Is Auto-vacation for paid users unfair?

So all premium members automatically go on "vacation" when they are at risk of losing on time.  Is this unfair?  Doesn't that unfairly lessen responsibility burden on premium members?

IMO yes, auto vacation is a ridiculous idea to begin with, that they only give it to certain users is but icing on the ludicrous cake

It is fair unless they are abusing the service they are paying for. I've never even encountered this as a problem because most premium members are serious about chess and make moves regularly. This is an emergency service that they are paying for. Think of it like roadside assistance. You wouldn't want to use it, but it's there if you need it. It's a perk that you pay for, and totally worth it if you are one of those people in multiple tournaments with like 50 games going on at once. This way their rating doesnt plummet if the have a genuine emergency or just want to go on vacation for awhile.

Yes, you've perfectly described the usefulness of vacations.  The point is that they're automatic vacations.  Meaning it's impossible to lose on time.  Why even have a time control?  It's silly.

The point of the time control is to keep the non-paying paens in line! 

Auto vacation is literally having two sets of rules:

1.  Non-premium member ignores the game and times out: he loses

2.  Premium member ignores the game and times out: its ok.

Please discuss.

It's not an issue of the haves and the have nots, it's simply a fundamentally incorrect feature... regardless of who can use it and who can't.

Apparently the site doesn't take its players/its games very seriously, so it has no problem offering this perk which undermines the concept of a time limit.  Why they offer something like this and not something like takebacks is odd to me.  In the end I suppose it was a judgement call and that's where the line was drawn.

so you pay for something and your not supposed to have any benefits?

I do think that it would be nice to have a feature/settting that would allow a max number of vacation days but I like the feature. I am going on vacation this summer and not sure if i can make it to a computer every three days. With games lasting months predicting this sort of problem can be an issue. 

Membership isnt that expensive and there are other great benefits so why not sign up? There is no such thing as a free lunch. The paying members support the free aspects of this site (advertisments help but they arent definite income)

I guess the internet doesn't have to be fair. Who would've guessed?

so are you saying that people who dont have internet because they dont pay for it and have to visit a public access point that limit their access is unfair?

free is never really free! someone had to pay for it. 

This was not part of my argument.  Or, if I take it as a roundabout way of you pointing out the site costs money and benefits indirectly fund the site, so this specific benefit is important to site funding, then I disagree.  This benefit is not a pillar of the benefit package, and whatever value it does bring to that package does not make up for the undermining of the time limit.

I don't quite follow, because it seems you've already predicted it.  Regular vacation allows you to leave and come back as computer access is available.

yes yes yes

ok again, I say want to play a game... CC chess takes Months for some games to play. With this length of time it is totally unreasonable to expect someone to have 100% access during this time because life continues on . We take vacations, we get involved in things etc.... its NOT the same as mail chess where you could find a mailbox anywhere in the world. When you play a game you understand fully that playing someone could end up with some vacation time being used.

I also agree there should be some maximum time setting so players could limit those who abuse it to annoy players. this would be a nice work around especially for tournaments where vacation days can lead to cumulative delays that hurt multiple people

Oh, if you're talking about vacation time I completely agree.  Vacation time is useful.

The OP / I was arguing about the automatic vacations where it's impossible to lose on time as long as you have vacation days remaining.  When I became a paying member on my other account, I had an unreasonable amount of vacation days stored up... something like 60 or 90 days making impossible for me to lose on time.

The original post and the thread was about the "Auto vacation" feature, not vacation time in general.  In no way am I saying that members should not use vacation time.  I was just talking about the feature that automatically switches on vacation for premium members, even when the member neglects to activate vacation mode himself.

sure why not? its a very small advantage over all. its not a massive game changer but certainly is a nice to know I have as a backup.

Do non-paying members get any vaca time or is that only for paying members?

@ Tony: Yeah, but its a backup that non premium members dont have. 

@ Chesspool: Yes, but premium members get a little more vacation time accrued, and can have 90 days vacation as opposed to 30 for basic members.

My point is that it doesn't make sense to agree to a time control when there is no penalty for overstepping the time control.

I'm pretty sure we get vacation.  Just not as much.

@johnmusacha Thanks. Heading to an OTB tournament next month and will probably need to use 4-5 days.