Cancellations and why!?

Why do so many people cancel games?
I guess I’m not reeeaaally bothered I just can’t fathom the reasons!?
The rule set I choose is always standard with automatic handicaps, I limit my search to players within 2 ranks either way and I play almost exclusively correspondence games so time isn’t an issue!
Ok I take it back, it does bother me XD

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There can be several reasons for cancelling a game:

  • external reasons that have nothing to do with the opponent (“oops, it is later than In thought, have to run now, bye” or just a change of mind).
  • a lot of players don’t like handicap go and drop out when they realise that the game is not set up the way they want to play.
  • impatience: in normal games when a player waits for 5 minutes to make the first move might make the opponent decide to cancel.

There may be other motivations for cancelling a game.

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Automatched corrs :<

Often ppl just click the automatch button “hey what does this do” without realising that game can start immediately if someone is already waiting to be matched. And many have their settings in “no preference” mode, and then they get surprised to see its handicap game on 9x9 or 13x13 board (especially in cases where they are the white player ^^)

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Maybe with no handicap at all (and still within 2 levels) you could get less cancelations

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Game creators have wide latitude to cancel games they create for any reason, because they have no opportunity to vet their opponent beforehand. For example, the game starts, they look at the opponent’s history and decide the opponent looks like a botter or an escaper (lots of timeouts in non-blitz), so they cancel.

By contrast, players who accept an open challenge see the specifications and can check out the opponent before accepting. These people are expected to play, and if they cancel a game you created, you can report them, and we will explain what is expected of them.

There are also cancellation trolls. This comparatively rare breed of troll enjoys wasting people’s time by canceling games. Coincidentally, a cancellation troll has recently been pestering OGS, so this is a timely subject.

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I have seen some of the craziest kinds of trolls do absolutely insane things just to waste a given online stranger’s time or win a game (mostly on other servers). Things that make most people wonder why it is worth it for trolls to put all the effort into doing what they do.

But never in a thousand years would I have thought that there is such thing as a cancellation troll. That has given me a good laugh for the day.

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I don’t see the point of providing a feature one’s not supposed to use.

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You must have overlooked the paragraph where I explained that game creators are fully entitled to cancel.

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And indeed game acceptors can cancel if the creator takes too long to get going…

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Thank you, @Eugene, I forgot to mention that.

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