Win to Time ?

I'm just wondering what most people here think about "Win on Time" ?

 I see it's by default set to "claim win on time" but it can be turned off.

 I'm asking since I "won" 2 recent turn-based games this way and from one side you can say : "Hey at least I didn't loose and it makes my rating go up a bit" but on the other side it adds points to the rating that might not be deserved.

 Anyways, I was wondering how you guys/girls feel about this :

 - Do you use the automatic claim on Time or did you deactivate it

 - What would be considered to be a reasonable "time-out" if you set it to manual (for example if you play a game which has 3 days per move and the oponent didn't move for 3 days and 6 hours or 4 or 5 days).

  - Do you feel it's the oponents own fault if they loose or are you willing to give them some extra time (guess this is kinda the same as the previous question).

Any other thoughts on the subject (opinions, tips, ...) 

Sorry for a rather long-winded answer, but here goes. The rules of chess say that you can win a chess game one of three ways: 1. Checkmate the opposing king; 2. Opponent resigns; 3. Opponent runs out of time. All three ways of winning are equally valid! The rules do not say that "a win on time is not really a win."

The reason for having a "win on time" is as follows. In the old days, they didn't play with chess clocks (that was introduced in the 1880s). If someone was losing, but hadn't yet been checkmated, they could simply get up and walk away from the table and never come back. This is very unsportsmanlike, and the tournament director would probably adjudicate a win for the other side. But something had to be done to prevent this, so they introduced chess clocks. That way, if your opponent simply gets up and stomps out of the room instead of resigning (or making a move), you could just make your move, start his clock, and sit there until your opponent runs out of time.

Look up the game Steinitz vs von Bardeleeben. von Bardeleeben got up and left the room when Steinitz announced "mate in 8".

In correspondence chess, I agree that the situation is a bit different. But still, without the "win on time" your opponent could realize that he's going to lose and then simply never make another move. You would have no way of claiming the win - the game would be "in progress" forever. With the win on time rule, your opponent has to move or resign, or else they will lose on time.

If your opponent agrees to a time limit (e.g., 1 move every 3 days) then it's his responsibility to make his moves within that time limit. If he doesn't, he loses - and he knows this before the game begins. If he still refuses to move within the time limit, then it's his fault for losing on time. 

Thanks for a great answer, it was very informative to me and I don't think it's that "long-winded"  I've seen (and made) longer post on other forums

 But like you said in "correspindence chess" it could be a bit diffrent that's why part of my question was if people used a specific extra time (or whatever you want to call it).

In dutch there is a saying "Accademisch kwartiertje" (Accedemic Quarter, or 15-minutes) or as we say here in Lommel "Lommels Kwartiertje" but the last mostly refers to the fact that we tend to be about 15 minutes to late on appointments

I could understand that people sometimes don't have access to an internet account, I personally think that in some cases 1 day (24 hours) is a bit to short but the next option 3 days might be a bit to long to have a smooth playing game (if you or your oponent always almost takes the 3 day time).
So I would vote for a 1.5 Day or 2 day time limit.

Anyways, again thanks for the good information and you are right, if you couldn't loose when you left the game when you had no way out of a checkmate when you just left the table, but my games were still at the opening (4 or 5 moves per player made so very early in the game).