You're talking about auto timeout protection, right?
I don't get what you mean by your last paragraph.
But yeah, it's unfair.
Premium Disparity in Level Playing Field
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Well I am a premium member , if u mean me, but indefinite postponement of play is not my thing.
Of course it's not really indefinite -- your vacation time still counts down, and it's finite. It just only turns on when it's really needed, and it can turn on even when it's your move in some game.
Dec 2, 2009
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#6
A: This was all just done in another thread but...
B: The agreed time limits include vacation. It is part of the membership agreement. If you don't want vacations play in a no vacation game/tournament.
C: The player who does not pay for the benefits of membership thereby agrees to forego those benefits (while reserving the right to complain about those benefits)
D: If you think a premium player has to great an advantage don't play them.
E: The player who has regular internet access has a similar advantage over one whose internet access is more limited or intermittent. Players must be required to access Chess.com and their games at the same rate as their opponents else they have different reflections times. The player who gets an immediate notification email and can immediately log in to see the opponents move can utilize the full time period for reflection. The player limited to once a day logins is penalized and the person with a generous internet availability utilizes an unfair advantage.
F: Those players who pay for coaches have an unfair advantage
G: Those players who have databases....
H: Those players who have books...
I: Players who do not pay are distracted by ads which can cause fingerfehlers.
J: Players who do not pay are overcome by guilt adversely affecting thier play.
K: Players who pay, as those who do not pay, must abide by the mutually agreed time limit to move or lose the game by Time Out. Both players may use their vacation to pause their games. The player who does not pay must take the additional step of placing themselves on vacation. The player who pays must take the additional step of giving money to chess.com to pay for both players games.
Yes it has value to a very busy player who had too many moves at one time and he could get caught out while scratching his head in despair ! Said indefinite because "offender" can postpone for weeks on end as happened to me and its indefinite if he is going to move any time soon !
Dec 2, 2009
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#8
Vacation time is limited regardless of the money paid, no game is truly indefinite. Players may use their time as they see fit. That a CC game takes weeks or months is to be expected.
Well I think there is scope for reconsideration by organisers to limit no. of times escape clause benefit can be used, otherwise of course I suppose I could just resign in resignation that nothing else can be done !
I think it would be good if the minimum amount of vacation time used was 1 day.
To Carl MI- Like other contributors ( and incidentally Chess.com Staff whom I reported this anomaly to ) you seem to have left out the point that once Vacation Time is all used up the the Premium Holder can go on using Premium automatic time out protection "ad lib " and forever- there is nothing in current site rules to prevent him simply boring his opponent into resignation- the only present way out of the impasse; that is unless site staff make some amendment to the rule, and why not ?
That is of course meant to read " like some other contributors". My apologies!
How is it unfair? Everyone has the ability to use vacation time -- premium members just have access to a utility that pushes the button for them.
I do agree that a minimum of one day would be a good disincentive to overuse of this feature so long as it applied to vacation no matter how it was invoked.
xqsme wrote: once Vacation Time is all used up the the Premium Holder can go on using Premium automatic time out protection
This statement is simply false. Auto time-out protection uses vacation time and is not available if all vacation time is used up. So they cannot put the game off forever.
xqsme also wrote: I suppose I could just resign in resignation that nothing else can be done
Which is just silly. Why resign? Just wait until their vacation time is up.
If a player uses vacation time to pause a game, keep in mind that they can't move in any of their other games either. So in order to do this, they are forfeiting the ability to play any games on chess.com, something they pay money for. So it's not likely that a player is putting off a losing game for weeks on end just to annoy you.
Moreover, if they use all of their vacation time on your game, they won't have any left after that. It seems like too high a price to pay to try to bore you out of a game.
Correspondence time limits are also significantly different from live chess time limits in principle. Nobody actually thinks for days on end about a move. The idea that you can gain an advantage by having extra time to think about your move in vacation mode is rather silly, there is already ample time to consider your move. This is related to CarlMI's point (E) in post #7.
Dec 2, 2009
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#15
xqsme wrote:
To Carl MI- Like other contributors ( and incidentally Chess.com Staff whom I reported this anomaly to ) you seem to have left out the point that once Vacation Time is all used up the the Premium Holder can go on using Premium automatic time out protection "ad lib " and forever- there is nothing in current site rules to prevent him simply boring his opponent into resignation- the only present way out of the impasse; that is unless site staff make some amendment to the rule, and why not ?
chess.com's HELP file describes auto-timeout protection feature in this way:
AUTO-Timeout Protection
Premium Members get auto-timeout protection! If you are about to lose an Online (Turn-based) Chess game because of timeout you will automatically get put "on vacation". This can save you from silly losses and lost rating points due to timeouts!
The point that CarlMI is trying to bring to your attention is that, once Vacation Time runs out, auto-timeout protection does nothing. All it is doing, in any case, is switching on vacation mode - which any member can do manually.
It is certainly true that the different levels of membership confer differing amounts of vacation time. It is also true that some members abuse vacation by switching it on without a genuine reason. But these are separate issues from auto-timeout protection.
I've suggested a few times in the past that some metric that provided visibility into the frequency of a players use of this might be valuable if you really wanted to avoid players that frequently went on vacation like this, but right now you can use the average time per move as a rough proxy for it.
Dec 2, 2009
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#17
I've had premium members lose on time to me. There is no magic bullet to stop the clock. There are two, game and vacation, and one is always running.
Dec 2, 2009
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#18
Now all we need is to do is solve the problem of responses being composed contemporaneously.
Perhaps a real-time view of "other responses being composed at this moment" while you are writing your own response....
Whereas it is accepted that players in a chess game should recognise the same conditions as each other, it transpires that Premium players may utilise an unfair advantage over Free members and some do so, perhaps inadvertently in ignorance.
The Free member must abide by the mutually agreed time limit to move or lose the game by Time Out.
The Premium member can ignore the mutual agreement , whenever it suits him to do so for whatever reason because his premium payment allows ,among other advantages , apparently unlimited automatic protection from losing by Time Out.
A player who regularly and repeatedly breaks the Agreed Thinking Time Limits over and over again is clearly breaking the mutual agreement and should therefore limit the number of his games to what he can manage in agreed thinking time in order to honour the concept of Fair Play in a Level Playing Field .
Unlike the protection afforded by Vacation concessations, Premium Protection currently restores to the Holder the whole amount of time agreed for each session on each occasion, and not merely a new time limit of remaining time .