A person should be allowed to use their vacation any way they want. Refusing to resign a lost game is a separate matter of etiquette.
Vacation abuse
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The player is using her vacation only so the time she has to play her move won't go down, but she goes out of vacation to play her other mvoes, then back to vacation again. She is only using it so her timer on my game will never go down until perhaps the 30 days (28 left I think) have gone down. I don't think vacations were meant to be used that way... as this is obviously the abuse of a feature.
yeah. that is abuse, but what other option is there? i guess we could do a minimum of 1 day per vacation?
She is just being a wimp since she can't face her mistakes... if she even made a mistake. She needs to take on her problems.
I don't know. As long as you're not completely obsessed with your win/lose ratio or your rating, you will eventually win.
Just be sportsmanlike about it, as obviously your opponent isn't.
(be the better person) 
"(be the better person)"
Those are noble sentiments, but somehow, everytime I hear them, I end up dealing with the consequences of someone else's lack of personal accountablity.
In the long run she is wasting her vacation time doing this. And will not have any vacation time when she really will need it.
But vacation time abuse could be solved by only being allowed to be used once a day that would stop it.
But she will lose eventually and you might get more rating points so do not let it get to you.
But I do understand your frustration. All I can say you are playing a bad loser
Perhaps there should be a certain timeframe during which you cannot go on vacation mode. For example, it could be that you can't go on vacation mode within 2 days of your previous vacation.
i think what we are going to do is just make it so that the minimum vacation period taken is 1 or 2 days.
I've had a run-in with vacation abuse too, I think, but in a weird way. I think during the course of their supposed vacation (I've seen them online a couple times), I've actually watched the number of days left increase--if that's possible.... I was sure at one point I saw 20 days left, and now they have 27 I think or so again. Is my memory tricking me, or is that possible?
Curveball wrote: I've had a run-in with vacation abuse too, I think, but in a weird way. I think during the course of their supposed vacation (I've seen them online a couple times), I've actually watched the number of days left increase--if that's possible.... I was sure at one point I saw 20 days left, and now they have 27 I think or so again. Is my memory tricking me, or is that possible?
we changed the number of vacation days from 30 to 40 to accomodate our european friends who have more vacation than the rest of the world :)
I used to play at another correspondence chess site that had restrictions on vacation time to prevent this sort of thing. I don't remember the details, but it would be pretty easy to implement rules to prevent vacation abuse. For instance, making the minimum vacation time 1 or 2 days and/or requiring at least 24 hours between vacations.
--Fromper
Just a suggestion, could she be on holiday and then log on, forgetting about your match, it might not be so, however.
Fromper wrote:
I used to play at another correspondence chess site that had restrictions on vacation time to prevent this sort of thing. I don't remember the details, but it would be pretty easy to implement rules to prevent vacation abuse. For instance, making the minimum vacation time 1 or 2 days and/or requiring at least 24 hours between vacations.
--Fromper
i don't really agree with this.
i went on vacation and did not know how long it was going to be before i got on-line again. while on vacation, i was able to get online for a few minutes from an internet cafe. so, i signed into chess.com and made a few moves and then just put myself back on vacation. again, i don't know when i'm going to have a chance to get back on-line.
does it make sense for me to lose all my games because i'm on vacation and don't know when i'll be connected again??
although it might be annoying to deal with somebody who signs on while on vacation and plays all their games except the one that they are about to lose, there are still times when signing on for a few minutes while on vacation makes sense.
by the way.... i did go on vacation, had my settings set to vacation, and i still lost 7 of the 9 matches that i had in progress because i was "out of time". so, i don't know how well the vacation feature works. if anybody has a suggestion about what i can do to correct those 7 matches that i lost "on time", i would really like to know. i was in good position in most of the matches and was even close to mate in one of them.
i have a game with someone who tends to use "vacation" every two or three days ... it doesn't really bother me ... i've only used the vacation mode when i've known i was definately not going to be able to play ... but i've also either left a blog message saying my reason, or left a note for my opponent.
The vacation mode will/could still be abused regardless of what its timescale is.
Sadly its life..
Etienne wrote: The player is using her vacation only so the time she has to play her move won't go down, but she goes out of vacation to play her other mvoes, then back to vacation again. She is only using it so her timer on my game will never go down until perhaps the 30 days (28 left I think) have gone down. I don't think vacations were meant to be used that way... as this is obviously the abuse of a feature.
Don't worry...be happy :)
They'll get their comeupance when they REALLY go on holiday :)
I think the 1 day only vacation policy is somewhat unfair to those who are not abusive of the feature. I for instance can have fieldwork assignments that can last for about 3-5 days wherein internet is not available in the area so how can I possibly address that problem? I mean it's not my fault that the nature of my work occasionally brings me in a situation where computers and internet does not exist. But I'm one with Etienne in his sentiment. We don't have to go on vacation unless the reason is valid. In my case, my most dreaded work assignments are those that send me to far-flung places where I can do nothing but think about my games all day long and not being able to open my account, make a move, resign a game or write my comments. Anyway, I think the best way to deal with the problem on vacation abuse is to be as sport and patient as possible and don't be too conscious about ratings.
I faced a similar problem before where my opponent was 6 move forced mate away so he/she started moving once in 5 days just when the move time was going to expire (just for moves in my game only. I noticed that he/she was making moves in other games fairly quickly - multiple times a day).
Now I am facing the real abuse of Vacation as others in this thread have reported. My opponent is about to loose a rook (and the game) so I believe thats why he/she has put on the vacation. I see the person coming online once in a while and making moves in other games but not in mine...
Something should be done to not allow this. May be force to make a move in every game before you put the vacation ON again.
I am playing a game right now where I have a mate in two (one really, unless the person really wants to make it two) but then the person went on vacation (after offering me a draw, as a friend, of course). Then I check, the person is online, and not on vacation anymore, great. The last move was yesterday, a 24 hours vacation? Alright. Then I go see a bit later, back on vacation and still hasn't played a move or resigned. I go see the person's game, the person went out of vacation, played the moves in everyone of her game, except mine, then went on vacation again.
Would there be any way to prevent this? It's somewhat annoying... But of course, as the person is winning games right now, when she finally conclude the game she will lose more points and I will get more as she will most likely be higer rated, so she's only harming her own score doing this in the end.