A while ago, (at least 2 months ago when I first joined the site), on 2 separate occasions, I was busy for a weekend (this was unplanned, so I didn't go on vacation) and lost 4-5 games on time. As a result, I am now not able to play tournaments until 

I have got my timeout ratio below 10%. This means that I have to play and 

complete 30 games before I can join another tournament...

 

I believe that this is a bit extreme, as this will take at least a month 

more for me to finish the 30 games.

 

Maybe a system where to timeout ratio only takes into 

account a 2 month period would be better. 

 

(Note: for eric/jay or whoever maintains the site. I use Opera which sometimes inserts non-breaking spaces instead of spaces in the rich text editor, so I have to manually add line breaks. Is it possible to replace the   with spacess when the post is submitted?)

i'm sorry to hear about your timeouts. that stinks. we have the min timeout because people who join tournaments expect to play their games and it isn't fun playing against someone who times out. (btw, premium members have auto-vacation protection...).

i don't know what else to say, but it's hard to make exceptions to this rule. but there will be tournaments starting all of the time. you will be able to get back in soon. 

as for the text editor.... it is called TinyMCE and it has a tougher time with opera. we'll try and get it updated some day soon!

oh well, thanks for the reply

yep,I got the same timeout problem,thats why Im only accepting challenges for 7 days per move or more

I have exactly the same problem, and I think that I have a way of fixing this.

I shall explain. We should make it so that it the organisers of the tournament get to choose on the maximum timeout ratio (perhaps even making a tournament with a minimum timeout ratio!!!). That way everyone should get a go in the tournaments, and you could also do a poll to see whether people really want what you have instituted.

I emphatically agree. It's been a whole month since then, and I have only completed 10 more games. At this rate, it will be either 2 more months before I get to play tournaments, or I become a Chess.com greeter and wait for them to all time out.

 

*sigh* 

sb3700 wrote:

I emphatically agree. It's been a whole month since then, and I have only completed 10 more games. At this rate, it will be either 2 more months before I get to play tournaments, or I become a Chess.com greeter and wait for them to all time out.

 

*sigh* 

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 Greeter games are unrated. Unrated games and do not affect stats.

They still affect your number of wins/losses and total games, as well as your win ratios. I was quite surprised to see my win ratio plummet when I resigned a couple of greeter games in which clearly nothing was happening.

I'd like to add my lamentations to the 10% rule with tournaments as well.  I just moved and there was a delay in my internet being set up.  Thus, I lost 16 games due to time that I had every intention to play but didn't have the chance to even go on vacation.  i've gotta play over 100 more games to be able to play in another tournament. 

fyi everyone, i have now finally managed to play the required 30 games - it took a whole 2 months

Well, 50 games down... only 110 to go!