Vacation Idea for RHP

I couldnt find an open thread on the topic, though that might be my inexperiece on searching for them, but i too am irritated by players who fly the vacation flag, especially in tourneys, then move move move on all their games but the ones they are loosing in ... i get the thing about waiting it out, but up to 36 days is a long time ... and many times, many other players in the tournament are on hold because of this delay as well ... and i get that the player can move on all his games before he goes off of vacation.

what i dont get, is why doesnt RHP make vacation info "public" info ... why doesnt it somewhere say that the vacation is scheduled till such and such a date ... that way, we know exacely when to look to see if they made a move before the skull or not, otherwise, we have to check it every day ... there is no reason in the world that if you go on vacation, your end date should somehow be private ... there is no logical reason i can think of that the end date to a vacation should not be published, just as time out info is published ...

Look in the site ideas forum, you'll find many threads on the topic. Most detailing why it's fine the way it is.

Originally posted by Trev33
Look in the site ideas forum, you'll find many threads on the topic. Most detailing why it's fine the way it is.

sorry trev33, took your advice, and still feel the same way ... on the site ideas forum, it was page 5 where the first reference to any thread (at least based on title) could even be found, and it was closed ... and it dealt with the number of vacation days, not exactly what i was talking about here .. page 6 of your "reccomendation" brings two more threads, neither about publishing end dates of vacation, although one of them had a comment similar to mine, but in any event, both closed ... so, sorry, not going on to page 8 or nine, like i said, havent found any open threads on the topic, and as to your other point, i didnt see a lot of support for things just the way they are on these three closed threads ... any other suggestions?

perhaps one of the mods can move this thread for me ...

:Vacation Ends in 14 days, 6 hours, 27 minutes", or simply, "vacation ends December 6" subject to change of course ...

this info could be easily put on the timebank portion of the game, or on the my games list, or on the player's profile just as the time since his/her last move is posted ... and like i say, i see no reason NOT to do it ... can anyone?

Chess.com shows the number of vacation days left. Unfortunately, it isn't helpful. Theirs also has a function whereby you can't make moves if you are on vacation, unless you temporarily turn the vacation off. It's abused there just as it is here, perhaps even more so: turn off vacation, make a move, turn on vacation, it's only taken a minute and they'd have to be watching for you to do it.

At this time of year the abuse of the vacation system is at its peak, because people know vacations are a "use-it-or-lose-it" each calendar year. Personally I think it would be much better if people could have, say, 10 days per year, cumulative up to a maximum of say 40.

Originally posted by Kewpie
Chess.com shows the number of vacation days left. Unfortunately, it isn't helpful. Theirs also has a function whereby you can't make moves if you are on vacation, unless you temporarily turn the vacation off. It's abused there just as it is here, perhaps even more so: turn off vacation, make a move, turn on vacation, it's only taken a minute and they'd ha ...[text shortened]... better if people could have, say, 10 days per year, cumulative up to a maximum of say 40.

the abuse of moving on vacation and how to control it is a topic in of itself ... i am talking about something much simpler here ... simply publishing the expected end date of the vacation ... thats all ... abuse or no abuse, at least opponents will know, subject to change, when is the latest they might look for either a move, or a skull ...

im not saying this will impact abuse ... all i am saying is if you are supposedly "going to be away for a while" as in on vacation, it is only a courtesy to let your chessmates know when you "expcect" to return ... thats it. thats all.

and i see no practical reason that a vacationing player somehow has a right for this info to remain a mystery to everyone he plays, and more appropriately, i see no reason for the site NOT to publish this info, if for no other reason as a simple courtesy to the vacationing player's chessmates ...

Originally posted by doug989
and i see no practical reason that a vacationing player somehow has a right for this info to remain a mystery to everyone he plays, and more appropriately, i see no reason for the site NOT to publish this info, if for no other reason as a simple courtesy to the vacationing player's chessmates ...

Hi Doug
I think the idea is fairly good - common courtesy would be to say when you expect to move again. It can already easily be done by the vacation message.

I have commented some on these issues in the past, so I won't go over all that again.
The potential flaws:
- privacy/security - e.g I know who doug89 is in real life - I will rob his house while he is away. Surely it must be a user's choice to have the information available or not.

- relying on the end date/use of vacation
One use of vacation is for protection when only sporadic internet access is available - move when you can, but without guarantees. If you play the short time controls, and someone moves before you expect, you could find yourself timed out. Without information, you have to check every day, but you cannot blame the site if you miss your own timeout.

Gezza

One thread where I listed a bunch of links to others:
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=118237

robbing my house ... a point i had not thought of here ... but lets see, all of the people in my personal life have absolutely zippo interest in chess, hence my presence here, and im sure that is true for most of us ... and wouldnt even think of finding my vacation plans here, nor know how to do it ... second, any friends that i did have even close enough to me to consider such a thing probably already know when im going to be back from a true vacation anyway ... three, anyone playing here that knows who i am probablly lives at least a half a continent away from me and has no idea if such a trip to my house would even be profitable ...and four, as we all know, a vacation here is just like an answering machine at home ... just because you get the machine doesnt mean you arent home ... just because RHP shows we are on vacation, doesnt make it so ... Besides, arent i already telling them im not home, as you would put it, by even saying that im on vacation in the first place?

i still think if you are going to take advantage of a vacation, an expected return date should be, well, "expected" ...

im not even touching the issue about people moving on vacation ... i see reasons why people do, like you said, limited internet access, heck, that happened to me ... but moving while on vacation and abuse in that regard, again that is another subject altogether ... not my point here at all ...

Originally posted by gezza
- privacy/security - e.g I know who doug89 is in real life - I will rob his house while he is away. Surely it must be a user's choice to have the information available or not.

Well, there are many reasons why this site doesn't share your personal details with other users. That may be one of them. If you know who doug89 is IRL, that's his own doing, not the site's, and he could have avoided that.

Richard

Here's a different slant on vacations.It's what I do and i'm sure lots of others as well.
We go on a lot of vacations and I found that 36 days wasn't enough.
I realised that the timebank still depletes whether your vacation flag is up or not.
Therfore, if I am going away for 14 days, and playing say a 3:7 game with all my timebank intact, I play as late as possible the day before I go away but don't book any vacation days until 10 days into my holiday.
I then book 5 vacation days(1 day "insurance"😉 thus saving myself 9 days site vacation time.
if you are wondering why some people seem to be on vacation a lot(as I was) , they probably do the same.

I don't know where the silly face came from -I've seen them before but I don't know how to do it!!!

Originally posted by doug989
I couldnt find an open thread on the topic, though that might be my inexperiece on searching for them, but i too am irritated by players who fly the vacation flag, especially in tourneys, then move move move on all their games but the ones they are loosing in ... i get the thing about waiting it out, but up to 36 days is a long time ... and many times, many ...[text shortened]... hat the end date to a vacation should not be published, just as time out info is published ...

What is more irrititating, a player who moves once every days in a 7 day per move game or a player who goes on vacation but moves every 2nd day?

Making the vacation time public info is irrelevant, especially as you can move while on vacation.

If a player is playing you in a 1/0 game then says he is on vacation for 7 days. You check in daily and find he hasn't moved for 4 days so assume he is not coming back till the end of his 7 days.

You log off at 7pm that night. However, 30 minutes after you log off the player comes online and makes a move in each of the games. Now your 1/0 game clock is ticking. You don't come back online until 8pm the following day to find you have been timed out in two games.

Are you then pissed off or what?

Play the game and not the time.

Originally posted by venda
I don't know where the silly face came from -I've seen them before but I don't know how to do it!!!

When you make a post you have

Insert smiley
Insert link to game
Insert board from FEN
Insert board from PGN

as options at the bottom of the screen.

Click on Insert smiley gives you the silly faces

🙂😀😉😛😕😠😳🙁:'(😞😏😵😲🙄😴