The site could have a tally of how many games you've completed, and how many you deserted (I think the site can analyze response time, clock, position analysis and fairly accurately tell which ones are deserted and letting the clock run. This tally, of a ratio per say can be displayed when you have matched an opponent for a game. you then can decide to play this person or to decline based on that ratio. This would result with people having this bad habit of having a harder time being paired up and being rejected and shamed by the general public of the community. you can even translate this as a percentage ratio, and automatically set a threshold in your settings of what your willing to accept in opponents.
Thoughts?
What you are describing isn't nearly as easy to implement as you make it sound.
Assume I have an old laptop (which I do) that has a bad battery (which it does) and has to stay plugged in (which it does) and that it will sporadically come unplugged (which it does) thereby turning the laptop off. When that happens I have to plug it back in, then turn it back on, then wait for it to boot, then log in to windows, then reopen my browser, log back into lichess, then try to find the game I was playing, then hope I make it back before I lose on time.
Now assume I am a bad chess player and end up in losing positions a lot of the time.
You are proposing to brand me as a "quitter" based on something that has nothing to do with me voluntarily quitting a game.
#1 What's the actual problem? Lichess staff recently spent many hours of effort improving and testing this...
№ 3,
I don’t deny you’ve done a lot already, or wish to imply any ingratitude on my part. But as you ask, it so happens I can provide you with two recent examples (less than 24 hours ago) of time abuse which went undetected. Just last night I played two games (both anonymously; cf.
lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/claiming-victory-when-opponent-seems-away, №s 10–11), and my opponent(s) let nearly their full clock run out in both — without the “claim victory” button ever appearing.
Clearly then, the problem persists. At least in anonymous games. (I sometimes play anonymously late at night, either because I’m too lazy to sign in, or because I fear tarnishing my record with a sub-par performance; being half asleep already, and perhaps also mildly inebriated. And especially when I’m trying out new openings, like the Bongcloud.) O:)
My only hope in sharing this is that those two games may be of some use to you in figuring out why this still happens, and what else might be done about it. And if I experience the like again, I will be sure to provide you with still further examples. (Unless you’d prefer I didn’t.)
Suffice to say, as of this date, the problem is not fully solved.
#4, if you're playing anonymously, then the win/loss doesn't really matter right? You can simply leave or resign when you feel a claim victory button should be there, and move on. Since you aren't playing on an account, no rating changes happen or any records whatsoever for that matter. Take it as a self-victory and just find another game.
Everything you say is true, of course. I don’t dispute any of that. I will just say that, “People can get away with misbehaving when they do it anonymously” rings a bit hollow for me. That, and I’m OCD, so — for better or worse — I never quit. (I also bookmark some of my anonymous games, and/or save them offline.) And finally, I am sharing this with the assumption that what my opponents did might still have worked if we were signed in. Perhaps that isn’t the case — maybe the rules are sufficiently different when people are signed in — but as far as I’m aware, what works one way works the other way. And this last consideration, in and of itself, renders your (perfectly valid) objection irrelevant. *shrug*
Interesting, I'll take a closer look into this... indeed, if an anonymous opponent has left it would be nice to have a way to terminate the game which doesn't require resigning.
EDIT: I'm looking over the lila codebase and not seeing how it's possible that anonymous games are handled different from other games. I'll continue thinking about this although I don't know what I can do...
@pawnedge I also frequently play anonymously, and sometimes players let their clock run down. Perhaps they just walked away and left the game open. If they are still active (green) then I wouldn't expect Lichess to give the option to claim victory. How could it?
Thank you once again, Toadofsky. You have already been more helpful than anyone else in this regard; I only wish I could be of more assistance, in turn.
Pete: A good question. Though assuredly, I am not the person to ask. ^_^;; That being said, one thing I can readily think of is, if their tab stays open but loses focus, their icon would remain green, yet the site would be able to tell they were doing something else. (If not what else, specifically.)
As it happens, this is one reason that, in a previous thread, I suggested we introduce icon colors other than simply green & gray. Perhaps a yellow icon might show the person as online but AFK, and a red one as online but doing something else. *shrug*
