Best Time For UK AskMe?

May 20, 2006 9:46 PM

When is the best time for a UK mefite to post in Askme for a quick response. I'd assume this would involve establishing the area/timezone the majority of me-fites are in and when they logon / read and respond. Where are you and when do all y'all "check in" or do your posting?

(And should this be an Askme question?!)
posted by brautigan to MetaFilter-related at 9:46 PM (10 comments total)

Best time is between 12-8 PM EST. Absolute best time is probably 4-6 PM EST, but someone here probably keeps stats about the hourly hits this site receives.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 9:57 PM on May 20, 2006

EST is East coast time right? (Derail: Would this explain the left leanings of Mefi ie majority being New Yorkers and other coastal cities)?? So best times would be 7am-3pm and, more specifically, 11am-1pm GMT?
posted by brautigan at 10:12 PM on May 20, 2006

It looks like you did 5 hours behind instead of 5 hours ahead. 12 PM EST should be 5 PM GMT, 8 PM should be 1 AM, and the best interval should be 9 PM - 11 PM GMT.

There's a Google Maps hack somewhere that plots the geographical distribution of Metafilter users. And I think waxy.org has a bunch of site stats, though I don't know he has what you want.
posted by epugachev at 12:01 AM on May 21, 2006

Google earth file for mefi members
posted by Rhomboid at 12:22 AM on May 21, 2006

I always find that if you post something just before going to bed, most of the US is awake and looking at it by the time you wake up the next morning, so you're likely to get an answer.
posted by greycap at 2:54 AM on May 21, 2006

I could be wrong here, but if the game clock in EVE is any indication - during the summer months EST is -4 from GMT due to daylight savings time rather than the normal -5.
posted by Ryvar at 3:26 AM on May 21, 2006

Yes, Ryvar, but we have "summer time" in Europe as well.
posted by grouse at 9:45 AM on May 21, 2006

This ought to answer any time-related questions.

Ask MeFi seems to be most active in the evening -- maybe 6-8 PM EST -- but that's just based on my personal estimation. I guess people go on after work.

Really, though, there are so many people here that it's probably worth it to just ask whenever you need to. If the site is less populated when you ask, there will be fewer questions to push yours down anyway.
posted by danb at 12:45 PM on May 21, 2006

5pm London time is (almost always) 12pm NYC is 9am SF/LA. Contrariwise, if you're on the left coast and asking a UK-related question, it's probably best not to do it in the evening your time.
posted by holgate at 5:20 AM on May 22, 2006

For the record, I once posted a question about my car at 1:30 in the morning (EST so, 6:30 GMT) that generated an excellent response in less then 15 minutes. There was even the beginning of a full-fledged converstation before 8AM EST.

Which is to say, if you have a real emergency you can probably post it almost anytime and get a good number of responses.
posted by oddman at 10:44 AM on May 22, 2006