ratings and points observation

That's sounds reasonable. So far I've only played a couple of individual online based games. None of them even came close to timing out, so I haven't had to deal with that yet. Videomantv, I think I agree with your sentiment in these types of games and will follow something similar.

I just looked at my current setting and that box was checked, so I guess that is the default setting. Before I wasn't even aware that it was an option. I bet there are many on here who "automatically claim victory" without realizing that it's even a choice.

Tournament games are a different animal, though. I'll let those timeout naturally (as if I even had a choice) at the very least in the interest of keeping the tournament running along. As it happens though, the only timeouts I've had is because my opponent either never played (most of them) or simply gave up on all his games in the tournament.