong. Maybe you have a setting wrong in feedburner, I don’t know. I suggest disabling whatever you’re doing to force it through feedburner and use a normal direct feed instead. Might fix your problem.
I appreciate your help Otto, I just did that and the feed time was fixed. This is an issue with the feedburner plugin or feedburner itself. I just use feedburner because I like to see metrics on how many RSS subscribers I have which WordPress does not offer. Thanks again Otto, your help is appreciated.
I use feedburner on 3 differing sites and haven’t experienced this problem. Maybe check your feedburner settings?
