Question or Suggestion

@lstcyr
Agree with all you have said. Also retired. 🙂👍

@tombeatenbaugh
I fully agree

@russ said
Although this is a separate issue to the one under discussion, I agree, and believe 21 days max would have even been more suitable back when the vacation system was introduced. 36 was, and now definitely is, too much.

Two spin-off discussions (which could be put to a vote for all subscribers) -

- Reduction of vacation days.*
- Prevent moves being made when vacation flag ...[text shortened]... appy to implement it.

* Any change to vacation days could only happen at year end (start of 2022)

@russ

I am all in favor if players need to see my vacation time. But 36 days in my opinion is not to much. I have games that are over two years old, and two about to be three years old. I see that more of a problem.

I personally, and only speaking for me here, but with my health, personal issues that you can't plan for, real vacations on top of that where some have more then others, so having 36 days is great, and I would round up to 40 if I could. Most of my time is usually used up at the start of the year as I am so tired from the season prior.

But I am all in favor of players seeing our vacations if they need to. It does not invade personal information like HIPPA or anything. It's just vacation days. What ever is best for the clans, the people, and the site. I am all for it.

I would also beg we keep the vacation time and please do not drop it. I understand my problems are not others, but you would be very surprised how many people have issues outside of chess and really need those days. It's a reasonable request and a great feature you have here.

If your vacation flag is up, if you want to move, you should be able to move. What we do with our vacations is up to us, and if we can move, I am all for it. It keeps the games going, and I know so many that when on vacation, they still move in their games. Better then dealing with all the timeouts and then lower ratings because of it.

Just my opinion. I wish everyone luck with this. All my best,

VESPIN

Michael

@Russ,

I believe the 36 is good. Some people have medical issues and some cases not enough as they have told this is the reason they timed out because all vacation time used do to an on going illness.

Rather it is shown doesn't really matter to me personally. I don't think I have ever used near the time even when I was in hospital on several different occasions over the years.

If some didn't think 21 was enough and 36 too much perhaps set somewhere in between that time? (Perhaps not such a good idea after reading the aforementioned post)

I don't like seeing people run out of time because they are really sick, again I don't like to see people using it when they are not sick either. When You are in hospital and are not allowed out of bed being able to make chess moves is nice, as I know this from having experienced it.

I just read the post above mine and it would be people like him that vacation time is so important to I was talking about. None of us know when we will need it, so I don't think we should be too quick in cutting back. Here is an example where the Subscriber said he would like to see it at 40 days.

-VR

@Russ There are several considerations here:
1. The statement that it should not be possible to play with the vacation flag on, its simply additional time bank...whilst I tend to agree, personally I put the flag on whilst I'm on vacation and therefore have less dedication to playing on a daily basis. That does not mean I cannot find 15 minutes in day to make a move on occasion. We don't all use it in the same way.
2. Blocking moves during vacation will have no real effect on people misusing it, all they need to do is switch it on and off, between moves if they are that way inclined.
3. With regards to vacation remaining, the real consideration is not how many days an opponent may have left in total, but when they are next available to move. What I would prefer to see is the next NON-Vacation Day as this will be the day I can expect then to return and the clock starts ticking again.

Fine with me.

Since knowing the vacation days isn’t a necessary thing to play our games, but more of a nice to know for other players, how about have it be public but allow a player to set it to be private if they prefer. Privacy could be opt in.

@jmwinrider said
Please forgive me if this is spoken in ignorance, or is an already considered change but.... It would be nice if I had some way to see how many more vacation days an opponent has left. I sometimes have games against opponents who seem to use the vacation flag an awful lot and for long periods of time (while continuing to play some of their games ... just not mine). It wo ...[text shortened]... ew how much vacation they had left for the year. So far I've not figured out how to determine this.

I am not agreed that the vacation to be visible to public . That's a private issue .
Also, I believe VACTION should be incresde to FORTY days for every one .
Best Regards,
Fred Farsee

I agree with posting the available time off. I cannot think of ANY reason that would be an issue. As for the number of days, I think 36 is too many. It should not exceed one full month. I like the idea of 21 days max (three full weeks). Personally, I allow additional time IF they tell me ahead of time and are not making moves in other games that they have in progress.

My opinions:

1. Number of days: I don't think it should drop below 28 days, as this allows for 4 weeks holidays in a year.

2. Moving while flag is up: If you cannot move when the flag is up and we are telling everyone when the flag comes down, then the moment the flag ends we could be timed out in numerous games before we could move in them. So, I disagree with this being banned completely.

3. Knowing when vacation ends: No issue with that, as you can then plan when games are going to restart.

4. Hardcore tournaments: In these tournaments the vacation settings should not apply as when signing up you know the rough duration, so if you have a vacation coming then don't join one. If it is a last minute vacation, then timing out a few games shouldn't be foremost in your mind.

Just my thoughts.

I believe that I would support a change that would show a players current vacation duration - or expected date of return, vice how many vacation days a player has left in their annual bank. This would allow players to see when the opponent is due back to the game and still keep the amount of days a player has in their bank private. I see no value added to seeing a players total vacation balance.

The vacation system has been ,and still is abused by some over the years which is when the problems arise that have caused this discussion
The "vacation" flag is in effect timeout protection as you can still move when you are "on vacation" but that is another issue.
I personally save vacation days by only booking the vacation from when my first games' timeout expires to when I expect to move again.I never move when I am actually "on vacation"
I have no objection to others seeing when my "vacation" ends but even that is open to abuse as another "vacation" could be booked as soon as the current one ends causing frustrations.
To answer the questions -allow vacation days to be seen -no objection.
Vacation time to be increased/decreases/left at 36 days -don't really care.I will tailor my games to whatever the rule is

I should first say that since I'm not currently a subscriber my opinion probably carries very little weight. But I will still throw in a couple of thoughts. 🙂

1. Calling it "vacation" is misleading. It is really just protection from losing a game because you ran out of time.
2. While your vacation flag is up, your time clock does not stop. If you deplete all of your timebank it will remain at zero. It's just that your opponent will not have the option to take the skull while you have your "vacation" flag up.

Concerning proposed changes, it would be useful to know how many 'vacation days' remain for each player, and to a lesser degree, the date that a current 'vacation' ends.

(Be aware that a scheduled end date can be misleading because it can be ended at any time before the scheduled date. So you still need to pay attention to all of your games!)

I think it would be reasonable to completely freeze the game and stop the clock until the vacation flag is cleared.

I've never used this feature. On the one hand, I can see how someone who is away somewhere where they cannot rely on having access to the internet may unexpectedly find they can make some moves. On the other hand, it's probably possible to access the internet from anywhere on the planet using a mobile phone, so it's not obvious to me vacation allowance is necessary at all.

Possibly we could have a rule where, if a player moves in a game whose timebank has run out while they have the vacation flag up then they will lose protection in that game.