No doubt this situation has got people's backs up and this subject has had it's fair share of rants, buuut... I'm curious to know if chess.com mods send emails/messages to users who seemingly let the clock run down instead of resigning when their luck is down in the game? Emails/messages in the vein of 'you have now had x number of violation warnings and you are in serious jeopardy of us closing your account if this continues' was my kinda thinking.

Fair enough that there are genuine disconnections or people suddenly leaving the game due to a distraction like the phone ringing or a knock at the door. But when it's clear that there is a recurrent pattern of a particular user "violating" I wonder how many "violations" it takes before the mods intervene...

good question!  i hope someone picks up on this

Thank you, so do I!

Mods don't have to intervene, everything is done automatic :) The system automatically detects players who abort/stall/disconnect habitually and place appropriate restrictions on their accounts.

just wondering, what are appropriate restrictions? you can tell the real bad apples when their whole page history has ppl posting the FPL violation sentence lol

Good question roder_toro. I often see the same thing and can't help thinking that the users in question aren't really being deterred by whatever restrictions are being given.

Markyf said :

... I'm curious to know if chess.com mods send emails/messages to users who seemingly let the clock run down instead of resigning when their luck is down in the game? ....

I don't see any reason to resign when your position is bad.You probably made a mistake somewhere but there is always the possibility that your opponent will make a mistake when playing on.

I think it is despicable though to let the clock run without playing any move at all.It is not only childish and unsportive , but it deprives your opponent from playing a new game.

What automated program can deside whether or not a game is hopeless for that player ?

The resign option is there to be selected by the player if they choose to use it. Some players use it, some, like you say decide to continue playing until whichever conclusion is reached in the game. As far as I'm aware there is no automated program that decides the conclusion of the game, whatever position the player is in. 

One of the comments made earlier by a member or staff on this site was referring to how the system on this site automatically detects players who breach the fair play policy and the actions taken.

I agree with your comment regarding those who let the clock run out without making any move. In that circumstance I would much rather they use the resign option.

Yes, but it's clear they're abusing the system because the little red message, "xxx has disconnected, they have 2 minutes to reconnect...", but they don't reconnect because they've stormed off in a tantrum leaving you to twiddle your thumbs waiting for the clock to run down. I think it's terrible when you go to someone's page, and other users have posted exactly the same note on the person's profile. Clearly these people are serial abusers and their accounts should be suspended. At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any deterrent.

I agree with your comment e-check. From my experience of playing live chess - since first posting this topic - things don't seem to have changed. Still plenty of "serial abusers"!

almost as bad as one game runners after the opponent resigns early...eh, marky?

Even worse are those who sign up for longer games (15|10 is my current favourite), get white, and then sit there not making a move, apparently gambling that you're out of aborts and just resign instead, winning them points for nothing.

Out of the 4 games I have attempted to play in the lower 1000s bracket of 15|10 today, 3 have had my opponent doing nothing. In one case I aborted, and in the other two they aborted after 10ish minutes had gone by.

Like, what's the point, geeze.

EDIT: It's now 4 of 5 games today. Is there no way to report this abuse?

To stenb... Apparently repeat 'offenders' get picked up automatically by the "system". What I'm not sure of is how many times the situation occurs before it's picked up and what process follows. A member of chess.com's staff responded to this topic by saying that appropriate restrictions were put in place. Whether this works as a sufficient deterrent for the corresponding members is another question. The situation you brought up is very frustrating and is partly what puts me off from opting for any game longer than 3 minutes on live chess.

I get about the same numbers on 10 minute games, markyf. For all the games where I get a complete won position:

1. lets the clock run down or disconnects
2. starts playing give away chess
3. plays until the bitter end
4. resigns like a gentleman.

Numbers 1 upto 3 are blocked straight away. Number 4 gets a rematch. But I still have the feeling chess.com is way too lenient to misbehaviour. This can all be automatically checked and improves enjoying this for the rest excellent interface.

After a while I give up because the number of misbehaving people is simply endless.

fast moving one and doner got unlucky in that the computer matched us up again...it's not "unorthodox", it's garbage.

markyf You are a [removed; accusations not allowed in public  -- MOD]

hey now

I resign too easily! If I respect who I'm playing. Otherwise, I wait for mistakes.