I agree. There are many ways for rank to fall. Timing out of games that should have been won is probably not the most common among them. A 4d loses to 3k who’s really a 5d? My condolences… but I would think this happens all the time, any time a strong player makes a new account. Theoretically even if the 4d’s rank falls, it should soon find equilibrium based on the results of future matches. These ups and downs are how the system works.
I would like to add that, having enjoyed now quite a few correspondence games on OGS, I believe I have timed out of only one of them. I have timed out of more than one live game. In both cases I timed out more or less because I couldn’t think of a good move in the allotted time. In the correspondence timeout, I felt the game was close, and I was not considering resigning… yet I didn’t play a move on time and therefore lost the game.
This is not a dishonorable way to lose, is it? In the live game is it so much worse to time out than to resign with one second on the clock? Say I have an six hours left in the correspondence game and I haven’t come up with a move yet, do I need to resign then and there if I’m not sure I’ll be able to visit the server again before the clock runs out?
In other words, timing out of a correspondence game should be an honorable way to lose, therefore it should count as a loss. I think this holds true even occurring for more than one game consecutively.
Activating vacation time seems like an OK solution. Unfortunately there too there appear to be some conflicting opinions about whether it is really honorable and fair to use vacation time. I say unfortunately because I don’t wish to disrespect any of my opponents or cause them to feel the game has became unfair or unfun or deviant from the agreed-upon settings—yet I do occasionally need to use that feature to avoid timing out of games that have been ongoing for weeks and months. I suppose I wish there was more clarity from the outset of a game that pausing for “vacation” is fair play. (The option to disable vacation in a challenge, suggested before, would help. I understand some tournaments already do this implicitly. Then one could avoid those challenges and be confident that one’s opponent accepts the validity of “vacation”.)
Anyway I commend the developers and the community for doing their best to navigate these difficult issues. There will inevitably be compromises and there’s no way to please everyone. Overall the whole project is very impressive and really enriches many lives, as well as the Go-o-sphere as a whole.