Vacation misuse?!

I've been a member of this website for just more than 6 months and in this time I've been playing nearly a 1000 games. There is 1 big problem I've been experiencing right through this whole time. There are players who has been consistently (I'm not sure this is the right word - English isn't my first language) on vacation time, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ONLINE! How can that happen? Vacation is for players when they are away from their computer when they aren't in a position to make a move. Do I understand that correctly or am I mistaken? Is there somebody who can make this clear for me?

Well different members have longer than others.

Non star should be 7days, etc.

I understand and share your frustrations. There has been much written on this topic. The answer is you can take a vacation from your games and still be on line. One reason given is that people use this as their home page and do not have the time or resources to make moves. It brings out heated debate but bottom line is chess.com has a very generous vacation allotment and allows people to take advantage of their quirky rules.

People keep talking about vacation, other things that keep them away from chess, life situations etc--all are legitimate but 90 days a year (for premium) is basically 1/4 of the year is a vacation. Bottom line is I agree with you 100% but others will strongly disagree.

I know there is some players who has been taken on so many games and simply can't play them all at once and then use their vacation time to avoid "a time out" call on their games. Is that legal then? Shouldn't they (the organizers or staff of chess.com) put a limit on the number of games one player can play? I think that will help?

They have put a limit, but I don't remember what it is, it is very high.

SJCorrie--again a good point--Chess.com does not want to limit the number of games. There was a person playing close to 3,000 or more at once. 90 Days even for premium is way too much--ICCF and others use 30 days per year.

The auto time out feature that allows you to go on "vacation" when your time runs low is a selling point for premium members but again is open for abuse.

Thank you for that answers. It help me a bit though I don't agree. There is one player who are playing in all the tournaments but are so slow and always on vacation. I also play in many tournaments and can't avoid this player. It's begin to lead to frustation because all the games are completed, only that player games are outstanding.

Well, agree or not, vacation is used when a player has it and wants to use it because it belongs to them.  You have vacation time to use in the same way if you desire.  It's just that people use it differently.  Why can't you be on vacation and be on line if you want.  There is no rule that says you can't be online and be on vacation.  Also, the site automatically puts you on vacation if your time is running low.  If you use all your vacation time and have none left when you do need it, then you will lose games on time.   The site gives you so much per year to use and it's yours to use it as you want.  It's just the way the rules work SJ. 

I understand where you are coming from! How many people go on holiday for 90days! It gets ridiculous...I can get 90 days vaccation time but I never use it!

I agree with corrie  and something needs to be done about vacation time some players in my opinion use vacation as a chess .com playing tactic

I would suggest there is a vacation period  during the year to be agreed by members vote 

no tournaments are played during this period if you are if you are away

at other times you would not be available to play tournaments any way

There is one thing left out : as a premium member my games automatically go on vacation when i neasrly timeout. so it seems like i'm almost always on vacation as i play 24 hours games alot, but i keep changing it to non vacation

Once your vacation time runs out you will time out on your chess games. 

exactly which makes it fair! Premium members pay for their advantages so they might live in happiness knowing their rating on chess.com is safe but their bank account digits will be steadily going down...(that includes mine!)

tournament began in june 1 day a move 4 moves made the rest vacation but comes on line QED

Invoking auto-timeout protection often is an indication of playing at too fast a time control as you confess and/or playing too many games.

It is within the policies of the site to invoke auto-timeout protection as many times as you need to, until all your vacation time has expired, but I think this is a practice that annoys many.

As a rule of thumb multiply your time/move average by eight then play at a time control higher than that.

Currently you have a time/move average of 10 hrs 5 min. This is lower than the true statistic if you invoke auto-timeout protection often.

605 mins * 8 = 4840

4840 / (24 *60) = 3.36 days

My suggestion (not an order) is that you play games with a time control of 5 days/move or higher. (After you have reduced you current game load so auto-timeout protection is no longer invoked.)

Advertising: Slow but fast, time control 14 days/move, group size 2, both games start immediately and no vacation. Estimated duration 4 to 8 years.

SJCorrie wrote: There are players who has been consistently on vacation time, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ONLINE! How can that happen?

 Sorry about how that looks, I had problems cutting the rest out...

But I put myself on vacation the day before I leave, so I can be online the day I leave. Just a reason not to freak out about stuff like this...

Thank you all for your contributions. Now we will understand each other much better.

You know, we're friends... The thing is that their vacation time has a limit.

Let's say that you have used your vacation now and you have 0 day left. So after 30 days you want to have another vacation because you are going somewhere that there is no way for you to look at your games and play them. Ok, your vacation last 60 days, then you will lose on time. Why? Because 60-30=30. After 30 days you finally can look at your games, and you look at them and you finally know that your vacation time is out... which cause you to lose the whole game.

So after all you shouldn't use your vacation time too often. So, SJCorrie you actually have an advantage... But you should be careful too.   Peachter