Someway, the members might be encouraged to play more Daily games also faster,...
We are losing the point of what Daily chess is.
I want play just a few games and taking my time to do it, playing in a level as high as I can thanks to the 3d/move than I have.
If I have to play more games and faster, I play live.
Maybe we need to be more patient when we play daily or maybe we need an intermediate modality beetween Daily and Rapid.
By the way I suggested a modality between daily and rapid which is simply what we would have here but not having to log into live or remain connected.
I once proposed a live correspondence chess. The idea would be like these:
* Each player starts with 30 (this will be optional) days in total, you make your first move after 28 days? Then you have 2 days remaining for the rest of the game.
* Each player has 24 (again optional) hours to think, starts with addtional 15 days (optional) and if they spend more than 24 hours for one move, then their 15 days will start to count-down. If they are late by 3 hours meaning they spent 27 hours for 1 move then they will have 14 days and 21 hours spare time.
* Each player starts with 3 (optional) days in total but gains 6 (optional) hours increment after each move. After 20 moves now a player has gained 5 extra days.
It is a live correspondnece chess.
Adding my opinions to the discussion as a very opinionated community member I dislike vacation time. My issues are...
Why would the game necessarily "stall for a week or two"?
My experience is that the game is only delayed by a small amount of time.
The only reason I pay for a Premium membership is automatic vacation time.
There have been occasions when I've been unable to log on to make a move, so the Premium feature has saved me from losing on time (often I've gone on to lose anyway, but that's a different story)
In summary, Automatic Vacation is a valuable feature, so please don't change it.
p.s How did you manage to time-out in nearly 2% of your games in the last 90 days...
he probably timed out playing in no vacation tournaments
I was only being flippant...but I hope you took the rest of my Post onboard 
As someone who has played daily chess for quite a few years and has been both a premium and non premium member, here are my thoughts.
The maximum is too long, even though I can benefit from this, I think more than a month is just wasting everyone's time.
Auto vacation is one of the main reasons I have a membership, I really enjoy games with 24 or 48 hrs per move, but maybe a couple times a year something comes up unexpectedly and my vacation pops in for a day or two. I would suggest making the min amount of vacation used to be higher for the auto vacation. say an extra 24 or 48 hrs used, an "auto vacation time fee" of sorts. If someone is not using the auto vacation on a weekly basis then the extra time they lose from it will not be a problem at all. If they are using vacation so often that paying an extra 24 hrs for auto vacation to kick in matters, then these are the type of "abusive" situations we are trying to fix.
I'm pretty sure you do accrue more days while on vacation, but obviously not as fast as you use it.
Yes, you continue to accrue while you are vacation. And to clarify again. There never was some extra month.
I do not think it happens any more, but several years ago it was relatively common for an opponent to be on vacation, the vacation time that was displayed to go to 0, and sit like that for days and even weeks before the game ended. But I havent seen that happen in my games in at least 3 years I think
We don't need to reinvent the wheel. There are other sites that already have adjudication functions that work perfectly well. The issue isn't coming up with the protocols for adjudication, the issue will be educated the members of chess.com on how to use it.
Chess.com is considering changing vacation and is seeking feedback from the community to help decide if we should.
Some things to consider:
Do we allow too much vacation?
Can you use too much vacation at a time?
Should it be limited to so much per game?
Post any ideas you have. Nothing is off the table
As someone said, I think that the most important is to give the same conditions in "auto-set" vacation to all members
As someone who has played daily chess for quite a few years and has been both a premium and non premium member, here are my thoughts.
The maximum is too long, even though I can benefit from this, I think more than a month is just wasting everyone's time.
Auto vacation is one of the main reasons I have a membership, I really enjoy games with 24 or 48 hrs per move, but maybe a couple times a year something comes up unexpectedly and my vacation pops in for a day or two. I would suggest making the min amount of vacation used to be higher for the auto vacation. say an extra 24 or 48 hrs used, an "auto vacation time fee" of sorts. If someone is not using the auto vacation on a weekly basis then the extra time they lose from it will not be a problem at all. If they are using vacation so often that paying an extra 24 hrs for auto vacation to kick in matters, then these are the type of "abusive" situations we are trying to fix.
Any time you go into vacation mode it uses a minimum of 24 hours, even if you turn it off after five minutes.
No idea if this has been brought or not, but...
Yes i understand it can be frustrating to have someone drag out a game. But! If you are logging into the site just to see if its your move or not? Just go to Settings/Notifications, and check the box(es) to get notified by either email, or text its your move.
If you're logging into the site do actually play, troll, post in the forums, etc. It will take you about 1 second to see if its your move or not, before going about your business here.
If the game is so hopelessly lost, enter your conditional moves, and win the game when either the opponent gets mated, or loses on time.
Sorry guys. Too late to this discussion. The main thing I haven’t read yet (I read the entire thread very quickly) is that vacation time should be consumed at twice the speed rate when triggered automatically to punish the abuse.
On top of that I support a cap at 30 or 45 days. Accruals should be halved.
And no playing live games while on vacation. I think TT is fine.
With the above TO protection for premium members would be highly diluted I believe while maintaining the perk as a compromise.
@jdcannon:
I get any change you make will get some people mad, but I hope you are also getting the sense that something needs to be done.
The simplest and most clear thing is that right there is too much vacation time. I think a big majority of people will agree to that.
Once vacation time becomes more scarce, the pool of players will adapt and start managing it more efficiently as a valuable thing. Right now it’s just mainly been wasted.
If you could change one thing, that would need to be it. Cut vacation time by half and A big piece of the noise will be gone.
@jdcannon:
I get any change you make will get some people mad, but I hope you are also getting the sense that something needs to be done.
The simplest and most clear thing is that right there is too much vacation time. I think a big majority of people will agree to that.
Once vacation time becomes more scarce, the pool of players will adapt and start managing it more efficiently as a valuable thing. Right now it’s just mainly been wasted.
If you could change one thing, that would need to be it. Cut vacation time by half and A big piece of the noise will be gone.
The group of members who think that vacation time is not too generous on this site and should be left as it is, will be under-represented in this discussion because of the effect that people are more likely to state their opinion if they want to complain about the current state of affairs.
If some people think that there is too much vacation time, it means that those players feel that their opponents use more vacation than they themselves feel is necessary. But different players have different circumstances. If someone is taking a lot of vacation, it generally means that they need it. If their opponents are frustrated by this, then maybe the Daily/Correspondence form of play is not for them and Live play would suit them better.
@jdcannon:
I get any change you make will get some people mad, but I hope you are also getting the sense that something needs to be done.
The simplest and most clear thing is that right there is too much vacation time. I think a big majority of people will agree to that.
Once vacation time becomes more scarce, the pool of players will adapt and start managing it more efficiently as a valuable thing. Right now it’s just mainly been wasted.
If you could change one thing, that would need to be it. Cut vacation time by half and A big piece of the noise will be gone.
The group of members who think that vacation time is not too generous on this site and should be left as it is, will be under-represented in this discussion because of the effect that people are more likely to state their opinion if they want to complain about the current state of affairs.
If some people think that there is too much vacation time, it means that those players feel that their opponents use more vacation than they themselves feel is necessary. But different players have different circumstances. If someone is taking a lot of vacation, it generally means that they need it. If their opponents are frustrated by this, then maybe the Daily/Correspondence form of play is not for them and Live play would suit them better.
I disagree. We discussed This at length im our community with around 500 active player. There is some general consensus that we have too much vacation.
And obviously if you have it, you will use it. I have use it very recently and now im left with little to no. I didnt really NEED it
If enough people in the community is adamant they need 3 months of vacation cap, fine. But let’s give tournaments and team matches the option to setup some middle ground. Right now there’s a huge leap from no vacation allowed to “you can take as much as 3 consecutive months”
If enough people in the community is adamant they need 3 months of vacation cap, fine. But let’s give tournaments and team matches the option to setup some middle ground. Right now there’s a huge leap from no vacation allowed to “you can take as much as 3 consecutive months”
I never join No Vacation tournaments, because of the non-zero possibility that I might need to take a few days off.
But I would be willing to join a tournament where vacation time is permitted but limited.
@FedeBau That's an interesting standpoint, that players will use vacation if they have it, even if they don't need it. And it applies to you. But I doubt it's a frequent phenomenon. I would have thought that people will want to get on with their games when they can. My own experience is that I don't use anything like my own vacation entitlement (it's currently at 2 months and 26 days because I've just had 5 days' holiday, and it normally sits at its maximum of 3 months). And yet... most of my opponents play faster than I do! However: why deny those players who really do need the vacation they are entitled to (think of oil rig workers, people who serve in armed forces, anyone who regularly spends time outside "normal life" for any reason)?
The "consensus" you speak of may be there in the form of majority opinion. But sometimes majority opinion is not appropriate if it infringes on the lives of a minority. Some people need the vacation. Why deny it to them just because most people don't?
Currently, Basic members earn 2 days [Max: 30], Gold members earn 3 days [Max: 60], Platinum & Diamond members earn 5 days [Max: 90], per month. This is good, and it is reasonable, of course!
However, there maybe another option, I think... Instead of giving free vacation time, let the members earn it, according to how fast a player plays; IF it doesn't require so much of coding! Like... A game [Days per Move] can be divided in 3 major blocks. So, in 3 days/move game, if a player plays their move during the 1st day, they earn say 1 hour. If a move played on the 2nd day, 30 minutes. And, if a move played on the 3rd day, they earn 15 minutes. The earning time seems big in above example, so it can be lesser. Also, the earning time can be set some differ according to membership.
Someway, the members might be encouraged to play more Daily games also faster, and they would avoid unnecessarily wasting their vacation time!
Just a thought!