How to solve timelimits?

Since new tournaments started today I guess most of the work on moving the server is done. Good work. Now is time to do something about timeouts. There has already been a discussion in the forums on how to reinstate the timeout feature. Regardless of how you solve it, please give us a word on how and when this is done. It is quite frustrating to see how some players utilizes missing timeouts by not moving in some of their games. The sooner you come up with something the better.

I agree with Tore Sandmark's previous message. Currently, I am playing 49 games on LG, of which 11 [eleven] are in negative time. One game has over -300 hours, 2 from -200/-299, 6 from -100/-199 hours, and 2 from -1/-99 hours. Please Richard and Solutions, make a decision soon

Let's give everyone the benefit of the doubt. People playing lots of games had to choose which ones to play in, or perhaps felt they were helping by not playing until things were under control. They've had a clock ticking downward for some number of days--more than 10.

To resolve the problem, it seems like on some set day everyone's clock should have some number added to it. The number should be the number of hours that have passed since the restrictions were imposed. In one of my games, I have an opponent down to -259. Other postings say there are times as low as -300. Let's say that 306 is the number of hours that restrictions lasted. If everyone has 24 hours notice that time limits are being reinstated, then after 330 hours since restrictions were imposed, everyone would have 330 hours added (truncated to 240, if need be). The person who currently has -300 would then have 6 hours to move without forfeiting--the state they were in when restrictions were imposed. My opponent would have 41 hours.

This gives some a much bigger boost than necessary to solve the problem, but keeps anyone from forfeiting without notice. I don't know how easy it would be to do, but this approach means that the same action, at one time, needs to be applied to every game. Perhaps it is just one carefully written SQL UPDATE statement.

Another approach I can think of would be to take the total time restrictions were in effect (until the time when the transition rules is in place), divide by 36 and round up. That would be the number of turns (for each player) to pass in a given game before time controls are re-imposed. A game would be forfeited if the time remaining is inadequate to get back to a positive time balance in the number of moves left. This seems a bit more complex and I'm afraid some people just wouldn't get it. If this rule were imposed after 360 hours since restrictions started, things would be back to normal after 10 moves (by each side) in a given game. In the case of someone with 1 hour left when restrictions were re-imposed, They'd have to get ten moves in instantly in order to get back to one hour left. This seems a bit harsh, so perhaps we double the number of moves.

Perhaps the simplest approach would be to set everyone's time to the maximum of 36 and their current time. This gives everyone a normal amount of time, once on notice, to get back to moving regularly. People with more than 36 hours on their clock get no benefit, but they probably don't need it. I presume this can be done with a single database update, too. But, then, I have no idea how this system is implemented.

How it is done is less important than when it is done. The server has been up and stable for several days now. Even resetting everyones time to 240 is better than leaving the situation as it is now.

Those who have not made a move during October do not deserve any hours added to their negative times, and should have to forfeit their games. To me, not having made a move, or even having connected to LG for 16 days indicates a withdrawl from LG. It would not be either just or fair to make those of us who kept trying to keep the games going to have to go thru a ten-day period, again, and then vacation time, again, in order to finally win. To me, the onus is on them to convince Richard their reasons for not even having bothered to connect to LG were most unusual and compelling so as not to forfeit all their games. That is, if they ever return.

Sorry about the lack of paragraph breaks. Not sure what happened.

Someone with lots of games to play (as one of my opponents does) who had to choose carefully how to allocate five moves a day might be excused for not making any moves in a game against me that is a lost cause.

The pace on this server is a bit slower. 36 hours per move and 20 days of vacation per year means some games are going to take a while. I prefer to assume the best motives for others. This leads to a better atmosphere, even if it frustrates me at times. We all have other, faster-paced choices.

This is why I tried to propose some alternatives that varied in simplicity and fairness. In particular I wouldn't add anything to vacation time, though I suppose it would be fair to consume vacation time as part of the solution to avoid forfeits.

The fact that negative times exist, strongly indicates that no one has yet lost a game on time since the restrictions were imposed. Have they? I agree that it would be better to be lenient with many who may not deserve it, rather than risk short changing a few who do not. It seems unlikely that a record was kept of what everyone's time was before the restictions. So, a reset to 240 for everyone sounds fine to me. But I wish it would happen soon. Richard, are you there? ...

Well here is my opinion in how to solve the time limits: Reset all games to 240 hours, and post message on main board that time-limits are now in place again. ====================================================================================================================== Why do I think this: Well first I would rather play a game to win - not just let someone time out to get a win. (why even start a game is you don't want to play it?????) Also some people might be staying away and not playing their games - to help with the bandwidth problem (since they might not know that the server change has happen and things are working good now). What needs to happen is to post a message on the main page saying everything is back to normal - give everyone plenty of time to be able to sign on and play their games. ====================================================================================================================== Myself, when this place was starting to have problems, I would just sign in - look at the main page, and leave without even playing my "restricted games" - that way I would not have to mess with just playing a few limited games, and waste bandwidth which was a problem for awhile. There might still be others doing this (since they probable do not read this forums - and just waiting for a message on the main screen). To just let their games time out without giving them time to play them just does not seem fair or nice to me! ====================================================================================================================== OK, that is all from me! ++++++BBW

I agree with Tore and BBW. How is not as important as when. Now! (please). 240 for every game is fine.

I would like to see all games back on 240 for each player that did move within the last week, now.

Greetz

Limiting this remedy only to people that have played in the last week lacks a certain amount of charity. It assumes those that haven't played recently are the "bad" citizens. Under the normal system I can be on vacation for 20 days a year. Why not last week?

I didn't mean to limit it that way, I just want the ting to be resolved...

bump