vacation ad infinitum

Yes clearly expecting the time limits to be observed by my opponents means i'm prioritising this debate above all things in life.

There seems to be some basic denial of the facts at a few points in this discussion.

First off, time controls are inclusive of vacation time.  Please read that again.  If the setting for a given game is 24 hours per move, then you get 24 hours before your vacation time starts diminishing.  It does not mean, simply, that you get 24 hours to move (or die).  It means you have 24 hours + your remaining vacation time to move. 

If you don't like that, your quarrel is with the implementation of vacation on this site - not with selected opponents you deem 'abusers' because... I don't know, actually... In several dozen threads like this, I've never seen anyone convincingly explain how their life's fortunes have been diminished by having to wait for someone to move in a correspondence chess game...  Whatever.

Maybe more people would be happier if vacation time were per game (and configurable) and not per annum (based on membership), as I've seen elsewhere.  Again, that would be something to take up with the admins.

Secondly, "vacation" is a metaphor, people.  And you can't tell me what to use it for.  Personally, if I'm taking some (real-life) vacation days, I'm totally 'on the job' in the world of chess.com.  Alternatively, if my (real) job is furnishing an abundance of craziness, well, I tend to slip into 'vacation' here in chessland.  I don't have to be away from my computer for an extended period of time either.  It's my allotment of days, and I'll use it however I like.  I might even log in to chess.com while on vacation and read a forum thread or two and then log back off without ever taking myself off vacation. 

(Having said all that, I don't think I've ever been on vacation for longer than two consecutive days or so in the year I've been here, but that's beside the point.)

As for 'auto'-enabling vacation, I would sooner argue that the feature should be free for all members than that it should be removed.  It's convenient.  If I've got vacation left and I haven't explicitly resigned then it should kick in.

Peace out.

 No, I'm not.  I'm saying that if people are going to complain about me saying there is a slight chance I will use auto-vacation for a few hours, then I won't use auto vacation at all.  Rather than play 2-3 moves every day (when my opponents are equally active) and risk 'abusing' timeout protection, I will simply not play a move until my laptop is fixed.  Surely you can't claim that that's also abusing the system...

How about if vacation is made selective? Then If your opponent is abusing vacation, you should give him a taste of his own medicine without affecting your other games.

Time controls are actually not intended to be supplemented with vacation time.  Vacation time is intended for extended periods away from the site, not for the short term supplementing of move time.  I agree the way it is implemented is an open invitation to abuse by supplementing each move, which is what I am arguing against.  I am in favour of the site enforcing its own clearly stated guidelines on vacation use.

Odd, you've taken one small part of the post and asked something already addressed directly in one of the parts you cut.

I'll reiterate.  You've now amended your initial explicit statement "Oh, and if anyone I am currently playing against reads this: If my vacation automatically kicks in against you, and you ask me to resign the game, I will." to "i'll go on vacation for weeks".  My point is simple, and i've repeated it many times: what should occur if you are around but unable to meet your move committments is you should lose the game on time.  Use up a couple of weeks of vacation time instead if a few rating points mean that much to you, at least then it's not something you can do very often.

Fortunately, what it all boils down to is that Beelzebub is not going to get his way. He's not interested in hearing other arguments, only in assuming we should agree with his.

I will continue to use my vacation time as it is legal to do, and so will everyone else that annoys the crap out of you.

So far you've accused me of prioritising this issue over the rest of my life and being uninterested in the arguments I have been patiently responding to.  You don't seem to have quite grasped either the form or purpose of a discussion.

Well, I guess that's what I'm having trouble with here.  And who knows, my concept of 'vacation' as it's called here may be too heavily coloured by similar features at other chess sites.

For instance, before I joined here I played on another site (let's call it stonecoldqueen.com) that allowed for the definition of A. days per move and B. time-bank days for each individual game.  If time was lost on the time-bank, you didn't get it back.  (You could think of this as a greatly extended game-time-plus-simple-delay-per-move setting on a chess clock.)  A typical game would be three days per move and seven days in the time-bank.  (One good thing about it was that I don't ever remember anyone talking about abuse - although I guess you could still make your opponent wait ten days to see a win from that mate-in-one.)  The time-bank could also be set to zero.

Anyway, it's not entirely clear what the FAQ means by an "extended period" of time away from the site. If I put too much weight on those words, it almost sounds like I'm a chronic abuser of the system precisely because I've never delayed my move for more than a day or two.  I'm not sure I can buy that.  (But hey, maybe I'm the one in denial.)

In any case, I'm much happier to end a lost game quickly, get it off my list and into my database for analysis, than to be a jerk and waste the only vacation days I'm going to get all year making my opponent wait for the inevitable point.

You're right. I have no idea what's going on. You win.

You're so right about this that no one can come up with any counter-arguements. I was desperate.

When grownups disagree, one presents an argument, the other presents an argument.  Now, and this is the part where you get lost so concentrate, sometimes neither side convinces the other, and they continue discussing it.  This does not mean there are no counterarguments, and in fact actually implies the exact opposite.

You must remember, people from around the world play here. What if a tsunami hits your nation, a hurricane destroys your house or an ice storm takes out your power for three weeks (This actually happened to me during the holidays.) then auto-vacation saves you.

Believe me, when something bad happens to you unexpectantly, you dont want to have to think about how you will make your next move on Chess.com.

To all fo those who dont like vacation, I recomend getting together and making a group where you all burn up all of your vacation time so that you have 0 days before joining, then you will know where to find no-vacation opponents.

Has anyone else looked at the antagonist of this discussion? His name?  Perhaps he's just trying to annoy all of us, because he's certainly doing so to me.

Yep. I'm done watching this one go in circles.