Generate timestamp indicators for Discord chat messages

If you are asking about the website, simply visit https://hammertime.cyou in your favourite browser, select a date and time by using the input boxes, and optionally change the time zone (e.g. if you want to get a timestamp for an event in a specific location). By default it will select your own timezone, so you most likely do not need to change this. As soon as you change any of the fields the examples in the table below will update with your selection, simply copy the text from the first column either by clicking the clipboard icon or by manually selecting and copying the code next to the button. This code can be pasted into Discord chat messages and your profile "About Me" section and it will appear the same way as you see on the site.

If you are asking about the bot, simply type / into the Discord message input and look for the slash commands under the HammerTime section. If your server does not already have this bot, you can add it using the following link (if you have administrative permissions): https://hammertime.cyou/add-bot
The slash command should automatically appear in your server afterwards, and if your integration permissions are set up correctly users will be able to use them.
After running a command you will get a list of codes and a preview next to each of them. This code can be pasted into Discord chat messages and your profile "About Me" section and it will appear the same way.

In the event that the slash commands do not show up and you have a large number of integrations already (40+) you may also have hit a limit on the number of integrations you can have in your server, in which case you will need to delete one and re-add the bot for the commands to appear. Otherwise, please ping me in #help-and-suggestions to restart the bot, that usually fixes it.

No, the display of the timestamp syntax is entirely left up to Discord (documented here), what HammerTime does is simply provide a convenient way for you to get the code needed to use these pre-existing built-in formats. In simple terms this means I cannot help you:

• change how the timestamp looks in any way, shape, or form
• make it display a specific format regardless of client language settings
• add additional information, like a timezone
• change what is in the tooltip or hide it entirely

If you would like additional formatting options, please send a feature request to Discord.

Open your Discord settings, then go to Language & Time, and choose your preferred time format.
This setting used to be tied to the app language, but now you can change it independently to either follow the selected language or use a fixed 12/24-hour clock.

You are most likely using a 3rd-party client modification called BetterDiscord, which has a plugin called SendTimestamps. Disabling this plugin should allow you to send timestamps correctly. Also, this is a friendly reminder that these modifications are against Discord ToS and by asking this you are outing yourself as someone using such modifications.

This cannot be done automatically as it would require the privileged intents from Discord that enables reading all message contents, which requires separate justification (e.g. moderation purposes) to have access to. Discord ToS specifically disallows using this intent for the purposes of executing automated commands, and I do not intend to apply for more permissions than necessary.
If you want to extract Discord-formatted timestamps from an exising message, like this one: <t:1697994570:R> you can right-click any message and use the Apps > Extract Timestamps context menu command provided by @HammerTime which will find timestamps in the message you right-clicked. Feel free to try it on this message.

On the site I have a lot more information to work with, e.g. I can get the system timezone so you don't have to specify it manually. Discord does not store nor send user timezone data when users execute slash commands, so in order to not have to specify this each time you need to change your user settings for @HammerTime by either
1. using the /settings command to view your settings page directly, or
2. by logging in on the https://hammertime.cyou website manually.
Simply select your preferred timezone and it will be used as the default any time you do not specify one.

Due to the "limitations" of the timestamp syntax it's only possible to create a timestamp for a specific point in time by design. "5pm Friday" has a lot of implications, for example in case the next Friday is in a different timezone due to daylight savings (DST). It's difficult to reliably translate a recurring point in time like that without avoiding edge cases, but if you need this functionality either manually update the timestamp each week to the next occasion, create a bot that does this for you. This will not be part of the HammerTime bot.

Due to the limitation mentioned above, this is also not possible. However, there is a common workaround used by many to indicate your time offset to others. This can be done by either:

• using the "short time" format to generate a timestamp using the website or
• the /at command of the @HammerTime bot, setting the hours, minutes, and seconds to 0

This will create a timestamp that points to the midnight of the specific day you did this process on.

Afterwards you can copy the "short time" syntax (the one that looks like <t:123456789:t>) and paste it into your bio (or any message) with some additional text around it, for example:

My midnight is your <t:1731366000:t>

To people in a different timezone this will display when midnight for you is in their own time.

Note that this method has an important caveat: because timestamps indicate a specific point in time, the time displayed will never change based on your current timezone (e.g. daylight savings, traveling, etc.). You will need to re-generate the timestamp with a date that is matching your current timezone manually.

The bot responses are always displayed only to you by default, but you can use the ephemeral option with a True value to make the response display only for you, or False to make it visible for everyone, on a per-command basis. This default can be overridden by changing your user settings for @HammerTime by either
1. using the /settings command to view your settings page directly, or
2. by logging in on the https://hammertime.cyou website manually.
This will automatically apply to any @HammerTime command ran by your Discord account.

Many timezones have a "standard" and a "daylight" variant, and which is observed at any given time in a region can change. For example, if you are generating a timezone in EST (Eastern Standard Time) while EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) is actually what's observed by your region, the time will be off by an hour compared to using the timezone that is currently being used. The simplest way to get the correct timestamp is to make sure you are using the correct time zone for your region and the time of year. Some timezones have combined variants accessible on the site, e.g. EST5EDT which will use the correct offset based on what is currently observed, but not all timezones have such a variant.

Generally it is recommended to use the "named" timezones that correspond to a continent and the name of a major city, e.g. America/New_York as these will always give you the correct time for that region regardless of daylight-savings.

Also, make sure your system clock is properly set. If your location recently switched to/from daylight-savings or you travelled recently with a laptop/tablet make sure the device's time is accurate for your current location, as the local machine time is the basis for all calculations on the website. The bot is not affected by your local time as those timestamps are calculated on the server side.

Previous title: Can I create a timer that shows the time in a specific format/timezone (real or fictional) in the channel list?

The short answer is yes, the long answer is you probably shouldn't.

This is usually done by using a voice channel to show the desired text, because - unlike text channels - they can contain spaces. Channel names are used across Discord in many places e.g. searching, channel mentions and the user interface. By constantly updating the name of a channel you are creating unnecessary burden on Discord's backend, bots connected to your server, and your users' devices who constantly have to react to these changes. In addition, there is rate limiting in place on Discord's API to prevent abuse: https://discord.com/developers/docs/topics/rate-limits

Because of this, it's not possible to do this in good conscience, and HammerTime or any of my other projects will never support this in the future. If you choose to develop a bot of your own that does, always respect rate limits and do not use self-bots (running bots as a user account instead of a dedicated bot account) if you don't want to risk losing your access to Discord. Please do not ask about how to set up a bot like this in this server.

The timestamp syntax generated by HammerTime does not work in channel names. The reason why this syntax is not considered abusive is because the time is calculated locally (on your device) and takes minimal resources to display, and it only updates when it's visible to you, no background processing is needed to show these times to you locally. By its nature the process that calculates these timestamps is only applied in specific places, for example:

• text-based messages (including forum posts)
• "About me" sections on user profiles
• channel topics

and it is not applied in places like user display names, server names or channel names, so they cannot be used there.

This server has a very specific purpose, which is to serve as a place for announcements, coordination and support for a tool. It is not meant to be yet another general-purpose community that invites activities, topics and discussions to happen within the server itself. If you're here your primary goal should be:

• to help the project in some way by providing feedback (including reporting bugs), suggestions, and contributing translations, or
• to keep up-to-date with the latest developments around the project, typically as a result of the aforementioned feedback, or
• some combination of the above

If there is nothing new to add to the tool, no issues to report, and everything is running smoothly, it is normal for a server like this to be "dead". This is expected and should nto be a cause for concern. If you are looking to socialize, it's best to look for other servers whose primary focus is building and fostering communities.

Trying to connect with people is easiest through shared interests, and while you might argue being a user of this tool could qualify as one such shared interest, this server really is not the best place to build connections. By its very nature, the rule of large numbers never sleeps, and despite our rigorous AutoMod setup combined with the volunteer moderators' best-effort attempts to keep the server free of spam and scam, some accounts can and will slip through the cracks. Always be on guard if you receive a random friend request that you weren't expecting from an account you only have very few servers in common with, and avoid trusting people too easily until you can verify their intentions.

When something changes in the application it's typically with good reason, you just might not be aware of it. People constantly report issues and provide feedback regarding how different parts of the project should work, and there will always be some group of people unhappy with any kind of change. My personal philosophy is to avoid breaking things without good reason, and chances are if something was changed and it's not marked as "experimental" or "beta" it's here to stay. Questions or concerns for the reasons regarding any change is always welcome in #help-and-suggestions, a constructive dialogue about alternative options can't hurt.

I strongly encourage providing constructive feedback; it should be our shared goal that if there are issues they can be fixed as soon as possible, but me being the sole developer of this project means that I can't always think of every possible scenario when things might break or behave unexpectedly. Unlike major companies I don't have the time or resources for dedicated testers and in many cases it would even be an overkill. For better or for worse, users are the testers to a certain extent. Your feedback is important to make sure that if something is not working as it should, or you feel things could improve, it can be heard and considered. You may also look at it as this being a chance to give back to the userbase at large for a tool that is developed in my spare time and made accessible to as many people as possible at no cost to you.

You should always report issues you encounter in the #help-and-suggestions channel, and if you can provide steps to reproduce the issue, screenshots, or any other relevant information that can also be very helpful. Please avoid tagging moderators or the developer, rest assured the channel is actively monitored and your feedback will be addressed as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if all else fails, you can always try using the old version of the website, available at https://old.hammertime.cyou, which is still functional and will continue to be available for the foreseeable future.