Something I've recently encountered since the advent of premium memberships and timeout protection is the repeated fallback on this feature by some users. I have two games going on now where my opponent has slipped into vacation mode three times and has yet to actually make a move (it's a tournament game, otherwise I'd simply walk away).
I'd like to suggest that a new statistic analogous to the Timeout % statistic be provided so that users can get a picture of when a prospective opponent abuses this feature: Average Timout Protection Uses per Game.
It would basically work like this: If I have played three games and fallen back on my timout protection twice -- the first time with only two games started, the third time with all three going, my Average Timout Protection Uses per Game would be 1.67 (Five instances where a game went into vacation mode because of it, and I've played three games, so 5/3 = 1.67).
It would be great if this were displayed on a users profile right beside their Timeout % and could be used in the same way as Timeout % to set a standard for tournaments, seeks etc.
Thoughts?
OK, wow. I just checked in on my Timeout Protection offender (who's incidentally online right now) and he has 87 games on the go!
No wonder I can't get him to make a move.
Nor would I, and I have trouble coming out of one.
The only thing I think is a tad unfair is that premium members can effectively go on vacation with moves to make in their games. Non paying can manually set up vacation but they have to make moves in all their games first. I can't say I get too wound up about it. I notice one or two people that were very vociferous about not having vacation in tournaments and some of them are now on vacation during a touney :-) If I go on vaction I make up for it because I generally play relatively fast the rest of the time, in that I log on nearly every day. I have played people who only move once every three days if that's the limit and they, even w/o taking vacation, slow everything up. Can't complain because that's the time limit we agreed. I see quite a few TD's are specifying a maximum time per move for entrants, I think this is the way to go.
On a similar hackneyed theme also I've had opponents who once they get into difficulties slow down to the max each and every move, whereas they are online more often and are starting many (30/40+) other games whilst our games is going on. I try to grin and bear it consoling myself I have a win and rating points "in the bank". Personally I think the slow players hold things up more than vacation time. I agree with The Grobe though it would be a useful statistic to know.
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