i must admit i dont really get (or see that much in this thread) this outrage. as opposed to applying sanctions just remind users they can just block the player they feel has disrespected them. why attempt to punish someone? life is too short to spend it spewing out wrath and recrimination. if it angers that much block and move on.
1 Like
We probably get more escaper reports than anything else, but I find them the easiest to handle. They are not urgent (like score cheating), so they can be put off for hours if necessary. They are almost all alike, so the response is largely handled by templates. They do get tedious, though, so every now and then I take a breather.
3 Likes
I would definitely mind someone abandoning a game to leave me stewing in my juices for 20 minutes, wasting my lunch break. But other than a few timeouts that might well have been technical difficulties I haven’t had anything remotely like this happen yet. (On those occasions I’ve then glanced at the opponent’s profile and noted that this didn’t appear to be a pattern of behavior that I could discern, so I went on about my day.)
In one game the electricity failed in my neighborhood. I hopped on my phone and said hang tight while I drove to my office to finish the game. Not everyone can switch to a different device to contact the opponent like this, but since I was able to do so, I did. (I then blundered the game with all the adrenaline in my system of rushing to a different location, but I played it out like a grownup.)
6 Likes
I might choose to interpret this as confirmation that we keep the escapers well under control 
3 Likes
A fairly relaxed live game can be played with Fischer timing 2m + 30s up to 3m (for example) and this renders escaping much less of a hassle.
1 Like
I have no experience of escapers, probably because I rarely play live games, but what I recall from reading the forum is that people complaining about escapers seem often be too easily offended.
Complaining is free and heartening, especially if it encounters social approval. But is often useless.
When I don’t like to continue playing a game I click the game chat, select a readymade message of thanks and then resign. Three clicks.
Closing a tab is just one click.
I think this explains most of the cases described: in the online world a click has it’s weight while being rude isn’t that important and maybe sometimes not even acknowledged. I’m pretty sure that most of the people that play live games online don’t bother at all of greetings and thanks and so on.
So where to draw the line between being an escaper and being too susceptible?
4 Likes
Simply clicking resign also only takes one click. 
6 Likes
I apologise if this has been mentioned loads before (because I don’t think I can keep my soul inside my body long enough to read fifty posts about this) but I was under the impression that if you left the game tab you would automatically time out after five mins. So if you not only can’t click Resign and then Confirm; but you can’t even press ctrl-w to close the tab, then there really is no excuse…
Dude, resign is one click, then closing the tab or clicking on the link to start another game is a whole 2nd click. How can you be so insensitive to the burden? 
2 Likes
Oh, I forgot one click to confirm resignation 
2 Likes
Is it just me or do you guys also see a solid chance to tie in anger management and dealing with loss online classes? Add a little public domain self management knowledge on top of the normal goodies, and you could add a new type of subscription package to the site 
4 Likes
Go is the teacher!
3 Likes
Go is honestly the best game to find out what someone is like. You learn their temperament, strengths and weaknesses, aggression level, etc.
I’ve learned a lot about myself from this game.
3 Likes
Is there a correlation between those who report escapers and those who lose it about opponents not saying hi?
I feel like people have so many reasons to do what they do and I will never know or understand them. So I just need to avoid judging and move on.
Having said that presumably mods already politely point out to escapers that we don’t do that sort of thing round here and please resign in future and then have a watch list of warned escapers. Three clear strikes and you’re out our some such consequence.
To answer the original question, can you see the average time per move and how many standard deviations away the last period was. If more than X then it was an escape I’d say.
4 Likes
How unthoughtful of me! Guess I deserve to sit and watch a timer count down now. It can be a sort of time out to reflect upon my selfishness. 
I did too, these clicks are really starting to add up 
2 Likes
Guess I got my wish. My opponent just escaped. He even came back once to refresh the disconnect timer, left again came back and passed and left again… I used that time to reflect and will not undervalue clicks again. I’ve learned my lesson. 
Edit: Not sure if he wanted to annoy me while trying to seem like it wasn’t an escape or what the deal was? Game wasnt over
He was probably looking to see if you had left so that he could cheat by playing a move and timing you out.
6 Likes
Is that kind of behavior catchable in some way by automation?
That seems way worse than a rage quit.
2 Likes
Symptomatically it is usually the same as a rage quit.
The problem is the same: when someone disconnects from your game (escapes) you don’t know if they are coming back to cheat at the last moment.
This is the whole reason why escaping from live games is actually a problem. Respect: yeah sure, that’s a kind of problem, but it is abstract.
But “have to wait to see if they are cheating by coming back”: that is the tangible actual issue why we care that people escape our live games, and why we work hard to dicourage/eliminate this from happening.
7 Likes
I’ve been keeping an eye on this thread to see if my mind was changed from my prior post about actually setting out boundaries.
And I have had a serious think about it. And indeed the next thing I wrote on this topic.
And I have arrived at the same conclusion. Especially after having read and considered the issue of people returning to a game they are escaping in order to effectively cheat their way to a victory.
What I said was that we need to remove our own emotional reactions to the escaping behaviour, and ask if this is a problem that constitutes a nuisance. I think it does. And I’m also willing to say that it represents a large enough nuisance for guidelines to be put in to place.
We find ourselves once again returning to a debate which is ultimately fruitless, hence the jokiing around on an otherwise serious topic, not that I begrudge a good laugh, I doubt it amusing myself, but still the question has not realistically been debated in what I think, is the right way.
The question being where…not if… Should moderators draw a line on escaping verses an acceptable time out.
Forgive me if I come across cold or joyless in this response, but after some fifty nine replies, the question remains largely unanswered I think.
I do think that boundaries should be set. Perhaps not the ones that I exactly suggested. But i also think that any line on in the proverbial sand needs to have leeway for error in judgement, which can and should be up the the discretion of the moderator on case by case basis as it were.
1 Like