Why KGS encourages escapes and how to fix it

[lemmata]

There seems to be a belief that the KGS escaper policy is preferred by those of us with poor connections. I strongly disagree. I think it encourages the non-escaping player to leave, immediately, when one's connection dies.

If even a small percentage of connection problems can be remedied within the time allowed, that's better than losing 100% of your disconnected games because your opponent leaves immediately.

I am on a pretty good connection, so I don't experience connection problems too often, but I had this exact experience twice today when I was playing rated games on KGS. I got disconnected and came back literally within 10 seconds (maybe 5), got back into the game, and my opponent left a few seconds after seeing me re-enter the game. I got disconnected again, and again came back within 10 seconds, got back into the game, but my opponent refused to resume the game even though he wasn't playing another game.

I guess I won't lose these games because I haven't been disconnected enough times, but I wasted about 30 minutes of my time. I am not really mad or anything, just a little annoyed. These things happen, but time is a valuable commodity, especially for people who work long hours. I would prefer that KGS adopt a policy that encourages people to resume games with disconnected users. Tygem's policies are nice in this regard.

Yes, I could just play exclusively on Tygem, but KGS has its own unique charms.

It's just a suggestion, mmmkay?

[Mef]

I got disconnected and came back literally within 10 seconds (maybe 5), got back into the game, and my opponent left a few seconds after seeing me re-enter the game...
I guess I won't lose these games because I haven't been disconnected enough times...

For clarification: If you opponent left after you had already reconnected and reentered the game, they are the one marked as an escaper, not you, so there is nothing to worry about. Any time both players are in the game the "escaper" flag is reset.

[Saltie]

yes Mef, but sadly she got a second disconnection... She thé one flagged and if that happens too many times... The one punished.

Kgs don't like players with bad connection.

[lemmata]

I got disconnected and came back literally within 10 seconds (maybe 5), got back into the game, and my opponent left a few seconds after seeing me re-enter the game...
I guess I won't lose these games because I haven't been disconnected enough times...

For clarification: If you opponent left after you had already reconnected and reentered the game, they are the one marked as an escaper, not you, so there is nothing to worry about. Any time both players are in the game the "escaper" flag is reset.

That's good, and I don't worry about forfeiting games due to having too many disconnections. I have played on KGS for several years now and never accumulated disconnections fast enough for that to happen.

What I really want is for my opponent to have some extra incentive to finish the game that I was enjoying for 30 minutes if I come back within a minute or two (more so if I come back in 10 seconds). I don't play any blitz and like to use my time, so it cannot be said that I was even winning these games at the time I was disconnected. It's not the win that I want. It's the rest of the game.