From my prospective the point of such a feature seems to have been missed in the discussion in the expired topic Giving opponnent extra time.
As such a feature is implemented in KGS and DGS, this (1) has no effect at all on the granting player’s time and (2) is at the will and discretion of the granting player.
A player might be distracted without warning, sometimes by a succession of thing, and totally forget about the game, return and have timed out, suffer a hardware or connection failure that takes more time to fix than is on their clock. There’s no way of knowing what’s going on or whether the player deserves more time.
Opponents at KGS don’t want to close because they’ll be tagged as the escaper but they might have the patience to add time for a while. Sometimes I play a normal game with a beginner, make a comment and end up spending half an hour or more - I didn’t want to spend the time, dinner might be getting late, but I keep adding 5 minutes as needed or I have to go.
An opponent might be running low on time, but does not ask and I just decide to add some time. On the other hand, an opponent who runs down the clock, drags out the game with slow play to the point one wishes the game would end might get no favors without good reason.
This does not require anything of the player who needs time, could be to honor a request by that player or as a freely offered gift out of thoughtfulness, good will or good sportsmanship. It has no effect on the granting player’s time and he may have no desire to have a matching add-on to it (although he might be unhappy if the favor wouldn’t be returned).
Note: I think this can a significant thing for realtime play but the rationale applies well enough to correspondence .
In the meantime (for those who don’t know) the pause function works just as well. If you agree with your opponent that you want to finish no matter what the clock is saying just pause the game and you play until ragnarok (or until one of you unpauses).
Also, I would probably consider it rude and condescending if my opponent gave me more time out of nowhere without previous discussion so I actually think that the pause is better in that regard, for I can just unpause and proclaim proudly that I do not need more time to wipe the goban with the likes of you. It’s just that people don’t know about the possibilities of the pause button.
Just to be clear about where you’re coming from, can we assume you are consistent and would consider it rude and condescending if you were drowning and someone pulled you out without discussing it first or grandmother gave you a hug?
Aten, just to be clear about where you’re coming from, can we assume you are consistent and would not consider it rude and condescending if you were doing a perfectly fine job carrying your own groceries and someone came up and took them out of your hands to help without asking you first?
Well I am not sure whether you are honestly thinking the two situations are comperable, or wheter it is one of those fun rhetorical question I am not supposed to answer… But it’s more like I would consider it rude and condescending if someone insisted on pulling me out of the water, even though I was not drowning. And if my grandmother gave me a hug I would probably poo my pants.
But for the record, never assume that I am consistant I also overuse irony am overly sarcastic and lie a lot.
Okay, that settles it; anything you say should go straight down the crapper.
Less seriously, a balanced approach would grant that it’s likely most people wouldn’t take it as an affront. It never troubled me, I timed out a teaching game with an older Japanese dan at DGS - he said he’d have added time if he realized it, and any reactions I’ve had were positive. The beginners often seem unaware of their situation.
If you object you can simply tell your opponent “thanks but no thanks, I shall run out the time you added and continue with the time I had”. Don’t consider that some of them will take offense and be ticked that they’ll have to waste time waiting. You have a simple work-around and after folks read this you’ll never have to use it!
Time management is part of the game. (“Add Time” should be restricted to unranked games or teaching games, I think.)
My opponents might whine about how I should give them more time simply because the option is there, and call me a poor sport for not giving it to them. (May be fixed by #1.)
Some players want to win by resign, so when their opponent is about to timeout, they’ll add more time and be all like HAHAHA, YOU WILL RESIGN OR ELSE YOU WILL NOT ACCEPT ANOTHER OPEN CHALLENGE HAHAHAHAA.
Is an “Add Time” feature really useful when players currently have an option to Fork and continue games that timeout?
As for (1) maybe you should not patronize users and let them decide for themselves how to handle their time options. I presume you also think that Pause should not be allowed in rated game, in fact vacation too. “Time management is part of the game”, people should not be allowed to skirt that responsibility by any artifice in rated games - if I understand your way of thinking.
Once on the old OGS someone got very angry with me for not giving extra time. I was surprised. I’d have given it if he’d asked for it. But that player had been getting over emotional with some opponents over other issues too.
I did like us having the possibility of giving it,
so I actually think that the pause is better in that regard, for I can just unpause and proclaim proudly that I do not need more time to wipe the goban with the likes of you. It’s just that people don’t know about the possibilities of the pause button.