One of my games is against someone who is supposed to be on vacation but they are playyng their no-vacation games only. Leaving all their vacation games hanging. Surely once someone signs on to chess.com their clock should start running on all their games?

Yes, that is correct. For this person to play moves in some of their games they must remove themselves from vacation and then the time should be running down in all of the games. Also you can only go back on vacation once you have played ALL the moves in your games so it is your opponent in every game. So it should not be possible for your opponent to avoid your game using the vacation feature.

ok, thanks for that. Upon looking again I think that they just signed on to chess.com had a look and then went again.

This time they did move in one of their no vacation games while they have 50+ games on vacation. Who do I ask to check this out?

Maybe they do not have to remove themselves from vacation to carry on playing their no vacation games. Because they appear to be playing their no vacation games and live chess only.

A player can play Live Chess games while on vacation but to continue with their Online Chess games they must remove themselves from vacation and then cannot return to vacation status until they have played all the moves where it is their turn in their games. This prevents a player from using the vacation feature for abuse.

I just watched as he moved in one of his no vacation games. The status of his 60+ vacation games did not change.  Live chess I understand.

I think you're just wrong there -- I have games in which it is my move, and I can turn on vacation just fine. It even goes on automatically when time is in danger of running out on one of them. Perhaps it's a premium member only feature.

Anyway, the question is about non-vacation games (games in non-vacation tournaments). Of course people can still move in them even though they have vacation turned on -- it'd be a bit unfair if vacation didn't work for those games (so the clock was running) but they were also unable to make a move!

Non-vacation games just act as if the whole idea of vacation doesn't exist.

And you can login and do stuff just fine when you're on vacation, you just can't make a move in vacation games until you turn vacation back off. This is intended.

I for one only make my moves when I'm at home (where I have my game notes, books, a chess set, etc). In the coming few days I'll be extremely busy so I might go on vacation for a few days. That doesn't stop me from checking the forums during work :-)

Agreed. I have gone on vacation successfully while I have still had moves to make. It is a premium member feature. As a basic member you have to make all your moves before you can go on vacation.

Sounds fair to me..

Patzer24 I don't think it is always true that a player has to play all their moves before can go on vacation. I once played a premier member who went on vacation at least 4 times when it was his turn to move against me, and he had plenty of time on the clock each time. 

Premium members can go on vacation even if it is not their move, it is only free members who have to move in all their games before setting vacation status. However you can't be "on vacation" for some games or not others, so once you switch off vacation the clock runs in all games.  But you can make a move in one game then turn back on vacation in the others.

See policy about turning on vacation here. Auto-timeout protection is another issue.

"You must have played the moves in all your games before going on vacation (meaning it must be your opponent's move in all of your games to turn vacation on)."

Report bug before the forums are filled with vacation abuse complaints.

 Forget Live Chess, I understand that is a separate issue.

My point is that vacation is not relevant to non-vacation games. A player can come and go in chess.com leaving his vacation games waiting just playing his non-vacation games. I wonder if they can start new non-vacation tournaments without playing their vacation games.

But when you have auto time-out, why would you have a rule that says you have to move in all your games before you can turn on vacation?

After all, why ever turn on vacation manually. Instead of turning it on manually you can always save vacation time by waiting for the auto-vacation.

So I think it's not a bug that paying members can turn on vacation whenever they want, and it's just the support page that's wrong.

 And that sounds to me entirely like it's intended. After all, they're called "non-vacation games" -- vacation isn't relevant to them at all.

Life is not a bed of roses. This is the policy that Erik enforced, and we have to follow the rules.

Besides, you're a premium member, so I should be the one writing those stuff that you wrote.

This is a major weapon in the hands of a Stall Club member. A losing game would be ignored and safely put on vacation before the staller signed off.

If someone drops this bomb on you see here.

"Vacation abuse is when a player uses the vacation time to intentionally delay a game which is completely and hopelessly lost. Please only use vacation time in an honest matter when you are away from the site for an extended period of time. Chess.com has the right to adjudicate a game which we feel one of the players is using vacation time to intentionally delay a game when in a lost position. Abusing the vacation time may also result in a warning and/or account closure."

This was why the rule about playing in all games before going on vacation was brought in.

(Off-topic: You will note as implemented on the site auto-timeout protection is condoned vacation abuse in some percentage of games.)

Well, if you use it that way (go on vacation to delay the inevitable in a single game in which you're losing), then your vacation time will be down to 0 quite quickly.

Personally I find the existence of auto-timeout protection to be quite ridiculous. However, I am a paying member, and it is there, so I use it when I need to go on vacation. I would be stupid not to.

I thought I would expand on the cryptic "off-topic" comment.

Some players invoke auto-timeout protection regularly, even daily, they knowingly do this since they know it is happening and yet continue to add games. Since the site considers auto-timeout protection to be vacation and some opponents would be in an obviously winning position they should have a case for adjudication based on vacation abuse.