It would be really nice if the boot policy could allow any player to be late by up to 5 days once per game.

It would also be nice to have the option of not counting Sunday as a day for purposes of booting.

Another option might be to consult a player's turn-timing history before booting him, and allow those with averages significantly below the boot time more leeway (maybe only once per game).

For instance, I almost always take my turn within 3 days, in fact, I play religiously every weekday morning. However I almost never play on weekends, and whenever I go out of town (historically about once a year, for a week or so), I don't play then either.

To deal with my weekend habits, I typically restrict myself to games with a 3-day turn limit, but if Sundays didn't count, I could include 2-day boot games.

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks

John

Most of what you have suggested has already been suggested. The first suggestion is somewhat novel (though I'm pretty sure something like it has been suggested as well) - it will let you get through a mistake, or a weekend, but what happens when you get to the following weekend? This is the whole point of the 3-day limit - to allow folks like you to play reasonably quick games. I'd bet that most 3-day turn limit players fall into your category, so in practice, they play quicker on week-days.

All that said, you have one extra trick up your sleeve - use your vacation days.  You get quite a few, and based on your description of your usage habits, it appears that you don't use them that much.

One of the problems with the Sundays-don't-count idea is that it's Sunday somewhere in the world for 48 contiguous hours - though I suppose the rule could be applied on an individual basis.  With that in mind, and acknowledging the fact that other members might have different weekly schedules, the 'day off' could be customizable by each member.  I do think the day-off idea is a pretty good solution - but theres a down-side, for us 1 and 2 day players - it slows down what we prefer to be 'quick' games.

Maybe instead of the 3-day game there could be a 2-day+day-off game - though I don't doubt there are 3-day players who would balk at that.

As M said most of this has been discussed before, but that doesn't mean they are not good ideas.

I'd love to have something like the fisher clock apply to day games also - something where if you usually take your turns quick you build up a grace period.  

I also only play 3 or 7 day games because when my weekends (or my weekdays) get busy I have forgotten to set vacation.

i like the idea of other fischer clock variations...but i wonder the headache they'd present. hard enough to keep track of the 1,2,3,7 day options...
:^D

I always end up with boots on week-ends or long-week-ends.  I would set my vacation time for Sunday/Monday every week if I had enough of it.  I usually take my turns on week-ends, but there's always the odd weekend where I get back later than usual or something and miss it and get the boot.

How about a just-in-time vacation setting.  If you have it turned on, your vacation automatically turns on a minute before you would get booted.  Maybe some configurable parameters - max # of vacation days used just-in-time or a minimum number of vacation days needed in reserve for it to trigger.

Ozyman wrote:

How about a just-in-time vacation setting.  If you have it turned on, your vacation automatically turns on a minute before you would get booted.  Maybe some configurable parameters - max # of vacation days used just-in-time or a minimum number of vacation days needed in reserve for it to trigger.

I like this idea, even better if it was fully automatic. As long as you have vacation days left, you can't get booted.

i'd prefer an email X minutes before a skip/boot that i could jump on and set vaca. 

weathertop wrote:

i'd prefer an email X minutes before a skip/boot that i could jump on and set vaca. 

That would probably be enough for me, I think it just depends on how disconnected you get - for some people, if they get to the point of imminent boot, an email might not help.

weathertop wrote:

i'd prefer an email X minutes before a skip/boot that i could jump on and set vaca. 

I can't agree more that this site badly needs such a warning email system ( http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/2180/Email_notification_before_getting_booted_or_skipped )

In many cases it would allow you to set vaca indeed, or most often to play your turn. But in many cases, if you are far from civilization for example, it would come too late. This is when you need vacation to be set automatically (it could be an option of course).

In short, we need both.

rarely do i find myself far enough away from civilization for lengths of time that i don't get email on my phone. don't let that confuse you that i don't get far enough away. when i do go for any length of time, i know i'm going to be gone for some amount of time and can add vacation accordingly. 

say i'm going out hunting, driving, hiking, or otherwise going to be gone all day -- i make my moves before i leave. say i get back late, any moves that need to be made, at best, have to be made by whatever time tomorrow that i left earlier that day (24hr clock) in which case an email with a 8-10hr warning would have alerted me that i need to play a couple things or set vacation before i go to sleep so as not to miss that move.

i mean really, how often does one go out for a hike/drive and not come back for 3 days?  

weathertop wrote:

i mean really, how often does one go out for a hike/drive and not come back for 3 days?  

2-3 times a year but, like you said, I plan for those.  

The trouble I have is like last week which was the week before classes started at my college.  Very busy week where I sometimes can't find time during the day to take turns and get home too tired to look at a computer.  An e-mail warning would help me there for sure.  

An automatic vacation would be cool too -and that could be configurable so it only happened if you wanted it to.  Kind of like how my checking account is backed up with my credit card.  

I do still wish for some more options here... Configurable automatic vacation would be really awesome.

John

Any planned new features in this area over the next year or so? Or is this effectively on the bone-pile? No big deal either way, but just curious.

Thanks

John

I'm too lazy to find the thread, but only a few months ago, I outlined an idea for counting automatic vacation days that I think addressed the problem nicely. 

Lots of things have been suggested. The question is whether there are actually any plans to implement anything within a defined timeframe. Again, just curious.

Thanks

John

Genghis Jhon wrote:

Lots of things have been suggested. The question is whether there are actually any plans to implement anything within a defined timeframe. Again, just curious.

Thanks

John

Unfortunately, we don't always get the detailed information we'd like from Tom. It's his site, so his prerogative, but like you, I wish there was a bit better organization and transparency regarding bug tracking, planned feature updates, etc.